Hi all,
I’m sorry if other people have started similar threads but I didn’t find any. I feel like I’m in a slightly different boat from other people. I’ve seen a lot of people looking for things to keep their kids occupied but my son is being set so much work that I’m not sure what I should be doing.
A little background; single parent, 1 DS yr8. I am working from home but have a full workload and am still working full time (8:30-4:30). DS is being set work for the lockdown by his teachers via the online portal they are usually set their homework (ShowMyHomework) he does not have any video classes or online work.
At the beginning of the first week I looked at the work set and based on how long the teachers had suggested the work should take I worked out a timetable. But some teachers hadn’t said whether the work set was for 1 week, 2 weeks, the entire lockdown etc. So I just did my best.
DS has been doing lessons from 9-3:30 every day, and yet in only week 2 he is already significantly behind in several subjects (English, geography, history, French and maths)
DS is un the top sets for these subjects and is not incapable, he has also been doing his work in the same room as I am working so I know he hasn’t been just messing around.
He finds it stressful having to ‘teach himself’ new topics and I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, the headmaster sent out a letter about how we shouldn’t be expecting too much of our kids but that routine was important. but I don’t understand how he is supposed to keep up with everything unless I get him to do fairly unreasonable hours! I would allow him to skip out certain parts of the work but a lot of it has to be submitted electronically by certain deadlines.
How do I get the balance right? Should I be trying to contact the school/teachers? Do I get DS to do some work over what would have been the Easter holidays so that he is at least caught up? Or do I just say ‘fuck it all’?
I know that yr8 is not the most important year of school and I do know that everyone else will be affected too but I don’t want him to be behind when they eventually go back to school. He wants to be a civil engineer when he grows up (god alone knows why) so stem subjects and a good academic foundation will be essential in the long term.