Welcome to the new Lockdown Learning area.

[YetAnotherBeckyMumsnet]

Come on over to Mumsnet’s corona classroom . Are you feeling more Miss Trunchbull than Miss Honey? Don’t know your Plantagenets from your Pythagoras? Many of you have said you’re feeling a touch overwhelmed at the prospect of home-education and could use more guidance. If that sounds familiar, then Lockdown learning is the place for you to share advice, tips, and resources. Or if you just need some moral support from your fellow Mumsnetters and a virtual scream into the wind during the school closures.

So if you're wondering when Year 3 maths got so complicated and you’ve forgotten all dates of ancient battles apart from that one in 1066, then we hope this new section will help put things in perspective.

Parents who are old hands at home-education are MOST welcome to pop over and share your wit and wisdom.

Thanks, everyone - and good luck.

Great idea! Anyone know how to do column addition nowadays? My method seemed to confuse my six year old. It is probably 40 years out of date.

@CircleofWillis they call it exchange instead of carrying over

This is a great idea I’m very much at sea!

I was an accidental homeschooler due to a house sale going down at the last minute, ask away if you want to know anything (disclaimer at least I had museums at my disposal but mostly we were at home)

I've never got the hang of algebra or long division.

I'm splitting the day into two main sections which start with offical school work and transition into activities - like basic algebra. I also try and add a longer project. For instance, my DCs have written some fanfiction which they need to type up then turn into a storyboard and comic strip.
Also doing PE as a means to get them out the house and with Joe Wicks. Days are longer but have more breaks as I need to work as well.

This is a brilliant book for parents supporting primary school dc in maths.

Things were taught differently when many of us were the ages our children now are. Dh and I both have maths to beyond A-level, but we really struggled to support our dc in maths until we came across this book.

I think the main message needs to be relax! Take your time with the learning and don't worry if it doesn't get done everyday. I'm a KS2 teacher working from home as one of my dc has an underlying medical condition. We've probably done about an hour of actual sit down learning a day. The rest of the time we've cooked, painted pictures, made rafts to float, done gardening etc.
Try to enjoy the time together, embrace the slower pace of life.

@Tidypidy that makes me feel so much better. I’ve really struggled getting my Year 6 ASD DS doing any work at all. Instead he has made scones, soup, learned how to put the washing machine on, washed the windows, played an invented version of football/cricket and won all the board games he has played. The only thing he has consistently done is Joe Wicks daily, which is fab! I’m glad he’s not the only one not tied to a table doing work.

All those things are learning too!

Is this a new topic? How do I navigate to it? I'm on the app, and I'm struggling...

Touch 'Topics' at the bottom of the screen, next to 'Reply'. Then start typing lockdown in the Filter Topics box.

Take a look at white rose for maths, really helpful.
Also if you google mastery for maths and then Childs year group, you can get some great reasoning questions.
@CircleofWillis if your child is in year 2 they do not need to be doing column addition.

Mathisfun is a good website to see the methods used in schools if you're unsure.

Thanks Dilbertian 🙂

Lovely post from@Tidypidy- made me feel so much better 😊

I can't recommend Doodlemaths enough. If you're having trouble motivating yourself or your children do do the workbooks, or just want to top up/hand them a screen and feel virtuous about it, Doodlemaths is very gamified and fun (at least for my two dcs).

It gives them age appropriate maths problems (which it works out for itself after your child does an intro test to check their level).

You can also add topics - so if you know that they're doing "Year 6 Geometry – properties of shapes" with their class or with whatever has been set for them by their teacher to do at home, you can add that topic as an "added extra" so they do their 11 a day (or whatever) + the added extra.

There's also doodletables and doodleenglish, but I know less about those.

This is great

@crosspelican with the Doodle maths/tables apps - do you HAVE to do the in-app purchases? Ie does it still work without buying anything (cheapskate Mum here )

@ALongHardWinter

I've never got the hang of algebra or long division

The thing I remember from school about algebra was you could do whatever you wanted to one side of the equals sign as long as you do the same to the other side

So if you have

x = y + 6

Then

x - 6 = y + 6 - 6 and then x - 6 = y

Not sure that's the greatest example but does that make sense?

MyNameIsArthur

Who is Alge, and why is he wearing a bra?

Hi everyone I’m following Every lesson counts virtual school it’s amazing covers all curriculum and fun activities too. There’s even an assembly in the morning it’s great to see the teachers and other children.

We have had some fun with timetable bingo on Zoom!

www.timeout.com/travel/virtual-museum-tours