Is everyone in lockdown learning bliss?

[Allusernamestakenbutthis]

If FB is to be believed, mums are managing well with lockdown learning and kids are getting a better education. Well I’m not and I don’t think my DS is either!
My DS is a master of avoidance and frankly doesn’t care. He struggles in some areas and thrives in others so the balanced curriculum his very well meaning teacher is providing is quite time consuming but isn’t doing him much good imho. I would really prefer to just work on his writing ie just getting him to write stories without all the grammar fluff and formal mumbo jumbo in the videos .... but don’t want to offend his teacher or get called out because he hasn’t watched his two minute video on renewable energy, or can’t be bothered to do his self portrait or bake a cake for the baking competition...
Please share your thought on your own experiences!

Facebook shows the highlights, never the lowlights.

I'm very glad the self portrait and cake baking parts have been dropped this time. They are very time consuming, and dont lend themselves well to wfh and educating with a 4.30 daily deadline.

Absolutely not. There are a few competitive parenting types on the class WhatsApp group tampering on about enrichment and quality time. I've muted them Most of the parents i know personally (through work and on Facebook) are posting things like this.

Tampering? Yammering. Autocorrect can get in the same bin as Google Classroom.

Absolutely no-one on my Facebook is having a good time!

Well, funnily enough I am having a great time on the learning front with DS. He's primary age, really likes learning, the material from school is really good and we have lots of extra resources and space.
Doing his work and looking for extra material is about the most interesting thing going nowadays in our household.
I appreciate that is a pretty particular set of circumstances so I don't say that on any social media or even to friends.
It also doesn't include the thing I can't replace... which is being another child playing with him and which he desperately misses regardless of how many marble run s, snow angels and football kick arounds we do.

Mixed experience here.
DD(5) is doing her work nicely and some Reading Eggs on top.
DD (8) has some serious attention deficit problems plus the school work set is too hard for him.
We've been managing 1 or 2 pieces of work a day.
But only by splitting it down into tiny pieces and with a lot of 1 to 1 help.
We could manage more if I wasn't also WFH but tbh I wouldn't want to. The whole process is so difficult and joyless for him.
Over Christmas I had him doing a bit of Nightzookeeper each day. Yesterday we decided to just go back to that.
I'm trying to find a form of words to explain this to the teacher...

The first rule of social media, if it’s on social media it’s not the truth.

We are not doing any school work tomorrow. Reception aged child has had enough and is fed up.

Absolutely not. Kids already have screen fatigue. It’s hard, relentless and exhausting and we are living day to day.

Pretty hellish here - had to stop work as SN child who needs full-time 1 to 1 so living off savings which are pretty non-existant now and council tax just raising our bill. Today he's been screaming, shouting, trying to kick a door down whilst DD is trying to do a GCSE assessment and I have a house sale trying to manage of old house which council is trying to cease as not sold yet which is going wrong. No help from cahms, doctors, la, school - we seem to be invisible unless people want to send us a bill which we are supposed to have a magic money tree to pay.

I'm at the point of just stopping so that hopefully eventually someone will notice we need help though doubt that will happen. No-one has helped so far.

The actual learning bit is fine. Kids are are quite motivated, lessons at right level, I can concentrate on them.

I actually cried at flipping ClassDojo this morning. Luckily the teacher sent me the files as PDFs instead...

Horrendous here and I only have to do 2 days as they are in school the other 3. I have one in year 2 and one in year 4. They just don't listen. Can only supervise 1 at a time and just sit encouraging them and getting no where. The other one is meant to be doing something like TTrockstars or sumdog then swap over. I feel guilty if I'm not attempting to supervise and encourage but if I was off doing the housework at least I would have done something productive instead of talking to a wall.

On the social media front one parent posts everyday of her children looking enthusiastic about school work. The other day she posted about it not being all good as she was on a conference call when her youngest came in holding a sign saying help me. It was the neatest printed in block capitals sign I've ever seen off a 6 year old.

I would say it’s going slightly better than lockdown 1 when we just had a load of worksheets and I really struggled to get in a routine, dc were extremely resistant to any of it .
This time we get up early and crack on - the days work is all there for them on the app, plus a zoom catch up. If we haven’t done it by 12 , we don’t do it. My year 3 is finding it much harder than my year 6 at the moment.
I’m WFH this time round so DH has had to step up - which frankly is the best bit

It's horrendous. They are in school three days as I'm out of the house for those. Meaning the two days I normally do my paperwork which is detailed and finicky, they are at home. I started work at 5.30 this morning to try and get ahead, I had cried before 9am and that's probably because I was up until midnight last night trying to get ahead.

I think I might make a help me sign too, not sure where I should put, maybe front window. Or a series of signs for all the windows. Or maybe I will just drop DS off at the village zoo and point out one of their wild bears must have escaped.

I'm barely doing any homeschooling with DD. I'm full time working from home, DH is part time and does some with her but to be completely honest he really doesn't know what he's doing. It's all worksheets. I try and do bits of maths with her but am completely strung out from high workload myself. I can't do both.

I have a 9 y old with adhd and an 8 y old who hates being told what to do. I should know what I'm doing since I'm a teacher myself but I hate it. I also have an ear infection

No, not at all!

Dh and I are both wfh full time.

The reception age child refuses point blank to entertain any work, and is watching far too much tv.

The 8 year old will independently do the bare minimum, but not all tasks set.

I haven't got the time or patience to force the issue as I'm overrun with work myself.

It all just feels impossible

Awful here too.
My Children are completely unmotivated and resistant to all work unless I do it with them. There’s too much and it’s too difficult.

Aside from finding the time in the day, has anyone noticed how utterly dull the British Curriculum is? Am now doing year 5, but so frustrated as my DS being ahead in maths and behind in English.
He is getting maths lessons to easy and English lessons too hard. The English lessons are so drawn out with very baby-ish themes, and DS switches off.

I'm in my 40s and a different generation obviously. We didnt do all this grammar and as far as I recall we spent the days writing stories, etc. I honestly cant see how my brain has turned out any different to a 20 something. What am I missing here?

So glad I found this thread. I have had such a hard day. I've got a new baby, a 9 yr old and a 7 yr old. I also have a PGCE...and I have taught A Level and FE learners in the past. ..but..homeschooling is even harder!! Oh my goodness. The work being sent home is unrelenting, not at the right level for the childrens abilities, the tech problems are awful and annoying. They both find it hard, and can be unmotivated unless I sit there with them or hover over them. Bless them, learning to navigate Teams is enough but the work is difficult for them. If I have to put the little one for a nap and leave them to work independently, I come back and nothing has been done.
Every day we have crying "ugh I dont want to do it" followed by more crying, whining and flopping onto the floor or bed or sofa....ugh...it sucks. You are not alone. Surviving on coffee and chocolate.
The baby has jabs tomorrow as well...and I have no childcare so they will have to come with me to the surgery which isn't desirable but what can I do?!
Sending love and encouragement to everyone trying their best

Oh and I forgot to mention we have 1 laptop...and I need it for work as well. It is a tough time.

I have unfollowed all parents that post their daily homeschooling accomplishments and pictures of perfect work and serene looking atmosphere. They make me feel shite. I also unfollowed a friend posting their child’s certificate of achievement in class last week. That gave me the rage after explaining to my dd that no she won’t be in school next week. Mine is a daily battle, crap internet signal and today my laptop died. Sick of it all today, it’s relentless worksheets with a 5 minute online video From teacher or the BBC. It covers a subject briefly then moves on before he grasps it. Ds in yr1 was already behind and despite my efforts feels like he will be even further behind. He doesn’t engage with it or understand, gets upset and has a meltdown. Feel like ignoring the weekly timetable and teaching him in a more engaging way if possible. Dd is reception and bored with a brief PowerPoint or online video and worksheet, and I feel like I spend all my time on my eldest whilst ignoring or telling the 3 & 20month old to stop interrupting. It’s shite and I am very concerned, worried and stressed.

I also feel that they're trying to cram curriculum in when they missed so much last year. There is an argument for keeping them all back a year. They have missed a lot of groundwork but I feel they're still expected to be at the same level and they have to demonstrate the same knowledge as they would in "normal" times. We are not in normal times! So it's unfair that our kiddos are being assessed as if there is no pandemic. Adjustments need to be made. My 7 year old missed huge chunks of yr 2 last year due to the pandemic (all our children have missed chunks) and has subsequently found the jump to yr 3 very challenging. I mentioned this to the teacher who just said "well yes it is harder and she is struggling. She has to get on with it". Comments like that and comments like "your handwriting should be neater" infuriate me. Cut the kid some slack....cut us all some slack!

How’s today going for everyone?

Slightly better here. Middle DC has actually done some work during a teams meeting that didn’t involve me sitting through the whole thing.

Eldest DC also being a bit more independent this week.

Yes slightly better here too today. But I have been helicopter-ing over them with bribes promises of treats afterwards.