lockdown learning chat (primary school children)

[HelloMist]

I wondered if we could have a daily chat where we can just drop in to update how we're doing learning from home, good or bad, or tips etc and find some company.

My DD is KS1 age though we can broaden it if you want to join.

puts the kettle on, cuts some

I don't know how those with two or more to homeschool and multiple subjects do it!

It's certainly tough, especially as we have no video lessons or live lessons for DC1 in y3 so it's up to me to set things up, coach him etc. I have to attempt to set up older DC with a school activity while I do one with younger, then let younger one play while I help older.

It's a real juggling act and to do both children's work plus have an hour or two outside, adequate breaks and mealtimes etc would take from 9-5 so we have to let some things slide.

Even though DH is working full time he helps a lot too, usually takes half an hour out of his day to play with or do a subject with one DC.

It really helped me (and DC) to write out a timetable last night of breaks, fun, meals etc

My dc are primary aged. Being a primary school supply teacher I should find this very easy, and in a lot of ways it is, but I won't deny that we are struggling.

Dc 2 hates maths and it's so difficult to get it going! Of course, at school, they have a lot more patience with their teachers but are more relaxed and comfortable here and therefore feel able to shout at me and refuse to work.

We have 2 laptops but one is a chromebook and has a tiny memory so is very slow; the other is my photo editing laptop so is fast and powerful but has no webcam which means I have to connect my phone up for them to join the meetings and live lessons. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there bored out of my tree because I have nothing to do until they come out of their meetings and both need support.

Google Classroom works OK but a lot of the documents can't be edited, especially if a question needs a drawing as an answer, meaning I have to copy/paste each page into Paint or Photoshop, which they can edit, and then transfer it back into the original document. Obviously I have to do this with 1 dc at a time so the other is spending an awful lot of time in between lessons just hanging about and watching TV/YouTube. I refuse to pay for ms office and I don't want to install more programmes to clutter up my laptop.

@Knitsewthread we dont spend an awful amount of time on school work. It depends on the type of tasks we are set but we normally split it into a few lots ofn10-15 mins. We practise writing letters, do a bit of reading, and practise phonics every day. Plus a bit of maths and they have a talk for writing topic every half term so there’s normally an activity on that. But it depends on his mood (and mine!) as to how much and how long. Some days we get lots done, others we don’t get hardly anything. And that’s fine. Today we went on a long welly walk instead which is what they would do on a Monday at school and it was lovely!

Having a morning where it all feels too much for me.
I've had a cry but I'm trying to remind myself that there will be ups and downs, it's natural. (Yesterday felt like a success, but I was exhausted by evening).

Hope others had a better start to the day.

@HelloMist hope your afternoon has been better. I think we all have days like this so we are all in this together ☺️ Not too bad a day here, we tend to have one proactive day followed by a rubbish day so we’ll see how it goes.

I upset ds today because I had to go through his maths because he'd not understood the work (finding the area of compound shapes). That was fun...

@TwoZeroTwoZero

I upset ds today because I had to go through his maths because he'd not understood the work (finding the area of compound shapes). That was fun...

This sounds horrifying What even are they Feeling relieved my Dd is only yr1... We had to research Wales today, so made Welsh cakes! Felt like a win. I think I got the good end of the stick today tbh, dh is the one scrabbling around working late to make up time today.

@Indecisivelurcher they're these. Shapes made of 2 or more rectangles put together. They're easy once you get you head around it: split the shape into separate rectangles, find the area of each one and then add them together. After I'd gone through it with him, ds understood but not after a huge tantrum and sobbing fit when his first attempt was sent back to do it all again

@Emmacb82 thanks, afternoon slightly better. Today going much more positively so far, maybe like you say one good day followed by a rubbish one. Maybe if I set my expectations low tomorrow I'll be pleased with whatever we manage.

Sympathy to anyone having a difficult one today.

@TwoZeroTwoZero @Indecisivelurcher they do look tricky! Not easy when we have to get our own heads around ideas before we can help DC. Even some of the Y1 stuff has been harder than I expected (sometimes the terminology used rather than the actual concept). Thinking of Maths, Science and English grammar so far.

It helps that I'm a primary school supply teacher (currently furloughed) so we do have that to our advantage! Different schools have slightly different ways of teaching certain things though and that can get confusing and I have had to have a sneaky Google every now and again when I come across a term that I haven't heard if before: earlier this week I had to clarify to myself what definite and indefinate articles are and other types of determiners. I have a bloody English degree!

So, March then... We will know each other well.

Although I knew it would be March, and thats not even set in stone, it’s so hard to think we will be doing this for weeks and weeks yet! We had a bad day today. I couldn’t get motivated and have felt very down. And it’s been hard to get my ds to do anything without stress. So we wrote today off and will try again tomorrow.

I've been trying to tell myself 8th March is only 2 weeks longer than the original plan as find it too much to think of allll the weeks together!

We had a nice walk today and did a bit of a scavenger hunt which counted as school work so that was good.

@Emmacb82 that sounds like a good way of doing it. I think part of my problem is trying to cram it all into my baby's nap time which ends up stressing both me and DS out. Have tried to chill out a bit about that today and asked DH to do some during his lunch break (WFH) and I did a bit more when he finished. Hope you're having a restful evening with a chance to recharge ahead of tomorrow. Sometimes a total write off is just what's needed!

@HelloMist as much as I don't like to hear anyone else is upset, you've made me feel hugely better as I have found myself getting tearful on more than one occasion when I feel I'm letting everyone down. Glad you've had a better one today - think you might be right about a good day followed by a not so good!

How are you all getting on? I reached breaking point today, it's just not possible to complete all the work with my reception aged and year 2 DDs whilst WFH part time. My mental health has already suffered over the last year and 7 year old DD has ASD and is really starting to struggle. Seemed a lot easier last year with the gorgeous weather, DP was furloughed and there was less pressure from school.

So far I have one child who refused to do their maths until I agreed to doing the writing if they told me the answers. The other child has an infected foot and is hopping about like a one-legged kangaroo. He has been given those antibiotics that have to be taken on an empty stomach, is due his next dose in 20 minutes and is complaining about being hungry and therefore also refusing to work. 😨😨😨

Feeling much more positive and calm today, made the decision we are going to pick and choose which work we will be doing whilst putting our mental wellbeing first and feel like a weight has been lifted 😊

We've sacked off school work and been for a bike ride. I feel brave!!! This whole situation is making me realise that I need to let go a bit. A friend pointed out that if they were at school, not every worksheet would get completed. Every piece of work would not be done to the best of their ability. One day, half the lesson might be spent staring out of the window or messing about and only a few rushed messy sentences put to paper. And that's OK. That really struck a chord for me. So I'm trying to stop expecting my poor 6yo to do A* grade work on every occasion.

DD1 is secondary and they're doing video lessons - a day so unless she needs printing or art materials I leave her to it.

DD2 (Y5) on the other hand needs continuous support. And today I have the rage/tears - not because of her but because I realise how badly the school have let her down and I'm not sure what to do. She is already having an hour of tutoring per week (from Sept 20) as I knew something was amiss. The school have her as marked as very behind in English, Reading and Maths and a big part of that is because she won't talk in class so they can't assess her, and she doesn't ask for help ever. Her tutor read her last end of year report and said that's not the child she sees, the one who chats happily and asks questions.

She can do the actual maths but makes errors writing it down, through not paying attention. They suggest she switches to the easier maths questions, but she makes the same attention-errors, so they think she can't do the maths at all, not even the easy questions.

I feel like I've failed her, even though I've explained that I think she is capable to her teachers multiple times over the past 18 months. She hats school, has previously asked if she can move, and gained so much confidence in lockdown 1 because she didn't have to go for weeks.

Anyway back to English for us...

@TwoZeroTwoZero interesting (and helpful) to hear you're a primary school teacher and have an English degree but still need to look things up! Different schools do have different ways of doing things. I think there's also stuff in the primary curriculum now that I'm sure wouldn't have been taught to 4, 5, 6 + year olds in the past. Let alone the way we were taught.

@Indecisivelurcher good advice from your friend, thanks for sharing it. That's true! And also in a class of 25-30, they wouldn't get one on one support for long at a time, so I don't see how they could cover all of the exercises we are expected to complete. (Not without mistakes anyway, and needing corrections or to go over an idea again another time).

@Glittergoblin I'm glad you've found a way to reduce the stress! Seems like the best plan, only do what you can and put your MH first.

@Knitsewthread that's OK, you are definitely not alone! I struggled more in the first few weeks. Still finding it hard but not crying as much as at the beginning. I'm finding myself frazzled a lot though: trying to prepare a meal but my mind is still on school or I can't "switch off" and focus on something else. End up getting timings wrong or burning stuff. Still edible but it's hard juggling all this and not getting a breather. I find it hard to put school to one side in the evening too, I end up looking ahead at next tasks or checking teacher's feedback instead of watching TV or fully relaxing. DD has even started telling me to "relax, it's not school time now" when she's having a break!

8th March seems quite long but we have half term coming up, remember (in 2 weeks here). It'll be a break from school work even if not as many things we can do at the moment.

Then depending on the school it is only 2 or 3 weeks back until the Easter holiday (if they do return that day).

I have a Yr3 and a Yr1 at home with me and it seems so much harder than last lockdown. I'm really feeling it this week and we've all ended up in tears at various points.

My eldest is super bright but having plenty of emotional meltdowns and being so hard on herself for no reason, and my youngest doesn't want to engage at all. It takes hours to get a couple of sentences out of him!

I feel like he's really starting to slip behind (especially in terms of what he is capable of) and feel so guilty that I'm letting him down. It doesn't help when I see the amazing written work some of his classmates are producing, when his is nowhere near that standard.

Both DC SO resistant today. I just gave up in the end and cried. Don't think I can keep it up for another six weeks +

Awful day today and it’s all my fault. I’ve been so utterly miserable and I just couldn’t rally myself so my poor ds has suffered because of it. My maternity leave officially ended this week and am on annual leave until March when I go back to work. I just feel so sad that I’ve had a year of living like a hermit, not being able to see anyone, hardly anyone has met my baby. Family don’t live near me so they’ve only seen him twice. And just feeling utter guilt that I’m not providing my other son with a decent education. Sorry to derail the thread.
It doesn’t help that the school sometimes send videos using the children that are in school doing proper lessons. I know it’s not their fault that they are in, but it’s hard for my ds to see them all laughing and learning with their teacher and he’s stuck at home. We only managed a few bits today. I’m going to buck my ideas up tomorrow and get over this misery. So sorry to bring everyone down, I’m not normally like this!

@Emmacb82

Awful day today and it’s all my fault. I’ve been so utterly miserable and I just couldn’t rally myself so my poor ds has suffered because of it. My maternity leave officially ended this week and am on annual leave until March when I go back to work. I just feel so sad that I’ve had a year of living like a hermit, not being able to see anyone, hardly anyone has met my baby. Family don’t live near me so they’ve only seen him twice. And just feeling utter guilt that I’m not providing my other son with a decent education. Sorry to derail the thread. It doesn’t help that the school sometimes send videos using the children that are in school doing proper lessons. I know it’s not their fault that they are in, but it’s hard for my ds to see them all laughing and learning with their teacher and he’s stuck at home. We only managed a few bits today. I’m going to buck my ideas up tomorrow and get over this misery. So sorry to bring everyone down, I’m not normally like this!

Sorry you're feeling like that. It must have been a really rubbish mat leave compared to what you expected.

Your older son will be ok. How old is he? Remember LOADS of children will be in the same boat, or worse.

That's insensitive of the school. We had a video of my DC's teacher saying how excited she was to be going in and teaching the children who were in school (they're on a rota), I felt like saying, "bully for you! Are you aware that these children at home watching this would maybe like to come in too but don't have the choice?" I know she was probably trying to be positive about going to school, but my son definitely felt weird after watching that.