Any kind teachers about?

[GameSetMatch]

I’m so worried about my son falling behind at school and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

I have no clue how to homeschool or what I should be teaching, I’ve been researching key stage one and have come up with very little. Are there any kind teachers about who would be able to tell me what topics I should cover? I understand how busy you all are at the moment but brief bullet point guide would be greatly appreciated for lots of us struggling parents.

So far I have
-telling the time

• capital letters

I'm a primary school teacher. Is your child in year 1 or year 2?

What age is your son?

He’s 5 and in year 1

Are you on FB, because lots are sharing home-schooling tips there.

There's a useful MN thread here [[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/home_ed/3852672-Share-your-homeschooling-tips-and-learning-resource-recommendations-please]]

HTH

Go onto Twinkl website. They have an offer for 1 month free for parents and you can download tons of worksheets for the year group of your child.

I've just signed up and although I haven't started looking at it in detail, after opening a few files and having a quick glance they look really comprehensive.

No I’m not on Facebook, I’ll have a look at those home schooling tips, thank you.

There’s loads of stuff shared online but try twinkl, phonics play or google ks1 English/maths/curriculum and see what other schools have put online as home learning.

How old is your son. I'm guessing reception...

I'd focus on fine motor skills (modelling with playdough, Lego, drawing if he's interested). Writing all derives from this - don't force handwriting practice - encourage Lego as it really strengthens fingers!

Apps like teach your monster to read are good for phonics (especially for my generation who really didn't do them at all!) Seem to remember friends' kids on Cbeebies website.

Project work researching countries, or animals.

Exercise. Les Mills has a daily workout, or have a look for videos on you tube. Try to get out to walk/ explore local open spaces

Twinkl will have a decent amount of free content as well.

Mostly don't force it, but I would try to have a bit of a plan/ structure to help you not get buried under a heap of toys!

Have school not provided a home learning pack and/or access to online learning resources?

Please don’t worry about falling behind yet. This is a new experience for everyone and it’s going to take time to get used to. I’m in Scotland but teach the equivalent of Y1. Next week will be spent getting online leaning ready for our classes then we will move to full digital learning. There will be something similar happening for you and the teachers will give you lots of help and guidance.

And agree, school should definitely be helping with a plan/advice. They may be mostly closing but the teachers/school staff aren't actually on holiday. It might not happen quickly but they should be able to get things together soon.

X-post with @mondaywine, great to hear

Play play play! He is 5. You can make this a really enjoyable experience for him. Don't worry too much

thank you, twinkl looks good, do I just give him worksheets and let him get on with it or explain and do background work as well?

yes we got a learning pack of six work sheets in total so that’s day 1 covered but I think the school was struggling with staff shortages so the packs aren’t great. We live in a really poor area, no online classes or anything like that I doubt, most people have computers and laptops in their homes.

*DON’T have computers or laptops

Following with interest.

Mine is six and in year 1.

His teachers have pulled it out of the bag this week, they've given us a big printed timetable of how the school day typically goes, a massive list of online resources and a pack of worksheets an inch thick.

Looking at the timetable, they only do about two hours of 'work' - phonics, reading, literacy and maths. A lot of the day is taken up by lunch and break time (1.5 hours). So that's 3.5 hours already. That leaves 2.5 hours for things like p.e, history, geography etc. I get the impression that we're supposed to just have a look at stuff they might be interested in. Ds wants to do the titanic, dinosaurs, and 'learn 10 things about a different country each week'. So that's history and geography sorted. Science can be things like looking for mini beasts, or states of matter (ice to water to steam for example). Build a marble run, that's physics.

All that being said. I absolutely get where you are coming from and feel woefully unqualified to home school. But we just have to make the best of a seriously shitty situation.

They will all be in the same boat and allowances will be made next year I'm quite sure of that

Not sure where you are in the UK that would be P1 here I think. Usually 5 year olds would do a lot of learning through play here. I would focus on skills like investigative play with sand, water play dough etc, fine motor skills (tracing lines, cutting etc). Encourage outdoor learning (nature walks, mud kitchens and the like) Read to him a lot - foster a love for stories and reading! Teach him to tie his laces and things that will set him up for school

I wouldn't get too bogged down in curriculum it's actually so refreshing to be freed of the shackles of tick box activities.

But some basics:
-Recognise numbers to 20/30 and count sequentially (forwards, backwards and with numbers left out)
-language of addition/subtraction
-number stories 1-10 and beyond (depending on ability)
-Recognition of key words, work your way through 1st 100 to begin with - lot of apps and games on these (aka sight and high frequency words
-Consolidate phonics (don't know what scheme you use so don't want ti give too much advice on this)

Good Luck!

I think it was mentioned above but phonics play are offering free access to their website. Good for phonics games. By this stage in the year, year 1 children are generally working on phase 5 but revising phases 2,3 and 4 will help to consolidate their learning. Writing for a purpose is always great - letters to friends and family, lists, a diary, film reviews for a friend etc.

Join Facebook, even just for now. Join the group plan c.

I’m an ex teacher but secondary. I’m not worried about teaching my nursery aged any set things. All the children will be in the same boat in September. This is going to be a really stressful time for us all so make home chilled and calm and fun. Have a structure like get up in the morning get dressed and have lunch at similar time etc. Get outside in the garden if you can. Read lots of books, have opportunities to write and draw like shopping list or doctors notes but don’t push it. Orchard games can be good. Use numbers when baking, counting out sock or number of giant steps across the garden and number of tiny lady steps across the garden.

Try and take it as amazing opportunity to enjoy time with your child.

Phonicsplay is a brilliant website with loads of phonics games which are the perfect way for him to learn at home.

We use it to help teach phonics/reading/writing in year 1.
They have just made the whole site free for everybody (usually schools have to pay to get a login)

www.phonicsplay.co.uk/

I would focus on reading, counting (to 100) and recognising numbers and maybe writing a few sentences at the end of each day about their day? But otherwise, try and have a bit of fun and don't worry too much. Doing things like baking, gardening, art activities is also important. We teachers realise that children will have missed some of their academic year and so will adjust our curriculum accordingly in September.

Reading.
What the individual words mean. The emotion of the text, what they expect to happen next.

You can buy workbooks from amazon or they stock them in whsmith and the works to go through simple maths, telling the time, spelling and phonics.

I think workbooks are good idea for young children. You need to read some text and write answers even when you are doing maths work book. There are many great ones out there. and keep up the reading.

Kind teacher, hello! My colleagues and I will be sorting our home learning as soon as we can after getting our heads around being childcare providers and free school meals delivery people. But we do want to help parents!