Home School Resources & Tips

A thread for tips & resources to help folks through home schooling as it begins.

This thread made me chuckle: https://twitter.com/rogermacginty/status/1239476248222543872?s=19

There's the serious point of coping plus offering some education where possible.

Post resources/ tips below.

First thoughts, with a 7yo, I'll be encouraging some bike maintenance, cookery, then some Forest School type stuff including leaf ID (easier if we can sneak outside in a few weeks) and knot tying. Maybe some whittling too.

I figured the sitting down academic stuff can wait, we've got lots of books for reading practice though.

Cross post but this could be good for those with maybe older children wanting to understand
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/covid19-novel-coronavirus

Great!
I'd like to tap into this thread.

My eldest (9) was off last week so I bought a load of ks2 maths books.
Happy to scan / share in return etc etc
Also happy to consider some sort of group conference call working session.

Having done 6 months of home schooling (via an online school for actual teaching) I can recommend a couple of things.
Have a schedule. However loose, having some structure to the day is vital so you all know what is expected and when. Esp if you are trying to work at the same time. You don't need to fill every minute, but you need to have a morning and afternoon 'block' for work.
The 'school' day is shorter without travel, but set boundaries for tv/ipad/gaming that are realistic. The other spare time can be used for reading/crafts/cooking etc.
Plan in exercise. We went for a ride every morning 30mins to an hour, rain or shine. Plus dog walking in the pm. Getting outside for a bit resets the mind from home/breakfast etc.

We are self isolating as from today for the forseeable future. Will try and follow the timetable. Dressed and ready to start at 9. Currently she's doing reading.

Plan to do some curriculum stuff, but she's only 9, so will also do more, learning, project type things - plant some seeds, cooking, coding, making etc.

Do you have a link to the school thing?

Did you dictate the plan or was it freeform?
Was exercise always at a certain point of time?

From first-hand experience with home-schooling, I think you're spot-on, especially with regards to having some structure to the day and having at least a rough morning and afternoon block.

Also, in general I'd like to point out that home-schooling can be an opportunity: it can be used to teach kids to be more self-reliant and proactive in their schooling, as a counterpoint to the traditional "students sitting in a group, teacher standing at the front" style of teaching.

this is great opportunity for many parents to spend more time with their kids if nothing else!

It was interhigh which is a 'proper' school, but with online teaching. They had a lesson programme, but was only a few hours a day so we used that as the basis and cobbled the rest together.
If there was 1 hr maths in the morning, we would add something like an hour music/composition and 30mins reading as the morning block. Afternoon might have something like bbc bitesize from one of the sciences and then making scones/bread.

Exercise was riding every morning 8 ish. One day when no early lessons was a longer ride - laps of tooting/clapham/crystal palace. 4pm was dog walking for at least 30 mins.

I know it's not always possible but setting up a desk that isn't where they usually chill is also useful.

The online reaching resource used at my daughters school is supposed to be opening up to be free for everyone to use if schools are closed. I think it's called Twinkle but I'll update when/if it happens.

For GCSE yr10/11 students, they can aim for SENECA, Isaacphysics, TES resources, Kerboodle (If school is signed up), cogscisci resources.
For those with exams this summer it's vital they get plenty of question practice, a lot of courses will be likely to have finished the material. So from here it's important that they move into application, through past papers, and retrieval practice. I can share some Physics/Chem/Bio related material if people want.

A little science heavy I'm afraid but that's my expertise.

Hah, I'm sure every parent agree's with that statement! But in terms of home schooling, get a disciplined time to be doing some academic work, and some time for social interaction. Schools very much do both.

My kid’s in yr11, supposed to finish mocks last week, they added three further exams this week, making me wonder if they’re planning to close shortly and might have to have a full set of mocks in the bag* in case results end up being awarded on the basis of mocks/predicted grades. Am I bonkers for thinking this?

*i.e. For comp sci, the added one will mean they’ve been examined on the whole curriculum, original planned mock only covered half.

Mocks can be used in extreme circumstances, for yr13 we publish a predicted grade, it's likely those will be taken in lieu of A level exams...

It's so up in the air that you can't make a reasonable prediction, if we're all back by the end of May then exams are on, June probably on, September... who knows...

Sure, it’s totally unknown right now. Just wondered if the change of plan does suggest they’re getting ready to use mock marks if necessary. Thanks for replying.

Need some suggestions for how I still (virtually) meet my tutor for supervisions. Obviously Skype would work but we do a lot of maths together so is there some programme out there where I can share my camera from say may laptop and then share my iPad screen whilst they’ve the ability to do the same and write on my iPad screen?

Mocks will almost certainly be a contingency, they should be sat in public exam conditions and marked relatively fairly. But there is no external scrutiny so people might argue that their school was too harsh and another was too soft...

In that scenario, you could have two accounts for yourself, join from the laptop with one and the ipad with the other. So there are three people on the call. Or four, if they want to do the same. Just don't join audio on both devices, because feedback/echoechoecho

Twinkl is a great resource, you can get free resources during school closures, my wife is a teacher and uses it a fair bit.

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/parents

I hate the fucking worksheets the kids get sent home for homework in general - deathly boring - often confusing - poorly worded - inconsistent - bad spelling - lack of clear learning intention. I'm convinced that they are bot generated. We will be building a shed - fixing + riding bikes - planting seeds - doing lego - baking - reading - playing music and generally taking a break from all the horrendous three r's national curriculum / oftsted gove-bot bullshit they get fed.

building a shed - fixing + riding bikes - planting seeds - doing lego - baking - reading - playing music

I bet your kids gain a lot from this!

Well if they're poorly written they help no-one, but homework and academic study at home is going to be vital for anyone in year 9 or above

Probably most relevant to A-level students and above, but Cambridge University Press is giving free access to all of its online textbooks until the end of May: https://www.cambridge.org/core/what-we-publish/textbooks