Home School Resources & Tips

Also damo:
"for fucks sake number 1, do some fucking exercise eh?"

What does he like?

Focus on that, ignore the education for a week or two. Get involved with stuff he likes, then build education into it.

Probably needs time to decompress, adapt to non school based life!

@ffm @Chalfie All of this is weirdly applicable to myself attempting to get anything done in my 'home office'. I'm both parts of the equation at the same time.

He likes nature, baking, maths, dance, music, reading, Pokemon, watching TV.

The problem is that school have pretty clear expectations of what gets done when and we already have a daily schedule. While I'm not set on following that specific one, it does provide structure, which I think is good. I'd love to spend a week or two with no expectations of him, but I don't know how to actually make that happen (especially with two full-time working parents who need to share time in making that schedule actually work).

You could try and give it back to him, ask him to come up with an idea about how he wants to do it. You’ve potentially got 3 months of this so just doing it because it’s what you’ve decided may wear thin.

Has he made the schedule?

How to make a week or two with no expectations of him?
"morning, I'm making coffee and breakfast. Do you want some? I'm going to do this here. Would you like to sit near me and do something quietly?"

I got really cross (hey no surprise there right!?) on sunday because no one would do what they should be doing. In the 5 minute of breathing outside. I realised, I was actually really cross with the news and no one doing what they should be doing and I had been snapping at real people I love rather than the fucking idiots out there.

The problem is school

Sorry, personal opinion.

Routine is good, as tonts says, work with him to create something you are both happy with.

School giving a routine is amusing, out of interest what does that look like?

Edit: wrong thread.

Chalfie sounds like a good parent.

I don't do all the advice I hand out btw.

Anyone keep chickens, thinking of ordering a coop, is it a bad idea at this time?

Apparently everyone else has had the same idea so getting hold of the animals and the equipment is tricky ATM. My M-i-L used to keep them at her primary school and was left with an abiding dislike; she complained they were forever getting sick/attacking one another/escaping.

Cynical question: nursery is shut down (baby at home), they still want 50% of the fees, is that fair? Are the salaries not covered by the state + they are exempted from business rates from the 1st April?

School giving a routine is amusing, out of interest what does that look like?

0900 PE/Some exercise to get the brain working
0915 Handwriting, spellings
0940 Maths (on a tablet/computer)
1030 Break/reading
1100 Literacy/Grammar
1130 Daily Writing task
1215 Creative/singing
1230 Lunch
1330 Modern language
1400 Art/Science project (topic work) or more exercise

It's not ridiculous on its face, it could be made so by the amount of work given and the lack of understanding that trying to do school work at home is not as efficient as them working at school.

I started off with grand ideas of a strict 08:55-15:25 schedule for my 2 x Junior schoolers, trying to emulate the real thing. Quickly realised this was too much. Got sent this schedule which proved good today on day 1, but I don't plan to stick too closely to this TBH, be a bit flexible. Tough time for them too of course.

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That's the one that I'd seen before with the needless disinfecting of the family home. I think it's about right with roughly 2 hours of learning in the morning, 1-2 hours of stuff in the afternoon and the rest a bit more freeform. Not sure that my family could survive without a morning food top-up though.

I've taken my daughter out of school on Wednesday. Been spending the days with a mix of IXL, printed worksheets from education.com for maths and English, things like cooking and baking where I talk about fractions etc, reading and some exercise.

Also got her set up on my laptop to use her own gmail account, so she can now write emails to grandparents and other kids. Given that she's only 6 she gets the computer really well. I bought her a colourful mouse, and she was over the moon.

FYI this will be good.

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Little routine to keep involvement, grandad is sending daily maths questions by WhatsApp, then we check answers with him in the evening

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GF was discussing with ex, to set a daily amount of a notional £1 for their child to spend on snacks in the home. Like a home tuck shop.. Principally because there is a tendency that kids will graze all day through boredom.. It sounds strict but should be good discipline.. Healthy snacks being promoted over crisps and sweets.. but not to eat all the grapes in one go, so moderation required.. even treats in exchanged for home chores.. okay that’ll only work for kids upto 10yo methinks

I’m gonna apply this rule to alcohol units per day until further notice in my house

home chores

Don’t make them “chores” as such, if you just make them normal things and all done together probably find more likely to do these when teenage years hit!

indeed, sharing the load at home should connect parents with children.

Got this from the local library (before it shut obvs), might be useful to some:-

http://www.greenbank.org/misc/library_recommendations.pdf

Two week Easter break coming up, some of the parents we know are just going to push on through with more work (well, spreading the existing work out rather than adding more) but we want to create a bit of a break for her.

We'll be easing off quite a lot (she'll keep doing lots of music, ICT and other things she likes) but wondering how to fill the days now that the school routine is going.

Have already planned to surprise her with a camping "trip". Not going outside but putting a small 2 man pop up tent in the lounge and she can sleep in there in a sleeping bag for a couple of nights (unless the novelty wears off). We'll also do camp food for a couple of days (bbq type stuff like frankfurters, etc). I'll hold off forcing her to wee in a bucket in the corner of the room or making her walk 400m in drizzle to brush her teeth in a skanky toilet block. Might even keep the windows shut. I'll be sleeping in my own comfy bed thanks.

Other than puzzles, books and telly, any other ideas for home school holidays?