Homeschooling during lockdown

N1985

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Thought I'd start a thread for all those parents homeschooling the kids during lockdown.

Finding it a lot easier this time round as we're a bit more prepared. Fortunately we are in a position to afford the devices for them to learn off otherwise we would really be struggling. Can't imagine how hard it is with multiple kids trying to share the same phone or tablet.

The juggle of work and schooling is very hard though. I've kind of given up trying. School comes first in my eyes and I try and pick up work when they have finished. Causing many late finishes but it is what it is.

Anybody with any tips on how to manage the load or anybody who just fancies a vent because the fucking printer won't work or the fucking goddamn PDFs won't edit, then I guess this is the place for it. Our house currently looks like a dodgy call centre. Dreading the winter utility bill!
 
It's the lack of space for us more than anything. We could have sent them into school as we qualify as key workers but the school asked 2 or 3 times for key workers families to reconsider this time around as they have a teacher absence crisis also. So for us it's harder this time, as they were in school previously. Being younger they need almost constant supervision and it's hard to get anything done. I'd happily be furloughed right now until half term to focus on just them.

Had to resort to attending meetings from bed and phone calls in the car, and we're out of food by Tuesday as they seem to be constantly hungry.

Also, our two have kindles but one app the school use frequently, seesaw, is frustratingly hard to use from a kindle. So they're back to print outs and pens. Sorry environment, but the alternative seems to be to pay over the odds for a chromebook or a mobile phone.

The school are also drop feeding work though every hour or two, so they do the work quickly and then disappear to play, it's a bigger to get them to restart. Had the eldest still uo at 9pm last night learning about ancient egypt as she found using my laptop much easier and really got into it.

Makes me appreciate teachers even more.
 
Thought I'd start a thread for all those parents homeschooling the kids during lockdown.

Finding it a lot easier this time round as we're a bit more prepared. Fortunately we are in a position to afford the devices for them to learn off otherwise we would really be struggling. Can't imagine how hard it is with multiple kids trying to share the same phone or tablet.

The juggle of work and schooling is very hard though. I've kind of given up trying. School comes first in my eyes and I try and pick up work when they have finished. Causing many late finishes but it is what it is.

Anybody with any tips on how to manage the load or anybody who just fancies a vent because the fucking printer won't work or the fucking goddamn PDFs won't edit, then I guess this is the place for it. Our house currently looks like a dodgy call centre. Dreading the winter utility bill!
Our kids school make us pick up their school work every Friday that lasts for the week and drop it back on Friday's to check it. Very good really and takes pressure off printing out stuff at home ect
Actually doing homeschool at the minute then we all go to a football pitch beside us and do P.E. they to have them in a routine, They love it too.

Hope yours is going well.
 
It's the lack of space for us more than anything. We could have sent them into school as we qualify as key workers but the school asked 2 or 3 times for key workers families to reconsider this time around as they have a teacher absence crisis also. So for us it's harder this time, as they were in school previously. Being younger they need almost constant supervision and it's hard to get anything done. I'd happily be furloughed right now until half term to focus on just them.

Had to resort to attending meetings from bed and phone calls in the car, and we're out of food by Tuesday as they seem to be constantly hungry.

Also, our two have kindles but one app the school use frequently, seesaw, is frustratingly hard to use from a kindle. So they're back to print outs and pens. Sorry environment, but the alternative seems to be to pay over the odds for a chromebook or a mobile phone.

The school are also drop feeding work though every hour or two, so they do the work quickly and then disappear to play, it's a bigger to get them to restart. Had the eldest still uo at 9pm last night learning about ancient egypt as she found using my laptop much easier and really got into it.

Makes me appreciate teachers even more.
Seesaw is a horrible clunky app. I have it on my phone and we use it only for being able to contact the kids teacher, but once they start trying to send work through it i just give up. Now the eldest has his own ipad, its a lot easier as we can put seesaw and all the other online platforms they use on that.

Best thing school have done this time thats different is actually develop a daily timetable with associated learning packages for each lesson. The teacher does a 2/3 minute video each morning which she uploads to seesaw and gives the day more structure. Like you say, once they get their head out of studying its so hard to get it back, so the timetable helps with that.
 
I was pretty critical of the quality of schoolimg in the last lockdown.

Been much, much better this time around. Still no substitute for school but I'm less worried about the impact of schools shutting than I was a couple of weeks ago.
 
I was pretty critical of the quality of schoolimg in the last lockdown.

Been much, much better this time around. Still no substitute for school but I'm less worried about the impact of schools shutting than I was a couple of weeks ago.
My (language) school has offered parents the chance to choose the online package or the face-to-face package, so I've been teaching the same material one day in person and another day online. It's not even a contest which students learn more, never mind supervising and measuring their progress. But now we're going into lockdown again, so they're all online again now.

One of the main reasons online is smoother this time though is because the students have all learned how to use it and got comfortable with it. You honestly used to get most of the class at times sitting there with their cameras and microphones off not responding. So far this term, they all seem a bit more comfortable with the whole thing.
 

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