How I'm coping with Home Schooling

I suppose the benefit of being Furloughed from both my jobs (and Furlough has earned the right for a capital F, due to it’s huge significance in my life right now, that it has it’s own name and gets mentioned quite a lot), is that I have all the time in the world to concentrate on schooling my two kids, aged 11 and 8 years.

Having selective OCD and the reminiscence of playing schools as a child has set me up well for our temporary classroom. It started out in the playroom, with two of the nested tables (size appropriate) and two toddler chairs we never managed to get rid of, but realising that as teacher I was sat on the floor for the majority of the lessons, I wanted to assert my authority, and so we have taken over the dining room table.

I think I’m really lucky. My 11 year old is at secondary school, and Showmyhomework has become a good friend of mine. The is planned based on whatever overdue work needs submitting (first half hour panic) and then what has been set for the day. As a budding linguist, I try and add a bit of French to the curriculum but I’ve been caught out a few times with the complaint “Oi, we’ve not got French to do today”. My reply is generally “ah ah, say it in French” see, clever Mummy thinking I’ll get the kids to learn something without realising it, but then the response to that is “no”.

So we’re sticking mostly to the curriculum, unless I have a zoom social with my work friends, who I’m missing loads, and then it’s art time or computing.

My 8 year old, Lucy is super lucky that in her school, all the class teachers are now spending two lots of 20 minutes each day on Microsoft Teams to teach Maths and English. It does affect my curriculum of hour long lessons, but I’m coming to terms with that gradually, and Molly and I love to listen out for the repetitive “Miss B, you’ve been muted” shouted out at 5 minute intervals by most of the Year 3 kids to their lovely teacher, who isn’t even a Miss, she’s a Mrs.

Now, I know that the haters are judging me, because I’m not really that stressed, and the girls are getting their work done, and we’re all still talking at the end of the day. I don’t have a failing Ofsted graded poster in the window, but I also stopped short of giving myself an Outstanding (a little pompous perhaps?)

The most important thing with regards to homeschooling though, and it’s a massive drain on your own resources, is to sit with your child. Look at the work they have been set, ask them questions, work together to understand the task, and be that other child in the classroom they can ask questions with, or pass notes to. It’s so so important in this situation to be present with your kids if you can, to ask them questions at every stage to reassure them that they are doing it right and praise them for getting it done. Of course they still get a bollocking when they don’t, but those are short lived and by the end of the school day we’re all in a happy place again.

So the key to less stressful learning and teaching at home is thus:

• Focus on the lessons that you and your kids like or understand.
• Spend a little extra time on those lessons, I received great advice from a friend which was to become great at the subjects you like (or the kids) and get the other subjects done, ready for teacher to teach when they go back.
• Sit with your children, and make sure you understand as much as they do what they’ve been asked. Be the second kid in the class with them.
• For other subjects, get them through the homework, get it submitted and out the way
• Listing to Kerrang radio helps me to to stay calm as a teacher, as I can stop shouting at points to sing a bit of metal at the kids.
• Write down the instructions for the homework, and make sure your child ticks them off as they’ve done it. This prevents going back after the lesson to say “but why didn’t you complete what they’ve asked, why have you not submitted this, completed the test etc. etc.”
• Keep feeding the kids constantly, it’s a great distraction. Maybe not too much sugar though if like Lucy, they get hyper on it.
• If they do get hyper and can’t sit still, get them to march around the house shouting out times tables.
• Read, read and read some more. That’s the motto from our primary school headmistress (not me in this instance). But then ask them about what they’ve read.
• Duolingo for languages, even Molly, who is a bit of a clock watcher, stayed behind an hour after school the other day because she was so engrossed in her French
• PE everyday. For us it’s walking the dog, finding new and exciting places, and even if the girls aren’t listening to me list off the various tree names (all made up though), I’m almost educating myself with this beautiful nature we’re surrounded with.
• Apparently homework isn’t a thing in lockdown, such a shame.
• Buy printer paper, and ink, don’t think you can get away without printing stuff. It makes life more difficult.

Overall, remember that you’re not a qualified teacher (unless you are, then just get on with teaching and do what you do best), and you’re spending a hell of a lot more time with your kids so go easy on yourself, easy on them. Apparently it’s Ok to drink Gin in the staffroom, it’s Ok to have lunchtime naps and it’s OK to shop online whilst the kids have their heads in their work.

Finally, remember to praise your kids, even if you think they’ve done a crap job but if they’ve done something, tell them that you’re pleased with the progress and suggest ways that tomorrow you can build on that progress. When they realise that they have to keep doing the subject until they get it right, they’ll soon look for ways to get it right first time.
Real life skills are also lessons, brushing the dog, hoovering (bit of a disaster though when the hoover is bigger than the child), helping with dinner and cleaning the bathroom. These are chores that could even be rewarded for, but that’s a whole nother blog, when we delve into the world of RoosterMoney.com