“No one said it would be easy
But no one said it’d be this hard
No one said it would be easy
No one thought we’d come this far”
Thank you Sheryl Crow, for summing up our home schooling journey perfectly. What a challenge and rollercoaster it’s been! Who would have thought, when we cheered in the New Year that just 12 short weeks later we’d be home schooling the children and our family would be cocooned from the outside world?
Very early on we realised that home schooling wouldn’t be easy. The idea of the children jumping out of bed full of learning enthusiasm each day was never a realistic prospect. Nor the expectation of them replicating a school day at home, taking breaks at appropriate times and ending at 3:30pm.
Instead, we found ourselves with two children sleeping in every morning, and more interested in phones and game consoles than doing any school work! They felt lockdown was a holiday – and you can understand why. So we had to approach things differently. We needed a new kind of schooling that worked for us and wasn’t trying to mimic their usual school day. So, this is what we’ve done …
We built a classroom
The one room in our house that is never used is our dining room. So, on the first weekend of lockdown, we converted it into a classroom, and we all work in there – Huw and me too. We moved in our desktop PCs and laptops, and I bought a stack of letter trays for each child, so they could keep their homework printouts in order. And we each have a pen pot.
We changed the school times
A 9am start was never on the cards. So, we start at 10am. Lunch is 12-1 and then school resumes 1-3. We aim for 4 hours of school work a day. I figure that if I can get 4 hours of writing in a day – given everything else that is going on – I’m doing well.
We have a daily briefing
Much more fun that the government’s 5pm updates, we have ours at 10am daily. In it we go through Show My Home Work (now called Satchel One?) to see what is needed to be completed. The children check their school emails too, for feedback from teachers and for any other work they need to do. So, early in the day they know what tasks need to be completed in home school.
MUSIC!
In school, silence is encouraged for full concentration. Not in our home school! Oh no, we blast out music from registration through to school’s out! Each morning we take it in turns to pick a playlist, courtesy of Spotify via Google Home. It really helps. The upbeat songs add momentum too, which is great when your energy levels need a bit of a pick me up. We do apologise for anyone who happens to walk past our house during the chorus of ‘Living on a Prayer’ though …
Family challenge
Our school already sets a whole-school art challenge that we take part in. The last three included a piece of art called Peace that tied in with the VE day celebrations (Toby baked a Union Jack cake); some loo rolls (no idea why loo rolls?) decorated in the theme of a famous artist (we did LS Lowry). This week the challenge was to put ourselves in a famous film poster. Take a look at our efforts here:
In addition to this we set ourselves a family challenge – Origami, the art of paper folding! There are so many free to print templates online, when we have a quiet moment, or have completed work early, we challenge each other to make the best piece of folded art. Toby tends to pick paper airplane templates, Millie-Mae picks cute, but complicated, animals. My choices are always a mixed bag of things, from bookmarks to finger puppets – while Huw tends to pick science– and maths-based challenges.
Well-stocked printer
Remember to have plenty of paper and ink in your printer! One thing we’ve learned during lockdown is that children tend to use the printer a LOT! They find work easier to follow if it is printed out, as it saves them from flicking between slides on a screen etc. It’s a great revision tool as well, if you file work away neatly.
We have a Brother colour laser printer, which we love. Official ink cartridges for a whole set, though, are an eye watering £280ish! We were lucky to receive a full set of official cartridges when new, but we’ve never been able to justify the cost since. Instead we use Brother toner cartridges from Cartridge Save – they are 50% cheaper! In terms of longevity, we’ve barely noticed any difference, and the quality is the same.
Additional home schooling resources
We’ve tried to ‘mix up’ official school work with additional resources too. Such as:
BBC Bitesize
This has been a great resource for both children. They’ve not managed to watch everything, but when they find they’ve not got any schoolwork to do, they turn on the TV to watch an episode or two. At 20 mins long each, it really is bitesize – but full of interesting facts too (I love watching them!)
Exercise via YouTube
Ok, in the early days it was all about PE with Joe Wicks … but – we got fed up with it! So, we tend to do random searches on YouTube and ‘have a go’ at ones that catch our eye. It’s been fun (and hilarious in equal measure). I tend to pick gentle classes like beginners Pilates or yoga. I don’t think we’ll ever forget the HIIT class Toby joined us up to … we couldn’t last 5 minutes!
Reading
We have one child who reads books at a rate I can’t keep up with. And another child who hates reading. Then there’s me – I love to read a good book, but only tend to manage one a year because I’m so easily distracted by work and this blog. This lockdown, at least 2-3 times a week, we’ve spent 30 minutes of our lunch break in splendid silence, reading. Because we’ve had such great weather, we’ve been able to sit outside to do it.
Cooking
Each week I set Toby a cooking challenge (well, he wants to be a chef when he’s older). I’ve been blogging about his efforts … so far, he’s made Hot Cross Buns, an easy marmalade, an indulgent chocolate brownie, a traditional apple pie, and a moist carrot cake. (And the cake above.) New skills that I hope will stay with him forever.
I’ve also taught the children to use the vacuum, load and unload a dishwasher and washing machine, take rubbish out to the bins, and to feed the dogs and cat! Life skills rule, yes?! Think I’ll teach them to iron clothes next …
