Epiphany

It's Twelfth night. Out with the old, in with the new. Decorations back in the loft.  Christmas tree pruned down to get into the green bin.  Throw out any expectations of your children being in school and find a way to educate them yourselves.

I spent yesterday taking down my tree and phoning people.  I spoke to parents and children and so this morning I have some thoughts about this thing we are calling home school. 

1.  It's hard.  

2. Something is better than nothing.

3.  Don't compare your child to other children.  Even teachers, who are forced to do this by the government prefer to focus on whether the child is living up to what they are capable of.  

4.  If you are tempted to compare then look for good ideas and remember that you are not seeing the meltdown that child had because they didn't want to write anything.

5.  Use what your school provides, if you can.

6.  A good school will have thought about how to make it easy for you.  

7.  The internet is panicking too.  Be patient with it.  It suddenly has another 8.89 million devices (that's just the children not including teachers and all the parents who are now having to work from home) attached to it between the hours of 9am and 3pm.

8.  Have a timetable but be flexible.  This is something teachers are experts at.  In school, the internet can drop out, kids can hit a brick wall and you have to change your plans.  This isn't a failure.

9.  Do a little and often.  Don't try to catch up on every maths lesson the day before the children are going back to school.  That will be too painful for everyone.

10.  Remember that they are your children and most of their learning has been down to you anyway. 

11.  Let them follow their interests.  Everything can be a learning opportunity.  

12. Let them have some brain breaks.

13.  Expect a lot but be chilled if you don't get it.  This is one of the hardest things for teachers.  We always plan more than the children get through because it would be terrible to have under prepared but it takes years for teachers to learn not to be stressed out by not getting through everything.

14. If the work the school hasn't provided for you isn't working, do something else.  There's the BBC and YouTube and worksheets on the internet.  You can get maths and english workbooks from essential shops.

15.  Helping around the house or just being quiet can be valuable learning experiences.  

16.  If you are overwhelmed by all the things you could do, you are not alone.  There is too much content out there.  Slow down, breath and pick something.  Anything.  See point number 2.

17.  Reward and explanation works better than threats.

18.  Rewards can be  very simple things like, "if you do this work, we can go for a walk after."

19.  Getting outside when you get stuck is the best thing.

20.  Children don't work well when they are hungry.

21.  Children are hungry when they don't want to work well.

22. A tummy ache can be a tummy ache or an excuse for not wanting to work.  A tummy ache can mean they are hungry or need to go to the toilet.

23.  Children love spending time with you.  

24.  Children hate spending time with you.

25.  Children are contrary.

26.  Yesterday was just day one.  If you failed at day one then there are many more days to come.  

27.  In the last lockdown it took about three weeks for people to find a routine that worked. We only started Zoom quizzes and clapping for carers on the Thursday after three weeks.  Keep trying, keep adapting.

30.  Nothing works better than saying, "I'm going to count to ten. 1,2,3"  No one ever gets to ten, thankfully.

31.  Books. Books and more books. Reading is the best.

3/. It’s hard.

That's my epiphany.  Home schooling is hard.  Be kind to yourself.