Many of us are homeschooling our children at the moment - and when we say ‘homeschooling’, we use the term very loosely because, for some families, elective home education is a planned choice.
Homes across the UK (and the world) have become ‘schools’ overnight and not through choice. Added to that, you may be juggling working from home, therefore feeling like your head’s about to fall off.
To quote Joseph Hellett, the headmaster from Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School in East Sussex, in his open letter on Facebook:
‘’It is absolutely not possible to facilitate distance learning with a primary aged child and work from home at the same time. The very idea is nonsense.
If you're trying to do that, stop now. You can certainly have activities where your child learns, but your focus is your job, and survival. Again, unprecedented. Stop trying to be superheroes…
...If children could all learn new concepts without specific teaching, we wouldn't need teachers.”
This is such an important message.
No one should feel under pressure to replicate the classroom. It’s just not possible. What you can do, however, is arm yourself with optimism and realism. Make the most of what you have, given your personal circumstances and the home that you live in.
It can help to take a step back and consider all of the senses for your home learners. Try asking:
What can you see?
- Place photographs of happy times, places and people they love around the house to boost them. Who makes them smile the most?
- For most children there will be tasks set on laptops/tablets at some parts of the day to varying degrees depending on their age and ability. Check:
- Can they see what’s on the screen clearly?
- Is it on a flat surface?
- Light of any sort directly over a screen is likely to cause glare - experiment with home-made shading/laptop hoods.
- Put a plan for the day on display. Not so it can be rigidly adhered to necessarily, but because the brain likes to know what it’s doing and why. Setting these expectations can, therefore, be helpful. Why not encourage the children to create their timetable using pictures and/or words?
- Try to work and play in areas with natural light. We’re a nation of DIY lovers, it's true, but you don’t need to give your house a makeover. Consider simple things like letting in natural light and air; moving furniture to make the space easier to use and decluttering where possible to make room for your ‘classroom’.
What can you hear?
- Depending on the task and the learner, some background music can be motivating and uplifting. However, only have the television on when you’re actually planning to watch it. Otherwise, before you know it, you’ve got a child hooked on chat shows with their entirely wrong versions of ‘show and tell’.
- Find a room/space in the house that’s relatively free from noise. It could be used for relaxation/timeout or for completing a task that requires focused concentration. In our house, this is my eldest daughter’s bedroom - other bedrooms adjoin the neighbours’ house and our walls appear to have been built from papier mâché.
What can you taste?
- Food glorious food! Hands up, who’s already got a biscuit belly in lockdown? Me too. I’m not going to lecture you about what you and your children eat, but notice energy levels after eating particular foods. Try and start the day with a decent breakfast and avoid eating late at night. Your brains will thank you for it.
What can you feel?
- Stimulating our senses is a great way of stimulating the brain. What different textures can your children touch at home? For example: water, dry pasta, flour, uncooked rice. Yes, it will probably get messy, but it will only be temporary and children of all ages will love it.
What can you smell?
- Erm, if this is an issue, revisit what you’re eating...
