Lockdown Homeschooling – How Is It Going?

Lockdown…. URGGGG another Lockdown. This is our 3rd Lockdown in the UK since the Covid-19 pandemic. This is, however, the first lockdown that Baby bear is in school and now doing home learning. I just want to note that before I continue I know we have the option to continue sending him to school and this is our choice to keep him home with us and I will explain our reasoning for keeping him home.

We have all been homeschooling for a week now, last week Baby bear had no set work from his school yet but we set him activities and tasks based off his homework he brings home and my knowledge as a TA and working with children his age. This was mainly to help get him into a routine of doing school work and to help keep Baby bear occupied while both myself and Daddy bear are working. It went well, Baby bear was excited to do his task and activities. I must admit I thought this homeschooling thing was going to be a breeze. At the end of last week, Baby bears school dropped us off a learning pack which included activity sheets, sheets to correspond with his online lessons and all other resources he may need (coloured pencils, glue stick, rubber, whiteboard and marker). I think this helped get Baby bear excited for home learning and show him what sort of thing he would be doing.

I must admit I was a little worried about how we would juggle homeschooling and both of us working but I knew we could make it work. I decided to make a chart of the 4 basic topics he needed to complete each day as a baseline for us and Baby bear to keep track of what he has done and what is needed to be done.

This week Baby bear started his 30 minute online lessons and work set by his teacher. Monday was an amazing day he was really focused on his online lesson, he did all of his set tasks and more without any arguments or fight. He got upset when I couldn’t access our online portal to upload any of his work for his teacher to see. After telling him I would upload his work when I could he seemed to have calmed down and he did another few activities he wanted to do. I thought that was the end of it until yesterday. Yesterday as a very different story to Monday. He didn’t want to focus on his online learning, he refused to do any of his work. I was working in the afternoon but if I’m being honest it wouldn’t have made a difference even if I was at home. I know it was only 1 bad day and this is all new for Baby bear but I don’t want this to become a regular issue and it was stemming from him feeling like all his hard work was pointless as his teacher couldn’t see any of the hard work that she had asked him to do.

So I decided to be that parent and email his teacher asking for advice and help. It may seem silly to some parents but I decided it was what I needed to do for my child. I explained how hard the day had been and that Baby bear had gotten upset because he felt like his work wasn’t being seen. I don’t think it helped that baby bear had got it into his head that he could talk to all his friends and just speak to them on their zoom call and that wasn’t the case. It’s hard on our little people and I honestly didn’t think it would affect him this much. Anyways, his teacher is amazing and I love her. She emailed me back explaining this is so different from what Baby bear is used to at school, they get 1-1 time with his teachers and its different for not only him but us too. Even though this is my career teaching my own child at home is different, no one is trained for this. No one is trained in teaching children during a Lockdown. She also said she would have a 1-1 chat with Baby bear this morning to try and reassure him and encourage him to keep going.

It worked, he wasn’t very focused on him online lesson. He wanted to get down, talk about everything and anything not related and just not focused at all. However, once his teacher had talked to him after his lesson he sat and did all of his basic tasks and a few extra ones before I headed into work. I know this is the start and we have a few more weeks left at least but have full confidence in Baby bear that he can do it and in us really.