I’m just another home schooling / working parent!

27th January 2021 / Posted by Impressions

My thoughts on lockdown

I think we’ve all had the same thoughts during home schooling and home working haven’t we?  Like the…..’Oh I should be doing more with him/her’, ‘I should have checked his maths (but I have no idea how to do irregular fractions anymore).’   ‘What the Holy crap is an expanded noun series?’ (Although I’ve nailed fronted adverbials now!)

Then there’s – ‘oh good he/she is now working so I’ll just catch up on Netflix/work/the dishes (the bloody dishes – never ending!!) Facebook etc’.

Then ‘should I be letting them on the switch at breaktimes’, should they/shouldn’t they be running round outside and OMG NOT ANOTHER BLOODY SNACK! (Take that to mean whatever you like – it could be me or him I was talking about!)

But I listened to Mrs White (the headteacher from Barnoldswick who wrote the letter that made the news today) on the Chris Evans breakfast show and it made me cry (and that’s a thing – anyone else get really emotional about – well more than usual??)

What she underlined in bold was this:

‘We know our pupils are safe, loved and cared for and that is the most important thing at the moment.’

I think that’s a thing most of us as parents can say we are absolutely nailing home schooling right now!

I was fortunate enough to receive a phone call from my son’s headteacher the week before last to say how fabulous they thought he was, what an effort he was putting in and what great work he had done.  The funny thing was, as proud as that made me as a parent it still left me thinking ‘I could do more’

What I have done with him though isn’t about helping him work out the answers (because let’s face it I haven’t a bloody clue what half of them are).  It’s more about the things I’ve learned from work.

  1. Prepare

Have your laptop set up and tested early. 

If you are doing a piece of work think about what you might need – is there something you can be reading about to help you understand.  Can we watch a You Tube video on this (all Hail the You Tube Videos!!)

  1. Look for Solutions not problems

Seth started out finding lots of reasons why something wasn’t going to work during home schooling.  If you always look for problems then sure enough that’s all you’ll find.  But if you focus instead on looking for answers – well… you may just find some

  1. Celebrating success

We made a big fuss of Seth when we got the phone call from the Head. (two big bags of Haribos)  We talked a lot about how he felt about it, how he felt that week had gone, how much effort he had put into his work. I wanted him to really understand it.  To link the celebration with the effort. We’ve got a range of gifts in our store, take a look here.

 

  1. Effort over speed

Seth is a typical boy in that he just wants finish his schoolwork quickly to get to his ‘screens’.  But he is quickly learning that it’s better to do something thoroughly.  To check his work.  To see if there is something else he can add.  And then we talk about (and reward) his effort levels!

 

  1. How to make tea

Well let’s face it we all have to learn this skill! And I’m so proud to say – he makes an awesome brew!  Good Lad!

 

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