I never really expected I would ever find myself in this situation, but with the worsening crisis around covid19 and the increasing numbers of infected people every day, I have made the choice to take my kids out of school. A choice which at this point is not endorsed by the government or the education department or even their school for that matter.
But why?
I've done it for a number of reasons:
- I work from home so I have the luxury of doing it (which also means social distancing is more effective)
- Hubby is working from home indefinitely
- I'm an ex teacher
- So many activities have been cancelled at school
- social distancing measures around keeping students 1.5m apart are ludicrous
- my son has chronic asthma
- FLATTENING THE CURVE
So...let's go look at what I'm doing:
I've seen a multitude of pretty timetables online that people have developed for homeschooling their kids, but I'm not that kind of mum. Instead, I'm doing literacy and maths, punctuated with physical activity like Cosmic Kids yoga, jumping on our trampoline, swimming in the pool and just dance.
My kids are in Year 2 and Year 4 so I'm finding for subjects like history, geography and science we can do a year three unit and it works really well. Also as my daughter was in a ¾ composite last year, I'm doing units that she hasn't done before.
For art, we are relying on youtube, but will also be doing some crafts as part of the two units we are doing: Pirates and the world around us. We have started with Pirates (mostly downloaded from Twinkl- who are currently offering a free month) but supplemented with some resources I had from when I was a teacher. We are then going to move onto a unit about the world around us. I have also signed up for the free month on Teachstarter and have downloaded their packs for Years 4 and 2.
Breaking up the day:
9:00 start with yoga to concentrate and get everyone active
9:20 literacy or maths (when their brains are at their best!) swap which goes first each day see above for where to get ideas
10:00 activity (be it planting seeds/ baking/ making lunch/ cooking dinner/ preparing snacks
10:20 literacy or maths
11:00 physical activity: yoga, jumping on the trampoline, swimming, just dance song
11:20 art/ history/ geography/ science
12:30 lunch (and free time)
1:30 creative time: drawing, building with lego, cross stitch, practicing piano/ flute/ recorder,
2:10 handwriting, btn, quiet reading
2:40 physical activity break
3:00 art/ history/ geography/ science
Resources:
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