So we’re back to homeschooling. We did this before in Spring 2020, and here we are again. This time I tried to just stick to them doing exactly the work school sent us home and trying to get all of the day’s work done on the day it was for. It didn’t work.
I can’t teach year 4 and year 5 simultaneously, and I certainly can’t do both of those AND look after an almost two year old who never stops moving and shouldn’t have to be left alone to play or watch tv for longer than necessary.
So we’ve changed things up again. I’ve had a look through the curriculums and I’ve decided I’m going to teach the big guys at the same time. The same lesson, tailored to them. No waiting for other students to catch up, more one on one than at school. I’m also doing lesson then break then lesson etc to allow me to take turns with Baby O and the big dudes who all need my attention during the day.
LESSON PLAN
We’re going to take our ‘Core’ block first thing. This would be either English, Maths or Guided Reading and SPaG. Guided reading is basically reading comprehensions – reading a text and answering questions about it. SPaG is spelling, punctuation and grammar. At school they do one of each core lesson every day. At home, with more one-to-one, I’ve decided to do core every day but not each of them! The boys are both above expected levels, and we will work on making sure any places they are struggling will be worked on the most.
It’s really hard to get the right balance of learning and enjoyment, so that the boys actually want to do their work. We found in the week that we did exactly what school set, that there was too much time pressure along with the baby, so I’m going to try to spread their knowledge out and make sure we do a little of everything. I know that we also will be using those core skills in our other lessons.
As I mentioned previously, we’ve got blocks of lessons with blocks of free time in between, so that I can spend time giving proper attention to Baby O in between the lessons. It also means the boys come back refreshed to each lesson.
Then we move on to reading, duolingo, purple mash or scratch. A and M don’t really enjoy reading aloud so it’s only in twice a week, as they’ll be doing lots of reading in the other lessons. Both have just downloaded Duolingo for learning languages on their phones. (Yes, they have phones, they’re our old ones, without SIM cards, for games and YouTube and things like this!) A is learning Japanese, M is doing Spanish. They both enjoy it and have been doing it in their own free time!
Purple mash is a website we were introduced to by the boys school, they had been doing homework on there. It has so many different types of activities, all educational, some more fun and some more academic. Scratch is another website from school, they’ve been using it for coding and other computer programs. M used it a few days ago to make a person move around a map, and it was actually kind of difficult! Myself and G both had a go too, and it took me back to my primary school days but we used a Roomba type thing on the floor instead!
The next lesson on the schedule is one of our non-core lessons, either project work, history, science, art or geography. Both the boys have different interests. One says they don’t like geography and history, the other says those are his favourite! Going to be difficult to make it fun for both of them, but we’ll manage!
After lunch, they get to have their screen time during Baby O’s nap, which is good for me so I can have a little calm lunch break. Then we have our last lesson of the day, life skills, PE, computing, project work or free choice. These ones are more vague, and subject to change based on our weekly topic if we have one.
RESOURCES
So, let’s talk resources! My style is a bit haphazard. I come up with a weekly topic, or the children do. This week and the next, it’s going to be ‘Warrior Week’. Then I look for resources that fit with our topic. I’ve re-subscribed to ‘Twinkl’, our primary school uses this website for its educational resources, and I think it’s well worth the money for a subscription. I used it last year during the previous lockdown when we had to do home learning. I use the core subscription, which currently costs £5.29 a month.
Of course, this means we use a lot of printer ink and paper! We try to only print what we need, and use computers to look at the resources on screen if we don’t need to cut them out or write on them etc.
I also use Pinterest to gather ideas, for topics, for activities related to them, sometimes worksheets etc. I find it really helpful for practical activities for kids of this age, like science experiments, topic related crafts etc.
HOW DO I ENTERTAIN MY BABY ALL DAY AND HOMESCHOOL?
Well, during the free time breaks in the big guys schedule, I plan to do activities with Baby O. I’ve made a schedule for him for home learning days too, focusing on things he enjoys, skills he’s currently trying to perfect, and other age appropriate activities and activity types. Take a look:
TODDLER SCHEDULE
The above schedule shows the full day, except for our morning and evening routines. Our morning routine starts from around 7-7.30am. We all get up, both adults and A shower, we all get dressed, and have breakfast. Then we begin our schedules. The times are approximate, more of a guideline than a set rule.
First thing, he has screen time, while we get the downstairs rooms tidied and cleaned, to keep him out of the way. We tried having him help, he mostly just takes out every toy we find and put away, and hits people with the broom! 😂
Active play – this will be playing in the garden, or if the weather isn’t great, playing indoors. Indoors active time might be playing with balloons, doing an obstacle course, dancing, practising other gross motor skills, like jumping – he’s still at the stage where he sort of stamps and bends a bit but doesn’t actually leave the floor. It’s so cute!
Fine Motor – at the moment he’s really interested in posting things into other things, like coins into slots cut into a cardboard box. He also loves puzzles, which are also scheduled in, but I’m sure they can also be included here.
Speech – Baby O is starting to speak, he says a lot of things, most of them are not fully formed words, but we can recognise so many distinct word sounds. So I want to practise his speech every day, and he enjoys it. We point out things and name them and ask him to repeat them, we read books with real photos and name the items. We really like the ‘100 words’ book series.
Puzzles – we have So Many Puzzles in our house. He absolutely loves puzzles. Leave him to do free play and he will inevitably end up with puzzles at some stage. We have a carrot size sorter, a few different shape sorters, a butterfly with shaped pegs and discs with shaped holes, some wooden jigsaws with his favourite characters and probably more I can’t even remember!
Singing or reading – Baby O loves his actions songs right now. We’ve been doing them for so long, he used to love them at baby group back before COVID, and now he’s started being able to do the actions by himself too. His favourite is by far ‘Wind the Bobbin Up’. He does the cutest little action for winding the bobbin up, I don’t know what it is, but it isn’t winding, and it’s hilarious! We also like ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ which has helped him learn his body parts, and ‘Wheels on the Bus’.
Sensory/Creative – in this section of the day we’ll try our sensory or creative activities, lots of which will be messy I’m sure. Painting, water play, colouring and loose parts play. There are lots of ideas for this on Pinterest!
Matching – not just matching, also sorting and categorising. For Christmas we got him a set of Montessori matching cards with animals. Each card has a photo of an animal, and there is a corresponding little plastic animal that looks like the photo. He hasn’t got the hang of matching any of them yet but he enjoys playing with the animals and looking at the cards and naming the ones he knows.
Counting or colours – these are some of the skills Baby O is just starting to master. He enjoys it when we show him how to count things, everything really! He’s also shown interest in colours. He started this when we read ‘Wow Said the Owl’, which we must have read three plus times every nap and bedtime. This book shows you a colour per page and where the little Owl sees it in the story. Now we point out colours to him often and he seems really interested.
HOW CAN THIS WORK FOR ME?
Now, of course, what works for one kid won’t work for another. What works for one family doesn’t work for another. These are a rough guide, a little idea for anyone who doesn’t know where to start. For the big guys, I looked at their curriculum and the basic area of knowledge they are supposed to learn about and noted them all down. I planned our schedule after a few goes of trying out different versions and figured out what wasn’t working for us and how we could improve it. This is why there’s lots of breaks. Better for the kids to feel refreshed, and better for me to take turns between them and the baby. I planned the baby’s schedule in a similar way.
I looked at the homeschooling schedule and noted all the free time breaks and broke them down into 15 minute intervals as I think that’s what baby O’s attention span is at the moment for any particular activity. I wrote down all of the things I thought he should do, activity categories and fit them in based on how often I thought he should be doing them. For me, the core activities were speech, reading, singing, puzzles and active play. The others were extra things I wanted him to do, or that he also enjoys.
You could take this method if you have multiple children of different ages, and fit them together in a similar way. Or it may just help you to see what other people are doing during lockdown. My big guys are clever, and generally don’t struggle with their school work. At school, they used the higher level resources, and on Twinkl they have differentiated resources and the boys both do well on the toughest level.
They also do well with a routine, while vague and subject to change, they need to be scheduled in otherwise they just hang about and fight and mess around. They need a routine but not pressure. I think routines help kids to know what to expect and also value their free time more. The baby also needs some expectation so a basic schedule works for him too. We don’t use a schedule on the weekend, except for meal and nap times which are rough times, not exact set times.
I hope, if you’re here, this helps you come up with some ideas or reassures you that you don’t have to put so much pressure on yourself or your kids. Do it your way, if you feel your kids need more or less structure, more or less of the core subjects, you get to set your schedule at home!
I’d love to hear from you, let me know how your own schedules look compared to these above, and also, any other action songs I can introduce to my toddler, I’d love some ideas!
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