Lockdown Learning

I love my daughters, but being thrust into home-teaching my eldest whilst 37 weeks pregnant, despite having seen the writing on the wall several weeks earlier, was still a bit of a shock to my system.  Like a marathon I hadn't properly trained for, it arrived with a bang on 18th March when Kirsty Williams announced that schools in Wales would close their doors early for Easter on Friday 20th March ... but with no set return date. 

I'm a trained, qualified secondary school teacher, with a raft of experience in early years too ... but a 7yo and a newborn is a combination no teaching course prepares you for.  

This hasn't been / isn't homeschooling.  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  At best it's home teaching.  My daughter's teacher is still deciding the curriculum content, the tasks to be completed.  We're just bumbling our way through keeping her on some sort of forwards / upwards trajectory, hoping we've stopped her from going backwards over the past 4 months.  

Sometimes, motivating my 7yo to complete any of the tasks set is a challenge.  Just because she's fed up of teachers Mami and Stepdad.  The teachers are working like crazy, and it is in no way a reflection on their hard work that my lg's motivation has decreased as the lockdown schooling weeks have progressed.  On the contrary, they are working harder than ever.  That much is obvious.  When you're having to make a video of you reading a book to your class, upload it to TEAMS, and then explain the task(s) you want them to complete, you've turned a 10 minute story time with linked activities into a good couple of hours work, before you even start with the uploading the individual assignments.

I am exceptionally grateful for the effort my lg's teachers have gone to to try to make the material they set as accessible as possible ... and for understanding that some weeks, it's just not been possible to do any of it!  When you have a week where you give birth, another where you're readmitted to hospital, and a third where you move house, all in the middle of a global pandemic, something has to give somewhere.

I don't own a printer.  Some of the tasks have been impossible to replicate with me / my lg writing out the material by hand.  But we've done a lot.  Including decidedly Off-Piste webinars on subjects as diverse as astronomy, photosynthesis and Spanish.  Watched Horrible Histories.  Done woodwork, sewing, cooking and gardening.  We've abandoned all hope of following the PE suggestions in our garden... and focused on getting her on her bike, running, walking and generally moving.

We've set a rough schedule ... except it only happens in our house.  Learning time happens in the morning, when the 7yo is more amaenable to actually concentrating and doing any learning (and listening).  Afternoons ... generally are more random. Weather dependent and free form.  We've cross stitched and knitted. Made face masks. All teaching various skills that aren't part of a normal school curriculum. 

I've fed a baby whilst in video calls with teachers and Rainbows / Brownie groups. We've measured the baby. Drawn complex family trees. 

What school will be like when the 7yo goes back in September is anyone's guess at this point. But, it's probably not going to be school as we thought it would be. My 7yo is likely to have to get used to learning in a chaotic household. With homeworking, a mobile baby and online learning all crashing together in one place. It's going to be an interesting journey. But I will miss the extra time with my girls when we eventually return to 'normal' and they go to school / childcare so that I can work from the office again.