It can’t be ignored, every school will be different in the type and scale of activities being sent for home education during COVID-19 lockdown. Every household will be different in their ability to complete work sent home by teachers working remotely. If your child is receiving work to complete, it would make sense to judge and prioritise the tasks your child can realistically achieve by themselves and what can be completed with you by their side.
Ask yourself what work will achieve meaningful outcomes? What work needs to be returned and marked by the teacher? What type of activities will benefit my child by having the chance to practice or develop those skills at home? For many single parents with young children, the answer may be to focus on literacy and numeracy.
You can also give yourself a much-needed break by letting your child enjoy the many free online learning resources that are available. Children will want to spend time online, so why not let them develop their digital skills with some fun and engaging digital learning activities?
Depending on the age of your children, you can look at online home education resources or websites offering free content during the lockdown. Many websites and companies are now sharing their resources, temporarily made free, in part, to assist with school closures. These include:
Brainpop: BrainPOP is a very popular site for home educators. The service supports core and supplemental subjects with engaging learning games, movies and animated content. Presented with great humour to make learning fun and exciting. Free access during school closures.
Audible: Offering a wide range of stories across six different languages available to stream and listen to for free for the duration of the lockdown.
Twinkl – This is a well-known resource for home educators across the country. The site is divided into primary and secondary school levels and the materials offered are in line with the current key-stage curriculum and special educational needs and disability (SEND). Access is free for the duration of the lockdown. Go to www.twinkl.co.uk/offer and enter the code: UKTWINKLHELPS.
Brave Writer: A great resource to keep your children entertained and encourage them to express themselves through writing, even if they are not a confident writer. Many of the activities here are aimed at helping children improve their creative writing skills and feel more confident about writing.
Kick-a-bout: 5-minute boredom busters for ages 3-5 (football themed).
WWT: The Wetlands Wildlife Trust offers children a wide range of wetland and nature-related habitats content to enjoy. Suitable for 5 to 11 years as well as older children aged 12 to 16.
BBC Bitesize: Offering UK school curriculum-based educational and homework help content for primary, secondary and post 16. It’s also helpful for home educated students as well as for those currently at home due to school closures.
By sensibly combining work sent from teachers, using free resources, with a few practical life-skills lessons, you and your children can grow closer to support and comfort each other at this time.
Remember this crisis will eventually be over and it would be nice to look back at the time spent indoors as time treasured together when you created many happy memories.