To The Accidental Homeschoolers
If I’d known at the beginning of 2020 that I’d still be teaching my kids now – I probably would have looked into rehoming options.
But this reluctant homeschooler has developed a love of it – and here’s how.
I want to be honest. I’m no Disness Princess, to be frank, by the end of most schooling weeks my teaching style is definitely more Ursula inspired.
However, my kids are happy and healthy – they’re developing a love of learning and their extra months at home have allowed them to develop through self-led play and exploration in a way that simply wouldn’t have been possible within a rigid school system.
If you’re struggling with remote learning here’s my cheat system:
Don’t try to do as many hours as they would at school. A couple of hours of quality home learning is definitely comparable.
Let the children decide what they want to learn about then fit what you want to teach them into what they’ve already set their brains on. For example, do they want to learn about Big Foot? Great! Read a book on Big Foot (you could use an app like Epic). They could then create a poster about what they’ve learned about the world’s favourite Sasquatch. Then they could measure their feet and investigate the difference between their shoe size the footprints that people claim to have found [38cm for anyone interested!]. Then they could whip up their own salt dough and make footprints.
Go on a field trip around your 5kms – print off a scavenger hunt and see how the conversation develops.
Get messy and mucky with art – never underestimate how inquisitive a child will become when armed with a paintbrush. Don’t forget in real school they clean up – so they do at home too.
Cooking and baking is a science experiment and maths lesson rolled up into one delicious baked good.
Learning life skills is an essential part of becoming a decent human being. If you use this fact to get your kids to do your laundry whilst you look on with your feet up – more power to you.
Most importantly, coming through this with your sanity intact and your relationship with your children preserved what’s imperative. If that means the television is responsible for the majority of homeschool then you do just that!!
If this helped you please share with anyone else who might need to hear it
Charlie xx