Difficult times are ahead of us all with both parents working from home and now schools closing so kids are to be ‘homeschooled’. Luckily in this day and age, there are plenty of online resources to support families and here we’ve broken them down by Key Stage and subject. There is some overlap and in the end we’ve added some extra resources so it’s worth skimming the whole article as well as the level you need for your kids.
First of all, here are our 6 top tips to making this work for everyone:
1.Set a timetable
Secondary schools are already setting the expectation that pupils follow their school timetable, studying and submitting school work as allocated online throughout the day. This will help you manage your own workload too.
2. Study Sharing
Families are going to be in each others pockets a lot more than even summer holiday time. Worst, the weather and the pandemic is going to make a lot of us housebound. So for those people who don’t have symptoms and have passed the self-isolation recommendation why not buddy up with another family with kids in the same class as yours and take it in turns to ‘host’ home school? The kids will enjoy it and work well together and it gives everyone a break. This often works well with older/younger kids where the oldest can ‘mentor’ the younger one through their work. It’s a learning experience for everyone.
3. Break time
Breaks are as important as studying so make sure the kids know when they can take a break and what the parameters for the break are. Can they use a device? Have a snack? Facetime a friend(s)? Be clear and open.
4. Exercise
We’re all going to be at home snacking and working, it’s really important to make sure we all get some exercise too. We’ve outlined a few activities that are free and easy to access.
5. Screen time
Screen time doesn’t need to be your enemy - see below for some ways to reward/engage your kids in an educational way.
6. Enjoy
This isn’t a situation any of us could have anticipated but it’s happened and we’re here. The kids are going to bicker, it’s going to be tough to keep going and no-one knows when it’s going to be over. What we can control though is how we go into this. Let’s try and enjoy each other’s company and use this time as an opportunity to engage as a family. This situation can be as good or bad as we make it - let’s try and make it good.
RESOURCES
KS1/2
Schools will let you know what their expectations are but at the simplest keeping the kids reading every day, practising their timetables and writing (making lists or writing to an isolated relative) will help maintain the basics. Arts and crafts or baking together is always a fun way for both parents and kids to engage and learn, they may not be ‘lessons’ but you can still learn a lot doing them. Of course, our Conversation Cards also provide a fun, structured way to have topical, meaningful conversations. Here is a list of online resources that can support your child’s continued development
Maths
https://whiterosemaths.com/homelearning/ - practical online maths lessons
Prodigy Maths - https://www.prodigygame.com - Is in U.S. grades, but good for UK Primary age.
English
Art
The Artful Parent - Good, free art activities
Red Ted Art - Easy arts and crafts for little ones
The Imagination Tree - Creative art and craft activities for the very youngest.
Toy Theater Educational online games
Coding
Blockly - https://blockly.games - Learn computer programming skills - fun and free.
Scratch - https://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/games/ - Creative computer programming
Geography
National Geographic Kids - https://www.natgeokids.com/uk/ - Activities and quizzes for younger kids.DK
Find Out Activities and quizzes
Science
Mystery Science - https://mysteryscience.com - Free science lessons
Learn and Earn - children love to earn a certificate or badge and there are so many options out there. Why not use this time to earn a Blue Peter Badge which gives you discounted entry to attractions across the UK?
Blue Peter Badges - If you have a stamp and a nearby post box.
Crest Awards - https://www.crestawards.org - Science awards you can complete from home.
iDEA Awards - https://idea.org.uk - Digital enterprise award scheme you can complete online.
Paw Print Badges - https://www.pawprintbadges.co.uk - Free challenge packs and other downloads. Many activities can be completed indoors. Badges cost but are optional.
Multi-discipline:
Here are some useful websites that you can access for further work –
www.twinkl.co.uk/offer - they have organised that parents can have a month’s free access. To access this offer just enter the code when prompted UKTWINKLHELPS
Oxford Owl for Home - Lots of free resources for Primary age
Teaching English Language:
British Council https://www.britishcouncil.org/school-resources/find - Resources for English language learning
Exercise:
It’s really important to keep the kids fit and active, whether that’s by building an exercise routine into the day, or better, getting them out and about
Jo Wicks, The Body Coach, is launching a daily HIIT workout at 9am every weekday for kids - Tune in to ‘PE with Jo’
Cosmic Yoga is also free on youtube
Once you’ve got the kids away from their devices, it’s well worth the effort, get them into the great outdoors and occupy them with activities like these https://naturedetectives.woodlandtrust.org.uk/naturedetectives/ A lot of these can be done in a garden, or if you can get to a remote forest location.
Screen time
Screen time isn’t necessarily a bad thing, there are so many excellent TV and Film adaptations of classic books why not give the kids (and yourselves) a break you can feel good about and get them watching any of these:
Films
Lucy Maud Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables
E Nesbit - The Railway Children, 5 Children and It
Frances Hodgson Burnett - The Secret Garden
PL Travers - Mary Poppins
J M Barrie - Peter Pan
A Ransome - Swallows and Amazons
There are also plenty of educational videos and even audio resources you can access for free.
Video:
Crash Course Kids - https://m.youtube.com/user/crashcoursekids
Audio:
Cbeebies Radio - https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/radio - Listening activities for the younger ones.
Additional Resources:
Coding for everyone
Scratch https://scratch.mit.edu/explore/projects/games/
Sololearn https://www.sololearn.com/
W3schools https://www.w3schools.com/ HTML
Coding Python.org www.python.org Python programming
https://www.codecademy.com/ Another coding website
Hour of code https://hourofcode.com/uk/learn
Teaching Packs
http://www.teachingpacks.co.uk - Learning packs to print out, there are LOADS of them and each pack can be tailored to different learners.
BBC Learning - http://www.bbc.co.uk/learning/coursesearch/ This site is old and no longer updated and yet there's so much still available, from language learning to BBC Bitesize for revision. No TV license required except for content on BBC iPlayer.
Futurelearn - https://www.futurelearn.com Free to access 100s of courses, only pay to upgrade if you need a certificate in your name (own account from age 14+ but younger learners can use a parent account).
We hope you enjoyed this blogpost, if you have any other suggestions please do add comments below.
