How is everyone going to cope with effectively home schooling?

iammumtoone

MIsslayed thanks you for sharing.
Unfortunately my son is at secondary school I only hope they are going to be as understanding as the primary schools but I fear not. At my sons age they are probably expected to self motivate and get on with the work even if no parent available. I am sure that even children at secondary are not all self motivated let alone children that need that extra help. Its going to be a difficult time for all. 

Savvy_Sue

But again, whatever age, your son will not be the only one who is not self-motivated and does not get on with the work. Honestly. 

We are nearly at the Easter holidays anyway.

Cut yourself some slack. There is no point making yourself ill. Do what you can. Concentrate on your well-being, his well-being, and let the worksheets gather dust unless he WANTS to take a look. 

theoretica

Another thing I see happening is families teaming up, people who can't do their work from home helping out with child care for those who need it.  It isn't as socially distant as each family alone, but fewer people to potentially share germs than school.  I can see this might be more difficult for your son's particular needs unless just the right person is available, but could you find a different volunteer to take on the shopping at least?

Savvy_Sue

another point to make is that I believe he is early secondary (year 7?) and all this yeargroup are being affected the same way, and I'd expect the ramifications of catching up to go on for some time after schools re-open.

If he was 6th form and wanting to go to Vet or Med school, then yes, I'd worry if he couldn't be self-motivated and apply himself. But right now, I'd love him, love yourself, and get by. 

If it's any help, I know quite a few home-schooling families, and they are as daunted by this situation as everyone else - they're used to meeting up, going to libraries, galleries and museums. However they do their home-schooling, this is new for them too. 

rach_k

What does your son like doing?  

If you can't get him to sit at a computer and go through work set by the school, whether that's because you have no PC available for him to use or he refuses, do something else that he does like and pick out the ways in which it's educational.  Pretty much anything can have an educational component.  Cooking/baking = maths, board games = logic, watching TV on mute with subtitles = reading, running up and down the stairs = PE, watch videos of museums = history, write letters or emails to his friend or family members = English!  Even if he's doing something utterly mindless, get him to keep records of how long he spent doing it and draw a graph or chart of time spent, or write you a letter explaining why it is good for him to do it (it used to be called 'writing to persuade' in my day)!  I'd keep a record of it and then if school says anything when they're back, you can show them that the time wasn't wasted.

My children are in primary so it's a little different, but it is accepted by the school that they can't rely on all children having access to the internet on a device they can work on.  Sometimes there's no internet at all, or it's only on a parents' phone, or there's one computer/device for a family with 4 children.  If you have no computer for him, you have no computer for him and they can't argue about that.  

Bear in mind also that teachers spend years learning to be teachers, then do further training in how to teach children with additional needs.  They don't expect parents to be good teachers, not because they think we're dumb but because they know it is hard.  Just do your best.  Honestly, there are going to be children who are sick, parents who are sick, families are going to lose loved ones.  Just get through it the best you can.  

Fireflyaway

Try not to be hard on yourself. You are doing a great job and there is only so much extra you can do. I think the general idea is that there is some element of learning and structure going on so that kids don't get bored and out of the habit of learning or fall too far behind it this goes on for ages. Actually if your lad focuses for 30 mins twice a day he may actually learn comparatively to if he were in school all day but being bored or distracted. Tap into his interests. Does he like history or animals etc? Print out some worksheets for maths or look at BBC bitesize website. Select a book to read. Follow some online physical workouts (apparently there is a well known guy doing this every morning for kids. I forget his name...). Even watch short YouTube videos. You often find really funny engaging videos on loads of subjects, even songs like the horrible history ones or the periodic table song! Funny but you still pick up stuff. Don't pressure yourself to be ' teaching' 24/7. If your lad is safe and happy and learns a few new things along the way, you are doing great!