Homeschooling while working

The first week of homeschooling is nearly coming to an end. How did it all go for me?  I am a key worker but allowed to work 2 days a week from home so I'm currently writing this blog from home supervising the kids doing their 'walking to school' routine before their start their 'school' day. My husband is also a key worker but works at nights.

But how did I manage both homeschooling and working? How am I coping? Is it actually working?

They announced school closures last Wednesday. I initially was relieved that finally they have announced the school closing. However, the school said it could be until the next school term, my heart fell. I had to homeschool them and can't take them out!!!!!!!! Poor me and poor kids! After, silently raging at another hurdle that life has thrown at me (why can't my life be easy.) I'm a big girl so I wiped my tears and went to full on action mode. I went through the curriculum again and correlated it with what the kids were learning at school to design my own curriculum. This includes learning life skills and other things that school don't teach much but are relevant to life. 

How did I create our curriculum? I used the national curriculum framework on the government website and the learning resources uploaded on the kids's school website to draw a new curriculum from scratch.  I already have workbooks so drew inspiration from them. Thanks to twitter, I then came upon lots of free resources to make it more fun for the kids. The resources I used where:

• twinkl (use UKTWINKLHELPS to get 1 month free)
• K5 learning
• Primary resources
• Scholastic
• PuffinSchool
• Khan Academy
• Tynker
• British Science Week
• Literary Trust
• Outschool.com

The workbooks which I find extremely useful and very good are:

• CGP
• Bond papers
• Letts

I then made a timetable. It's not a strict timetable with times but a general one. The mornings are reserved to maths and english and the work is usually carried out on workbooks and worksheets which they can do independently without much input so don't need an adult input. After lunch, it is more interactive activities such as cooking, building things, PE, RE, etc....

On the days I work from home, I help them with their work, go through corrections and teach them subjects.

 I have found some amazing resources on social media:

• Captain Fantastic Entertainment on Facebook
• Cosmic Yoga Kids on Youtube
• PE with Joe Wicks on Youtue
• Free book resources both on Twitter and Facebook
• Some authors or popular artists also share their talents on their social media pages
• Housebound with Kids is a great group made up of parents/carers on Facebook sharing ideas

 It takes lot of time and patience to put all of this in practice.  What is coming ahead is going to be difficult on all of us but I hope it works this will help us keep all sane.

May the force be with you!!!!!!!