With the news that schools were shutting their doors to all but a few children across the UK many parents are now facing the idea of home schooling. Like many others, our two children will now be learning at home for the foreseeable future.

There are lots of incredible parents who are facing this head on. Colour coded timetables, baking and craft activities, the kitchen table converted to a classroom. However if, like me, you will be continuing to work while your kids are at home then you might need to take a more realistic approach. Here is my ‘home schooling while working from home’ plan. I hope there are ideas in here to help others.

First the disclaimer… I am not a qualified teacher, nor have I ever worked in a school. I have worked for many years teaching in a university so I know all about lesson planning, and as a librarian I love a bit of research. I’ve put those together to come up with my plan for how I can run a home school while continuing to work.

When is a home school not a home school?

I’ve looked at lots of information over the past few days to gather ideas. I have seen one view being shared repeatedly, and often by teachers. As a parent you are not now expected to be fully home schooling your children. Teachers have qualifications and experience behind them, those who choose to home school full time will have their focus on that role. For those who are trying to juggle having kids at home while continuing to work it is simply about doing your best. Try and give them some learning and educational activities, spend time together as a family. Stay home, stay safe and stay sane.

1. Plan a structure

My first port of call was for us to develop a timetable. I started by asking the kids to describe a typical day at school and them set a structure around that. We have agreed they will start at 9:15am and work until 3:30, except on two days when I will be free in the afternoon and so they will finish at 2pm instead. Within their day there is a morning and an afternoon break and a 1 hour lunch.

Our school have been brilliant at setting up plans for how they will support the children remotely. Each day the class teacher will upload some learning activities to a OneNote document for the class and the children will work on that. The teachers will be available to help via email during the morning.  Based on that our morning timetable will focus on doing whatever tasks the teachers have set.

The afternoon is for independent learning and some more creative tasks. I want the kids to have plenty to fill their days without being too structured. Schools are often forced to focus on key subjects like Maths and English, so at my home school we are going to broaden our horizons a bit.

We have agreed our timetable but will revisit after a week or so to see if it needs changing. We have printed it out and each child has a copy on the wall in their room.

2. Start the day right

Our school day starts at 9:15, however from 9am the kids are preparing for their day. They have the freedom to wake up whenever they choose and we will have breakfast once they are up. They can then chill out, watch TV or do whatever they want until 9. For the 15 minutes before they start their day they must get dressed and ready for the day. They will tidy their desks ready to learn, get any equipment they need and fill their drinks bottles. This little burst of activity gets them from lounging in front of the TV to being ready to learn. 

3. Snack attack

As someone who works from home regularly I can confirm that being shut in your home with food can lead to constant grazing and general overeating. I’ve seen so many people on social media talking about how many snacks their kids get through in a day stuck at home. I don’t think the intention is that we come out of social isolation several stone heavier than when we started. Going food shopping every 10 minutes to stock up on more snacks is also not ideal.

One way to keep this under control is to have a box for each child with their snacks for the day. They can choose what to eat when, but you keep the total quantity under control.

 4. Lunch date

We have a one hour break in the day for lunch. At school children would eat and then spend their time outside getting fresh air, topping up their vitamin D and burning off some energy with friends. For our lunch breaks the children get involved in preparing their lunch, making their drinks and sandwiches. After they have eaten they can use their lunch break however they choose.

We have a jar of lunch break ideas and we will add more to them as we go along. Here are some suggestions:

Get all your board games out into an easy to access collection so they can easily find a game if they want to play.

Go for a walk (if you are all well, and have places to go that are not busy)

Play in the garden

Design a circuit training course

Do some yoga

Have a nerf gun fight

Play hide and seek

Play musical statues

Have a mini disco

Play “Would you Rather”

Call a friend or relative

Join in with Joe Wicks on his PE lessons and kids workouts

5. Get prepared

There are a huge range of resources online where you can access learning and educational activities for your children. Below are the ones I have collected so far. If you, as a parent, want to get ahead and plan some activities then there are some brilliant sites packed with resources and handouts for you. A few I have found so far are: Twinkl, Oxford Owl, Khan Academy, Mrs Mactivity, Classroom Secrets and TTS.

6. Find resources online

Here are some of the online sites where you can find learning resources:

English

Pobble365 is used by teachers for English. Pick an image and follow the prompts for story writing. Our school also uses Spelling Shed for spelling practice.

Maths

Times Tables Rock Stars is something our kids use in school anyway. School have set them up so they are also able to use the same login to access Numbots too.

Computing

I’m taking the opportunity to teach the kids some basic skills like using email and MS Office products as those skills will always be useful. As well as basic IT skills there are lots of programming sites for them to access. Two examples are Scratch and Blockly. Try Code.org  for a Star Wars theme coding experience. Tinkercad is a 3D design site with introductory lessons and projects. If the kids are spending time on computers then learning to type better would be a great skill to practice. Typing Club teaches touch typing.

Science & nature

National Geographic’s website for kids has loads of educational material. As well as some Maths and English, their primary resources section covers science, geography, history and culture. Crash Course Kids have lots of science video on their youtube channel. Climate Kids is a NASA initiative looking at weather and climate.

All rounders

Toy theatre has games and puzzles for maths, reading, art and music along with some games and puzzles.  TedEd provides video based lessons on all kinds of topics, they have now launched TedEd@home to support parents teaching their kids at home – sign up for a newsletter to receive daily lesson plans for different age groups. The Kids Should See This is another site full of videos for kids on all kinds of subjects. DK Find Out has facts and quizzes on a huge range of topics.

Virtual tours

While I was researching this post I also came across a lot of links to virtual tours that would be great for teaching kids about places all around the world. I found so many I have created a separate post just for virtual tour ideas.

7. Make a home library

As well as all the incredible resources available online you will no doubt have some educational books in your home. Look around bedrooms and bookcases for any non-fiction books you may have, as well as any activity books like word searches. Collect them together in one location so your children can access them easily. They could pick a book at random for some reading time or use them as part of their research into a topic.

8. Independent Learning Ideas

For the afternoons the children are going to focus on learning about different topics. They can then write up what they find in any way they like. They can use the internet or books in the house to find some answers. They can write up their answers on paper, type them up in word, create a PowerPoint presentation or draw a poster.

I have produced a list of prompts and ideas for them to research and put the ideas into a jar. They can pick out a topic idea for their work and I have also given them blank slips of paper to write their own ideas on to add to our jar. My focus with these was to look beyond the core Maths and English and help them learn about the world, history, science and a few more light hearted ones.

Topic examples

Research a mythical creature – what was it called, what did it look like, did it have magical powers?

What are the phases of the moon? What is a lunar eclipse? What can you learn about the first moon landing?

What do you know about the solar system and the planets in it?

Find some amazing animal facts – the biggest – the fastest – the longest life…

What was Hadrians Wall? Where is it? What can you find out about life at Hadrians Wall

Who were the Aztecs?

Research one of these famous people: Tutankhamun… Ada Lovelace… Alexander the Great… Anne Frank… Boudicca… Mother Theresa… Neil Armstrong…  Tim Peake… Queen Victoria… David Attenborough

Find out about these famous historical places: Pompeii… Machu Picchu… Great Wall of China… Taj Mahal… St Paul’s cathedral… Acropolis…

What are the seven wonders of the world? What facts can you find about each of them?

Find 10 amazing facts about Lego.

What can you find about these Greek and Roman legends: Hercules…. Odysseus… Pegasus… Poseidon… King Midas… Arachne…

How many capital cities can you find out about? Which country are they the capital of? Can you find any interesting facts about them?

9. Mix in some creativity

As well as all the learning I want to make sure the kids have time to be creative. After all crafts and creativity are a part of our normal life. I’m putting together a box of craft supplies and easy craft activities. Once I have a list of ideas I will blog about them.

10. Remember the reading

We have added two half-hour slots in the day for reading, at the end of the morning and afternoon. They can read anything they want – fiction or non-fiction. It’s a time to chill out, get away from the computer screen and their desks.

There will be successful days and days to forget on our home school journey. I’m sure we will learn a lot along the way and I’m going to keep an eye out for new resources. Does anyone else have any ideas or sources to recommend?