Survival tips for Home Schooling (before you have to expel your own children )
Schools are closed until further notice and I’m not just referring to the Easter holidays.
In just a matter of days, parents everywhere have been served a new reality and a rather harsh reality at that.You can’t be blamed for feeling a little at sea ,cut loose in the boat that is home schooling, feeling a bit isolated and praying the ocean remains calm. Many parents, myself included, have had to quickly adapt to take on the mantle of teacher. Two weeks into this new job and many want to quit already and that’s not surprising really.
If you’re attempting to work from home and home school,the two don’t mix too well, as you may have discovered.Two weeks in and I think I’ve just worked out how to work effectively and be the teacher my tweens need, but not necessarily want.
Like most parents, trying to moderate screen time is a challenge, even in normal circumstances. With home schooling, it feels screen time has increased ten fold. All of my sons’ lessons have been posted to Google Classroom, all have meant spending hours reading and interacting with screens and technology. All schools have a portal for home learning and all work is on a screen. I don’t consider this a good thing, just a necessity to get the information out to multiple households. Even my tweens agree, holding a pen and writing on paper is better than typing and tapping on screens all day long.
There are quite a few lessons where the teacher’s instruction is to ‘print’ off the workbook or work sheets.
As parents, we all know how much printed material is sent home on a weekly basis from school in normal conditions, whether it’s for homework or communication and now we need to print more.
Some people still have a home printer, most don’t, but as some of my friends discovered this week, what happens when you run out of ink or paper and the overall print quality isn’t great ?
As and when the subjects allow, I’ve been downloading all the worksheets, art sheets and printing the lessons for the week ahead from Printt app.
A great app to use in this scenario, simple and easy to use and fast delivery to your door the next day.
We all use apps for banking, shopping, socialising and Printt app makes lesson planning really easy and all of it can be done from your phone screen.
I’ve been sharing the link with all my social media networks , many relieved an app like this exists.
Everyone has been impressed by how easy it is to use and how quickly it’s delivered.It’s much more cost efficient compared to home printing too. Around £6 to print as many pages as you need including delivery.
As well as looking at this printing solution to balance screen time usage,I’d like to share some additional survival tips to get you through the coming weeks. None of us know when we will see the light at the end of the Covid 19 tunnel and school may be out until Summer.
Mapping out time is essential, especially as all the days seem to blur into one at the moment.
Make a timetable and encourage your child to create it with you.If they have input they are more inclined to stick to it. Colour code it, print it out and reward them when they manage to complete a full day.
Create a reward chart, print that out and stick it on the wall.
These things can be created in the holidays ready for back to ‘home school’ in a few weeks. Save all the documents you create ready to send to Printt once all the planning is done.
Over the holiday if you’re looking for ideas to keep children occupied, get them to draw a picture for family and friends they may be missing. Capture it as a photo and then print and post it directly via Printt Delivery.
Alternatively, get them to type a letter to Grandma and upload and post directly to her via Printt Delivery. Staying safe at home with no need to go to the post office. We all love receiving letters in the post too.
You can not replicate the school day.Short focussed sessions are a lot more successful and remember, one on one sessions can be more productive.
I printed out some word searches and maths riddles which I do between lessons with my sons.
Reading from paper instead of screens helps information to be retained and definitely helps the mind to focus more, colouring in colouring sheets is really therapeutic.
Children won’t fall behind and everyone is in that same boat and the most important lesson is to stay healthy, happy and sane.
Printed booklets will act as great revision aids. We are collating a journal that we can show the teachers when we return to school too.
Read with your child whether they’re 5 or 15.I’ve printed lots of poems that we read together. Again encourage your child to write a poem and send it via Printt Delivery to a friend or family member.
It’s a fact that the human brain retains information from paper more effectively than screens.
Plan ahead, find the teaching resources and print them off using Printt app for the week ahead.
Being at home all day is tough on everybody.
Adapting to not seeing your friends is tough for you and your children. Use FaceTime ,Skype, hangouts to organise regular catch ups with family and friends. Also send them letters, drawings and poems via Printt app and Printt Delivery.
Stay positive,a happy mum means happy children. You’re doing the hardest job in the world at the best of times let alone through this pandemic.
Get them off the screens as often as possible by getting activity sheets, colouring sheets printed in advance.Have a selection of workbooks at hand for each subject.
Look forward to back to school in a few weeks time and enjoy the lesson planning.
We are all learning new lessons after all.
