Engaging your child at home
During this period of school closure we know that it can be difficult at times for all of us to keep motivated. Sometimes the children may find the work set by their teachers difficult or you as parents are struggling to juggle: working from home, running a household and trying to support your children with their home learning. It is no wonder many may find this a little daunting.
We hope that the following information will help you in some way to tackle any difficulties you are currently having with home schooling. The school can always be contacted, through the Home Learner email (below), if you feel you need more support.
Home.learner@st-simon.kent.sch.uk
Anything you can do to continue keeping children interested and motivated to learn will have a huge impact on their experiences during this time and upon a successful return to school in the future.
If you are not accessing or able to complete home learning activities set by the class teacher, please do send us an update of what your child is learning at home. This will help us to continue planning and preparing for them when we do eventually return to school.
What if my child wants to do the work, but finds it difficult to focus at home?
Ideas that may help children to access their home learning:
What if your child is refusing to engage or finding the tasks difficult?
These ideas will develop skills for learning, but look like ‘play’:
Writing – make shopping lists, lists of things we can do after lockdown, write a story, keep a diary, write to a friend or family member, make a poster for the window, write clues for a treasure hunt around the house
Maths – make them play ‘shop’ or buy their own snacks with money you have made together, keep a shop receipt and get them to add up their favourite food, stand at the window and make a chart of all the people/traffic/animals you see passing by, play a board game which involves adding with dice or a card game which helps number recognition, measure things (how long is the….how many steps from here to here…how long can I balance on one leg for?), baking (lots of measuring and weighing), counting or sorting toys;
Technology – investigate the technology in your house and research how they are made, make a model of something with Lego, junk modelling, can you design a paper aeroplane that can fly from one end of the room to the other?;
Reading – read recipes, game instructions, signs on your walk, labels on things around the home, listen to podcasts or audiobooks and talk about them;
Geography – look at Google Earth, create an imaginary holiday and find out about your destination, investigate your local area on your daily walk, make a map of where you live;
History – Make a family tree, find out about a famous person you admire, ask a grandparent or elderly relative to tell you a story about their childhood, imagine you are a time traveller and learn about a time before you were born;
Learn new skills – Touch typing (BBC Dancemat), British Sign Language (You Tube), First Aid for Children (You Tube), Learn to play a musical instrument, Develop your art skills (visit online galleries for inspiration);