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:

• Can they use headphones? Blocking out other background noise can sometimes help children to focus more on their task.
• Do you have pictures, photos, drawings or objects you can use to explain something they are finding difficult to understand?
• Set a routine and try to draw or set a timetable for the day – use a calendar, diary, post it notes stuck to the fridge…
• Make up or use familiar songs to indicate different times of the day or changes to the routine – ‘when the radio goes on, it’s the end of school work for today’
• Give children some structure during unstructured times – when they have finished work or you need some time to do your own tasks, give them a fixed set of choices e.g. “You have 1 hour until…..you can choose to play with playdough, play with Lego or do some colouring in”.
• Give children an opportunity to talk about their emotions and empathise with them – “I think that you might be feeling bored. I feel bored too when I have to stay in all day. Sometimes when I’m bored I…”
• Remember to let your child use different ways to show their learning if they need to – draw it, take a photo, make a model, type it up, let them talk about it and record what they say yourself.
• Give them access to ‘quiet area’ or have a quiet time during each day to help them to relax or switch off when they need to.

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);