LIFE IN LOCK DOWN - HOME SCHOOLING

I cannot begin to imagine how difficult it must be for families with young children, or even teenagers for that matter, to be cooped up at home all day, every day for more than 8 weeks. With all schools closed it is now up to parents to home school their youngsters.

Apparently teachers are setting work on line and according to the teachers that I've spoken to, about half the kids are completing this work. However, it has to be said that the home environment must have a huge impact on how children learn at home.

I have two friends that to my mind are perfect examples of how home schooling should be done in the ideal world. Both are happily married and live in a house with a garden. One of my friends has a little girl who is 7 years old. The other has two children aged 3 & 5 years old. Both of my friends have husbands who have continued to work through the lock down process. That leaves my friends' to deal with the home schooling by themselves. And what a fantastic job they are doing.

Both of my friends' have devised a very structured outline to the Monday – Friday week that they do not deviate from. It goes something like this: Keep fit with Joe Wicks, arts & crafts, baking, working on a topic that interests them, (ie the 7 year old chooses a different country each week and uses the internet to find out different facts. My other friend seems to constantly be searching her garden for slugs & snails for a mini-beast project!), Reading, doing the on line work set by the school, going out for a daily walk or bike ride, etc, etc. And then at the weekends when 'daddy' is at home they camp out overnight in the garden or have family picnics in the garden.

To my mind these children are young enough to enjoy all these activities and I'm sure in years to come they will remember 2020 as the year when they spent happy times at home doing exciting activities with their families.

But what of the children that don't live in a house with a garden or have parents that are financially secure to spend their days creating memories for their offspring?

If you are a single parent that lives in a high rise flat with a large family cooped into a very small space how on earth is it even possible to live in any type of comfort, let alone even begin to teach your children at home. If say a single parent is trapped in a small flat with three or four children and has no idea where they are going to get the money for the next meal do you really think that 'home schooling' will feature high on their list of priorities? For these parents life is just a matter of trying to get through each day by whatever means are possible.

I personally think that by the time the children do return to school there's going to be a massive difference in their abilities. This in turn will result in teacher's having a much harder job than normal as they struggle to teach a class full of children who have all experienced lock down differently. How are the teachers even going to begin to assess what the children have learned. For example, some parents may have spent the whole of lock down pushing their kids academically, so much so, that these children will return to school, months if not even years academically ahead of their peer group. And then there will be the kids who, like my friends kids, have experienced a wide range of activities and learnt things about the environment that they would never have had the time to do under normal life. And of course there will also be the kids who have pretty much just sat in front of a TV for the whole of lock down.

It would seem that there are now a lot of adverts popping up on the TV telling parents just to take each day one day at a time. In these days of social media it must be awful for the parents who aren't coping, or who can't afford to keep going on line to buy stuff to keep their kids amused, to see what they perceive to be the 'perfect parent with the perfect children' popping up constantly on their Facebook or Instagram pages.

Life in lock down is hard for all of us but I have to say I am very grateful that I just have myself to think about. Constantly worrying about about your child's education must add so much pressure onto some families, especially if they never did very well at school themselves.

And to end this post, I'll just say, in the words of the latest TV advert: 'Don't be too hard on yourselves; being there for your kids is all that matters right now.'

See you all tomorrow.

Toodles.