Once it became clear that schools were going to be closed for the duration of the Lockdown, I was dreading having to teach my 7 year old things that were part of the Scottish national curriculum (as opposed to exciting stuff like Supernovas). Things like using connecting words, adding money or times tables.
But do you know what?
I was absolutely right to dread it.
When I was feeling optimistic it seemed that it would be easy to engage my child, who is eloquent, confident, forthright and emotionally aware. Something like the one in the picture above. That was the hope.
But all hope, all illusions have been shattered after my first 2 hours taking over from my partner's sterling efforts.
This is more like my daughter now:
I don't understand it.
I enthused, cajoled, hectored, threatened and finally begged in a vain effort to get her to do something, anything, just put some sort of coherent mark on the paper.
So, while she's in her room playing with her toys instead of 'measuring things with a ruler', I decided to see if there are any useful resources for others like me.
First off:
BBC Bitesize for Scotland has some learn & revision programs for P2,3 & 4s. It might not tie in with whatever the teacher is doing but it may be a way to engage your child with learning before tackling the really tedious stuff like spelling 'potato'.
SumDog is a really good site & app to help children with Maths, Numeracy, Spelling & Grammar for ages between 5 & 14 and curricula in each of the four nations. You need to create an account and it costs about £4pm or a more limited version is free. However, schools also have access for free while the children are off so double check with your school.
If you have oodles of money or are seriously considering home schooling as an option, then there is Wolsey Hall Oxford Home Schooling College. With fees from £450 per subject per year, you are looking at £1350 minimum, but you get books, specialist tutors and a student progress manager. Now say SumDog is expensive!
If your worried that your own educational levels may not be up to scratch then the government has just launched The Skills Toolkit to take adults from basic numeracy up through to programming for data analysis. Most of the earlier courses seem to be about 24 hours of learning.
I could give you more links but these are the ones that I would trust (well, I haven't actually tried out Wolsey Hall) and they cover the fundamentals. I am now going to go forth and educate my child, come what may ...
... I may be gone some time.
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