We have been home for about four weeks now and fallen
into an easy going school routine. Right in the beginning my youngest two and I
sat down together and agreed what a school day should look like. I let them
take the lead and they ended up with the following simple routine:
- Sports/PE
- English
- Lunch
- Maths
- Science or topic work (set by school)
- Creative
- Arabic
We kept the routine the same every day, so that they
could move from one to the next independently if I was busy or in a meeting. We
don’t stick to it too strictly, and my view is if we do 2-3 things a day, I am
happy.
The lessons consist of the following things:
Sports/PE
We tried Jo Wicks PE in the beginning, but my older
girl is lazy and wasn’t keen.
They both love Cosmic Yoga, so we do this sometimes
Our favourite is badminton which we can play inside
and ball skills, which is basically passing the ball or dribbling around
obstacles. If it’s cold outside we just play badminton in the living room.
English
At the moment, this is reading, with some reading
comprehension, such as telling me about what they have read.
The next step is to introduce short book review.
Otherwise spelling homework from school or grammar and
handwriting with a stack of books I found in a £1 shop.
The girls also really like Karate
Cats on BBC Bitesize.
Maths
Again this is from the £1 shop books, but I have
some ideas around games with money and telling the time (thanks to my sister
who is a teacher alhamdulillah).
The girls also like Karate
Cats maths lessons.
Fraction garden by Darling
Science or topic work
This is pretty much set by the school via their
Class Dojo app and is around one theme for a few weeks at a time. The girls
will complete tasks and I take pictures to send to the teacher via the app.
BBC
Bitesize have some amazing lessons across all subjects and ages
Creative
This is everyone’s favourite and the girls will
suggest different things everyday: play dough, painting, junk modelling, paper
crafts and collaging. This is also sometimes things like cooking or gardening.
We have a box each for play dough, chunky beads for jewellery
making, paper crafts, paints and colouring pens and pencils. So it’s easy for
them to take one out and then put I back when they are done.
Because our recycling isn’t being collected due to
corona virus, but being added to the main rubbish collection, I save clean bits
in a big bag in one corner of the kitchen. They take things like loo roll tubes
and empty cereal boxes to make things from, whether a school project, an idea
of their own, or something they have seen on a YouTube tutorial and want to
try.
Jewellery making
Towel teddy from a YouTube tutorial
Arabic
This isn’t going so well. The girls were having two
lessons a week online, I had to send more time that the teacher practicing every
day and it was costing me lots. I have decided to suspend lessons for now and
hopefully when things get better, they can join classes at the local masjid. They
hired new teachers for the girls just before lockdown and they seemed amazing,
so I am hopeful insh’Allah.
For now, it is a hit and miss process and a learning
curve for all of us. My priority is for them to be occupied, feel like they are
achieving something and to stay happy insh’Allah.
Older Kids
With my older children I have some respite because they
all log on online to register attendance and then get on with lessons set by
teachers. Luckily my oldest is sensible and keeps n top of her work. The boys
are a bot more work and I spend a lot of time waking them up in time to register
and attend some lessons. It helps the school will call now and again to tell
them off. My oldest son has GCSE’s next year, so I am worried about how much he
is missing, but keep cajoling and reminding him to log on and keep up.
How are others doing with
their children’s learning journeys? What works or doesn’t work for you? What
would your best tips for others be?
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