Home Learning Day with a Year 5 Age 10 Child

There seem to be two camps of parents on social media right now. Camp one is the parents who are not doing much school work. They are flying by the seat of their pants and sharing memes about children only missing a few days so far or filling their days with obstacle races in the garden and a batch of fairy cakes. Much of it is child-led citing their kid’s mental health is more important than academic work.

Camp two have highly structured days, with clear learning intentions. I can only write from my experience but if you are enjoying home learning, if your child likes school work and learning then that is ok too. We still care about their mental health. It has actually led me to question if children are really struggling emotionally, because yes they miss their friends (don’t we all), and yes they are of course sad at not seeing family and grandparents (I miss my mum too) but stress I’m not so sure.

I feel a bit like I can’t win at the moment as if I say I am enjoying my days at home then its because I am a teacher and it is easy for me. Except, I’ve never taught this age group, I don’t know their curriculum inside out, I am teaching subjects I have no or little knowledge off ( I haven’t done Maths since GCSE myself), but we are doing ok. My daughter has said that whilst she can’t wait to go back to school, it’s ok doing home learning because there are no distractions and she gets more done.

What does stress look like?

Stress builds over time and includes being more clingy, anxious, withdrawing, angry or agitated, bedwetting. Whilst a few children will be exhibiting some of these emotions, they were likely showing them before Covid 19. Children with additional needs including autism will be feeling overwhelmed. But for the majority of children, they should be coping just fine as children are naturally resilient. If your child is being exposed to too much news then they may be feeling insecure so I’d suggest only letting them watch age-appropriate news like Newsround.

So what is really going on?

Many parents though are struggling with home learning because they don’t know what to do and they are juggling paid work. I too am working, I’m self-employed and if I don’t work I don’t get any money. I have had to change my day significantly and I am often working until about 11pm. I have struggled to sleep as I go over in my mind what I need to do to keep all my plates spinning. However, lots of parents are also furloughed and just need a helping hand to plan a day. If you have a ten-year-old – I honestly don’t think that you can call making some cakes a Maths lesson. They are used to doing far more challenging maths than weighing out ingredients. Of course, they are life skills well worth doing, as is learning to sew. I’m not criticising spending time doing those things but they are time fillers as opposed to education. It is a great way to keep boredom at bay, much like my Boredom Busters Activities but it is not the same as doing academic work.

I feel for those parents with different aged children as it definitely gets harder the more you have. But again for many a routine will help. Therefore I thought I’d share a typical day with my 10-year-old and also share some of my favourite resources which makes planning our day easier.

Our home learning day

I have an expectation that Erin will be at the dining table, dressed, breakfasted, washed and ready to learn at 9.30. I also set up my laptop alongside her to be on hand for her and keep her focussed. Phones are put away.

We have a set of daily tasks which include the Bitesize Yr 5 Lessons which you can find here. If the work is too easy for my daughter she goes up to the next yr groups to see if it suits her better.

Then it is doing her spellings, with spelling shed and times tables with Rockstars. Both of these are school apps where she challenges and works to gain class points.

We use White Rose for Maths after it was reccomended to me by a maths teacher at my sons school. This has great video tutorials and worksheets, you can find them here, again I like that they are broken down by year group.

Erin then does a ten-minute test using one of the CPG books that I buy from Amazon. These are really well set out, come with answers and you can buy Maths, Non-Verbal. Cloze plus more. We use them as part of her 11+ practice but they are ideal for all learners. This is probably my top resource and cost about £6.95 each. It is one of the only paid resources that I use.

Erin can do these daily tasks in any order she chooses and she just ticks them off on our homemade planner at the front of her book. She likes to have structure and order and this provides a routine for her and leaves me free to just supervise whilst I answer emails etc. Having a degree of choice is important but it means that she does everything – so it is a limited choice really! There are also a range of resources suggested in this post home learning buys from Just Average Jen.

Breaktime

Once her daily tasks are finished she generally makes herself a a hot chocolate (life skill right there) and has a short break and move around the house.

School Work

We then work on any school tasks that have been set, including challenges set by her headteacher, this week for example it is writing a newspaper report. Erin has planned it and used Twinkl for her planning stages.

Lunchtime

At about 12.30 Erin stops for an hour when she is allowed her phone and she makes herself some lunch.

Afternoons

She will then continue any school work that still needs to be completed. Depending on the time we then do more creative things including Art, Geography etc. Will also do things that interest her which has been some tasks around the book we are reading. Again I get resources and ideas from TES resources these are traditional for teachers written by teachers, many are free although some are to purchase. I have used the free resources mostly.

I also use Teach It which has free resources like this good sheet on vocabulary.

We generally finish her academic work by about 3pm and she has a few hours free time for playing, colouring, chatting to friends online, and playing her games. It is then time for dinner with the family.

Bedtime

We then do reading before bed together, currently, it is Skellig and we have Anne Frank on order! When we read I ask her the meaning of words and ask for story predictions to encourage her critical thinking and use of vocabulary.

As you will see we have quite a structured day, which works for us. I plan and print off any worksheets the day before so that we are organised and it feels like we are in control rather than planning as we are going. This also ensures that we have variety in our day and I know what is coming up. The maths, for example, are areas that I know that Erin needs to focus on. This approach also gives me time to consider how I can explain it to her.

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