Lockdown learning

 

 

 

 Well who could of predicted that we would be hit by a pandemic and made to stay at home. 2020 will certainly be going down in history for this and the effects it has had across the world. 

                                       

The changes that have affected parents everywhere, is the closure of schools. We often were told over the lockdown that we were "lucky" because we home schooled, so things didn't change for us. In some respects this was true, we already had programmes set up online for learning, there was already an element of structure for learning in our home environment and we had lots of resources in our home. In this respect we were ahead of the game. On the flip side we had lost our favourite way of learning....exploring the world around us and being free. One of the benefits to educating at home is going to the quiet parks (because everyone is at school) , visiting museums, attending meet ups, exploring new places etc. Suddenly one of our biggest resources for learning was gone. 

We were stuck at home like everyone eles. On top of this we still had to do our jobs without the support of grandparents for childcare. 

From this we discovered that as a family we work well together. Me and my husband tagged teamed work and childcare and my eldest was put on furlough, which was a God send. She was able to help us with childcare and brought a new young brain to our home learning. We made the most of our 1 exercise a day by getting on our bikes and discovering the immediate area around us. It's amazing how many places are on our doorstep that we had never even been to. We are extremely lucky to live where we do and are surrounded by lovely places. We discovered tiktok. This was great fun to do as a family and we made many videos. We also found new ways of meeting up with friends and family by doing zoom quizzes. This gave us all a chance to get creative and we had some very unique quiz rounds. 

                                          

There was one big discovery we made during lockdown. 

Two years ago when we decided to home educate Violet we talked about our younger son joining her at home. At the time we felt he was well supported and learning well at school. There was no need to change anything for him. He wasn't completely happy at school but we felt, with his additional needs, that was the best place for him.

When schools closed in March we suddenly had our boy at home learning. He was thriving from the 1-2-1 we were giving him, even if it was just 20 minutes a day. He started asking us lots of questions about the world and we got to see how he learns and where he was in his learning. 

Dawson loved being taught at home and didn't want to go back to school. He has now joined Violet and, with the support from the family around us, he is excited to not be going back to school. 

We are not the only parents to do this, since the start of lock down the increase in home educators is huge. 

2020 will be remembered in different ways by different people. Some people have unfortunately lost people to this awful virus, some people have really struggled with being isolated and keyworkers have had to do their jobs in very unpredictable times. For us it's the year that brought us closer as a family, made us appreciate the time we have together, reminded us to slow down and not run at 100mph all the time and, most of all, the year Dawson started home educating. 

 

To all parents out there that have survived lockdown whilst trying to teach at home, 'well done'. No matter whether you done 2 hours, 10 minutes or no sit learning, your children would of still learnt over the past few months. You have kept them protected, safe and happy. Life is a lesson and I reckon all kids will look back on 2020 and remember it as the summer they had lots time with their family and no school.

 

How do we learn??

Many families have a different approach to home educating. I haven't met any two families that home educate the same way.
When I started our journey I was desperate to find a lesson plan, or make a schedule to structure our learning. I was looking for guidance from Google, Facebook groups, instagram, blogs etc to know how to home school.

I wanted someone to tell me what to do!!!!!

I was quick to realise that there was a reason I was getting nowhere with my research and that was because every parent, and every child did things differently.
Once we looked at our own lives and got to know how Violet learnt, we slowly began to find our feet with home educating and created the learning to suit us. It has taken a while, and no two weeks are the same.

Home educating isn't about having 6 hours of lessons a day and making sure we fit every piece of the curriculum in our week.
Children don't need a plan to learn, if you give them the space and freedom you will find they are naturally inquisitive and want to learn about all sorts of things.
There have been studies done showing us that we don't need a learning plan to read a book. If we fill a childs surroundings with  literature and story telling they will naturally learn to read all by themselves.

I thought I couldn't teach my children to read because I disliked reading.  When I was younger school made me read the most difficult, boring and none inspiring books, which put me off wanting to ever pick up another book. I have since learnt that I love reading books, as long they engage my interests. If you fill your child with opportunities to read, whether that is reading book, role playing stories, researching something that interests them, then they will naturally learn to read in their own time.
Whether it is when they are 4 or 10 they will do it in there own time without judgement from others. In other countries they don't start any formal learning until children are 7, in this country they have guidelines telling us what they should and shouldn't know from the age of 3.

Learning on their own

Violet came to us a few weeks ago telling me that she wanted to play the piano. We have one in our house that mainly collects dust. She researched and found a style of learning that inspired her and with all her time spent practising she was playing beautiful songs within a week. We just let her run with her interest and passion and 'voila' she can play the piano.
Similarly, Dawson came and told me that he wanted to know more about tornados, we watched documentaries, films, you tube clips, got a book from the library, drew pictures and made a tornado in a bottle. He loved every minute and learnt lots because he wanted to. We were guided by his interest and ran with it.

We do have times in the week where we do sit down, structured learning, mainly because we are starting to study for G.C.S.E's, but there is plenty of time to freely learn whatever she wants to.

It's a bit of a leap of faith in hoping that children will learn if left to their own devises. It has been a learning curve for me!
But I have come to realise that they have a huge thirst for knowledge and they want to learn about the world around them. It's amazing to watch there curiosity teach them as they thrive in all aspects of their learning.