Helping your primary age and lower secondary age child during the Covid-19 school closures
We are all about to enter unchartered territory with the possibility of long term school closures.
It’s a daunting prospect for parents as they need to balance having to work from home while trying to ensure their children do not fall too behind in their learning.
I am sure schools have worked incredibly hard to put remote learning packages in place for pupils but if there are some key tips from me, it would be these:
- Get your child/children to do at least two hours of academic work a day – an hour of maths (including tables practice + a solid learning unit) and an hour of English (to include spelling and comprehension).
- Children should also have a ‘reader’ and spend up to an hour reading every day. I would also encourage parents to have storytime with their children and read to them every day from a children’s novel that is just above their age range.
- Introduce fun activities that have a learning value – there are plenty of other workshops and games that can be used. Board games are excellent as they often involve counting and strategy (Monopoly etc) and computer activities can be an excellent tool for improving hand-eye coordination and problem-solving.
- Embark on a project. Projects are excellent tools for researching and more in-depth learning. For example, this could be a project based on a scientist or a great writer. You could task your child with writing a biography of a person, focusing on their most important discovery or contribution to the world. This would then give the project more direction.
- Some form of routine-timetable would help and I would include an hour’s outdoor activity wherever possible.
There are many resources out there – both books and online. We have a series of workshop books for children from Years 3 to 7 https://aepublications.co.uk/shop/
More than anything your child will need your reassurance and love during these very difficult days. You have always been their main teacher and you will continue to be so.