Home schooling - anyone else had a bit of a shock??

[Khriss]

12 hours ago, Squaredy said:

My wife and I have been home schooling our two boys (7 and 9) since a week before lockdown, and I will be honest we are pretty shocked.  

 

We are shocked at how easy the work set by the school is.  We are shocked at some of the things our kids do not know (youngest did not know months of the year).  We are shocked at our eldest boy's handwriting.  In general I am wondering what exactly the school do with our boys all day.  Our boys are apparently both top of their class so what the hell do the other kids know or not know?

 

Anyone else come down to earth with a bump?

That IS poor -  close pal of mine took her 3 youngest out of school early cos of C19 an they ain't going back ! Eldest one was at University so return in September. Remember my school days as pretty shit.   K

[trigger_andy]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

If it sounds like I'm saying "oh isn't my child amazing!" I should add that she's also a headstrong, petulant little toerag for a not inconsiderable amount of time most days!! ?

Im 100% the same. With two girls aged 19 and 16 who are also very head strong, petulant medium sized toerags who are smarter than me.  

 

I told the 19 year old that the word Pussy, used in a derogatory way is not in fact a dirty or bad word. Its a misconception many make. The word, as Im sure you're aware is an abbreviation for the word pusillanimous. Which means showing a lack of courage or determination, timid. Anyway months later she called me a Pussy for one reason or another and I gave her a right telling off til she reminded me of what the word means.  Cant win with Women. And now I have another two little girls. ? 

[Squaredy]

4 hours ago, trigger_andy said:

I do agree, the modern education system sucks, its why we take such a active role in their education. At every parents meeting we ask the teachers what we could assist them with at home. Thankfully my Wifes the smart one out of us so she's been very studious with the kids. As shes also doing her Degree from home she's been able to help our 16 year old with maths and Physics, something Id not have a clue in. We also pay for additional tuition where needed to get them the best possible grade in their pre-lims and exams. It might sound very draconian but they have had instilled in them all their lives that learning can be fun and the older girls both have a career path they wish to go down and know the grades they need to hopefully get into their chosen field and University. 

Yeah that is what is needed take charge and don’t leave it all to the school.  We have already decided our kids are hopefully not going to local state secondary but we are now feeling a little disillusioned about primary as well.

 

I am sure there are some great state schools around, just not near us!

[difflock]

Despite the relative shit-hole of a village it is located in, our local Primary school is absolutely excellent, and also spotlessly clean.

[Ty Korrigan]

My kids are just 4 and 6.

I think a few months of disturbed schooling won't write their futures off.

However, in the home environment, my wife cannot seem to settle them into a learning routine.

Without the energy burnt at school and after school club, our house rings with cried and shouts often until 11pm. 

I take them out when I can but I'm still working, busier than ever not having my usual team around me.

What does amaze me is not what the kids do not know but what the adults do not know.

I've recently quoted for taking down 'pines'

I made the mistake of trying to educate the client in my cheerfull pedagogical manner, only to be curtly told that I was wrong, these were pines because they had needles, cones and clearly smelt of pine.

We will see if I get the job but I'm not optimistic.

Another recent discussion on a FB gardening page became weirdly heated when I suggested that knowing the difference between a horse and sweet chestnut was as important as knowing the difference between a daffodil bulb and an onion.

Several posters had been claiming that they or others had always eaten horse chestnuts, others having no knowledge of the game of conkers and others accusing me of arrogance and bullying for correcting people who might never have been privileged enough to have seen a horse chestnut before.

I'm surprised because I didn't grow up in the countryside but on the edge and could tell the difference between the two at 3 years old having walked with my father in the local woodlands for both, to eat and to play and plant.

I'm not trained in school teaching methods but I can and do show my kids the flowers, fungi, leaves, animals and recently the stars and satellites, hoping to catch sight of the Starlink.

I plant bulbs, capture insects and let my 6 year old think she is controlling the mower.

I try to teach them the importance of re-cycling and the pleasure in dropping bottles down the recycling hatch to hear them break below and of course I read in English most nights I've the energy for it though I often fall asleep before they do.

   Stuart

 

 

 

[Stere]

I had some prehaps misplaced idea that the French general public were less ignorant than the  British about nature seeing how there woodlands and countryside looked to be managed etc maybe that isn't true?

[Rough Hewn]

I had some prehaps misplaced idea that the French general public were less ignorant than the  British about nature seeing how there woodlands and countryside looked to be managed etc maybe that isn't true?

The French.....
Less ignorant?....
Than....
Than...
Than....
No I give up.
[emoji13][emoji12][emoji106]

[Squaredy]

The main thing I am trying to teach my kids whilst they are off school is something they are certainly not taught.  Indeed neither was I when I was at school.  I am trying to get them to learn how to teach themselves.  Yesterday they taught themselves (with a little help) how to play chess.

[trigger_andy]

6 hours ago, Squaredy said:

The main thing I am trying to teach my kids whilst they are off school is something they are certainly not taught.  Indeed neither was I when I was at school.  I am trying to get them to learn how to teach themselves.  Yesterday they taught themselves (with a little help) how to play chess.

Great idea! That will build good cognitive skills. I was taught by my great grandfather when I was about that age. 

[Ty Korrigan]

10 hours ago, Stere said:

I had some prehaps misplaced idea that the French general public were less ignorant than the  British about nature seeing how there woodlands and countryside looked to be managed etc maybe that isn't true?

It was an online group for ex-pat Brits who hot a head of steam up over my suggestion that knowing one chestnut from an other was normally learn't in the playground not as an adult.

However, it was a French client who got sniffy about being corrected over their conifer ident. 

Stuck up sticky beak snowflakes seen to be on the rise these dark days of Brexit, 5G, pandemic and looming recession.

 I dared correct my own wife who actually believed that the islands shown during the weather forecast on France 3 where actually just off the West coast of France.

She had never noticed that France 1 put those same islands on the right of the map.

I informed her they where on the other side of the world. (guadalupe, reunion etc)

Tonight she is sulking.

 Stuart