It's the Easter Hols! Hurray - except that you can't go anywhere, so all that's changed is that your child's school has probably stopped sending work home. Many parents are carrying on as if the holidays weren't happening, as unstructured time is even more confusing than the present normality. Without an easy way to ring the changes, it seems easiest to just postpone the holidays until we can all roam freely again.
With this in mind, we've been stockpiling FREE activities, resources, worksheets and videos for a range of ages of children and lots of different subjects. (If you've looked at the page recently and been horrified by the enormous list of things, fear not - they're now organised by subject!) You can do PE in your PJs, go to the zoo in your living room, and learn phonics at the dining table. Tablet-friendly interactive maths games mean even young children can learn independently of adults, and having stories read to them online means you might be able get on with making the supper. Or, of course, there are plenty of activities to do together and some that look too much fun to let the children do alone. (Salt dough dino bones may not be the best use of those dwindling stores of flour, but we're tempted. If you are too, check out ABCdoes' At Least 50 Fantastic Ideas To Do At Home.)
Our resources are richer in some areas (eg. science) and very poor in others - so far there are no history or language learning resources listed at all! If you've found some good ones please share, and we'll keep on adding all good things we come across. We're not expecting anyone to try everything, and most families will find just a handful of options they really like. But for each, that's going to be a different handful, so we'll give you all the options. Give the list to your children, and ask them to try them out, rate and review.
We're using the term "educational" loosely: some of these activities are just plain fun. And in seeking fun we have an expert's endorsement. Sarah Ockwell-Smith, author of many Gentle Parenting books, is in the same boat as many of us, with children at home. Hers are a range of ages, all the way up to exam age. She advises not trying to turn yourself into a teacher overnight, and emphasises both being kind to yourself, and enjoying the freedom from traditional schooling.
It's quite amazing what you can watch from home. With videos like ScienceMax (science experiments made a lot lot bigger), a virtual field trip to Mars or to The Tate Gallery, with Jacqueline Wilson as your guide, this way of learning ceases to feel like second best.
And this is a useful reminder - we have an incredible opportunity in the midst of this terrible situation. So from one parent to another, we exhort you to banish the guilt at not getting all the school tasks done, embrace the things your children are really interested in, and enjoy what you do end up doing. At the very least you may silence that nagging question you've had for some time about whether you ought to be home educating your child. If you learn that it's not for you, that's fine: as we've recently discovered, any learning opportunity should be celebrated!
See our Home Education page for resources, advice and more.