End to homeschooling

So, we have had another two weeks of home schooling.  It hasn't gone well - within 30 minutes of starting on the Monday Tom was in tears, and I was almost in tears!  The cause...Biology!  I think his Biology teacher is from another planet.  His lesson was to learn about DNA, so he watched a video about the scientists who discovered it, learnt about the chemical structure of it etc etc.  Fine, all understandable.  He is then given an assignment, he opens it - has a photo of a strawberry, a potato and a mushroom.  The first question  - how do these plants reproduce?  What on earth has that to do with DNA?  It completely threw me too.   It was all to do with assexual reproduction - but how on earth is a 12 year old who has never heard of the concept supposed to answer questions on it??!!.  Of course it took us over an hour to do it - more like 2.5 hours.  Tom was in tears and I think at one point I was in tears too - from frustration more than anything else.  What I want to know is, how do children who have no help at home manage?  Next lesson is Design Technology which is also a nightmare,  certainly not one of Tom's preferred subjects - he still has trouble drawing a square, he has to drawn his dream house - floor plans, views from different angles etc.  He can't do that for toffee - so more frustration.  Luckily we were saved in the afternoon by History which was well planned, informative, and fitted within an hour's lesson - phew!

So all the wonderful karma we built up over half term died instantly and we were back on the gravy train of homeschooling, trying trying to keep up, do everything and understand everything.  Teachers still don't reply to Tom's emails or messages on Teams, which means that I end up having to chase all of Tom's queries.  It is almost as if he is invisible.  He submits assignment after assignment, but very rarely hears anything back - it is like it disappears into the ether.  Maybe they set the assignments to tick boxes on their sheets, they certainly don't involve the children in how they are doing, what marks they are getting, even if their understanding is on track - I just don't understand how that is good teaching?

Anyway, we were told the kids were heading back to school on March the 8th.  Last week, an email went out to all parents Tuesday morning with details of when the kids are returning.  Everyone got one, except us...we were told we should know by the end of Tuesday - nothing!  I write an email to the school, we get a call on Wednesday, Tom hasn't been overlooked, but they don't know why he hasn't got an email and they don't know when he should be returning.  How can that be?  I despair!  We finally got it last thing on Wednesday.  He's going back Tuesday at 11am.  They have to test all children as they arrive, so they have staggered arrival times Monday to Wednesday.

Tom is excited to go back.  I don't think he likes my frustrated approach to teaching.  I don't think anyone should teach their child, it is so difficult.  I find him frustrating and he finds me frustrating - not a great combination.  However, saying that, he has shown himself to be very conscientious and dedicated.  He hasn't moaned about the work or tried to shirk the work at all - he's done everything as best he can and he has completed every assignment on time.  He has received no encouragement from school at all - I think a weekly well done for completing all your assignments would have gone a long way!  Anyway, I couldn't ask for a better student, just wish we didn't get frustrated with each other so much.  I'm excited that he's going to have 1 hour lessons again, not the regular 2.5 to 3 hour lessons that we suffer from some subjects weekly.

Just to not hear him say 'well that's annoying' again would be wonderful - my heart sinks when he says that - it means he doesn't understand, something has gone wrong, technology isn't working etc etc.  It's a phrase I wish to never hear again.

Fingers crossed he doesn't get isolated - we will be taking him to and fro school again to avoid the bus.  Although the government said that if there is a positive test at school, pupils in the same class will then be able to take a lateral flow test every day and be allowed to stay at school if they test negative, QES aren't doing that - they are still going to do the mass isolations - oh joy!  

Let's hope his uniform still fits tomorrow!