Lockdown Homeschooling Resources
I find when a lot of things are changing around me that it’s helpful to keep things simple. I am someone who loves to research, I like options, variety and change (that I’m in control of lol). In the current climate though, I find keeping it simple helps me feel a lot more calm.
In light of this, I thought I would share a couple of the apps that I like the most for homeschooling as one good app per subject is really all we need for now.
For phonics and reading for my P2 I really like ‘Pocket Phonics’. It has lots of free content and if you want to upgrade, the books are a good addition though always better if you can sit with your child while they read these.
For spelling for all my kids I like Spelling Shed. It’s £2.99 at the moment and I really like that I can add in tailored spelling lists with their words for each week and that it also has the key stages spelling lists. The graded difficulty in spelling the words also makes it good across the grades.
For math we use ‘Hit the Button’. It’s £2.99 to buy the app or free to use through safari or chrome etc. It’s better on a touch device though as mousing to the answer takes longer.
For language learning, ‘Duolingo’ is brilliant and has loads of free content. It includes writing in both languages, is an immersive method and has pronunciation incorporated. I like that you can set the daily learning times from 5 minutes up with the option to keep learning if you have ‘health’. It’s available as an app and on PC at this address.
The science experiments we have done so far have all been super easy to set up and if they don’t work, we figure out what went wrong and try again and I just say this is part of being a scientist :) this is a good website for some ideas.
My oldest who is in S1 is getting homework tasks through Show My Homework so I don’t need to source as many resources for her.
'Draw so Cute' on YouTube has drawing tutorials that all my kids enjoy.
And depending on the age of your kids, Cbeebies Mister Maker is a good source for craft ideas.
If you have toddlers, you might like ‘The Toddler’s BUSY BOOK’ by Trish Kuffner. I found them super helpful when the kids were younger. There are super basic ideas like ‘Wash the floor’ where you give your child a wet sponge (no chemicals obviously) and wash the floor together, showing them how to wring out the sponge. And some ideas you may not of thought of like ‘Wax Paper Art’ where you take wax paper, use glue coloured with food colouring to glue leaves you’ve gathered from the garden, stick the two pieces of paper together and hang your beautiful creation in the window.
Wishing you all the best with your kids through this time and that you’ll find ways to make this fun. May the tantrums be few and far between, the laughter easy and may your kids curiosity and creativity grow everyday.
Love,
Sofia
