One of my kids was a year behind all the way through Primary school until the last year where she attained just above average and suddenly her learning took off.

My kids aren’t at school yet but I’ve heard from other mums that theirs are totally different.
They are angels at school/daycare and demons at home. Why is that? Because at home they know they can get away with not doing what they’re told whereas at school or daycare, they have no choice but to listen.
I’ve recently been trying to get my two year old to learn via different apps on the iPad and sometimes she just gets frustrated and bangs on the screen. Other times she’s happy to go along and learn so I wonder what she will be like at school.

My daughter can’t do basic maths to save her life but I have been told she is progressing as expected which is teacher speak for we hope!

I am struggling, I ask my daughter to do a simple task and she whinges and cries for at least 10min, at which point I get exasperated, and one simple exercise takes forever. I believe though that at school, children are very different with their teachers to at home. Hopefully home schooling ends soon!

I think many truths will come out during home schooling – and more appreciation of teachers might be a result.

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  • • mom207052 replied
    • 12 Apr 2020 , 4:09 pm

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  Yes I completely agree

I haven’t had to worry about it this year. My eldest son has told me that he had to buy his 2 daughters a computer each, this was money they couldn’t afford, but he wanted to give them the best possible chance with their education. He told me that they won’t be going back to school for the first 4 weeks after school is due to start and this came from the headmaster at their school.

They probably respond better to their teacher teaching them than me – as they push the boundaries more at home.

As a teacher I can pretty much guarantee that a parent might say they want to know know if their kid is as thick as a brick but the moment a teacher hints at that, all hell will break loose.

I’m a secondary teacher and I would love to just tell parents the honest truth if their child is lazy, rude, etc but I’m too fearful of the backlash or blame so I opt to phrase things in a subtle way or with a positive spin to cover my butt. Parents can be pretty nasty and it’s quite traumatising when you find out the hard way.

It’s been hard home school as I am still working partner has been doing some home schooling our daughter hasn’t copedwith not been in a class environment
She has been trying she does struggle so I just said ok no history let’s concentrate on reading , spelling, maths I’m not going to stress and I don’t want to stress my child either at look at this way mental health is so much more important

One good thing to come out of all this is that teachers will be more appreciated and respected.

I am dreading online schooling when it goes back in VIC next week. Husband is living in a different house for isolation reasons so I am pretty much a single mum trying to work full time at home whilst overseeing education for the 6 year old and keeping the 4 year old entertained as well. It’s gonna be nuts!

It is a whole different ball game now.

My youngest is bone lazy with me at home and does the bare minimum required. It’s very frustrating but we’re getting through it and I”m looking at ways to encourage expansion and pride in his work.

i think also that kids are different with parents

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  • • Ellen replied
    • 08 Apr 2020 , 7:34 am

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  Yes they are !

How good teachers are at multi tasking!

I think maybe parents are underestimating how skilled teachers are in getting what’s best out of a child. You are their Mum and they’re not going to work the same way for you as they do at school. You have a different relationship and that’s special and beautiful and should be treasured. As teachers, we are able to teach kids at their point of need, scaffold tasks to make them achievable and know the curriculum inside and out so can support and extend kids much more easily than a parent trying to follow instructions at home. This is also an unprecedented time in terms of stress and anxiety across society which also does not make for perfect learning conditions. I don’t think your child’s teachers were lying to you, more they were taking a strengths based approach and valuing your child as a whole human being not just on the academic side. Plus they also have the training to support their academic progress

I never really thought teaching was a hard job but after just one week of doing the class work with my child I have so much more appreciation to them. They have the patience of saints. I’m so glad it’s now classed as school holidays in WA

I don’t think you can judge your child based on the work they are submitting or being asked to do at the moment given that almost every psychologist around Australia is saying that we are all in a crisis. Kids can’t learn in a crisis, they are treading water. They are trying to get back into a routine and make sense of this crazy world. Obviously no-one would compare what your child is doing now to what they would be expected to do at school if covid19 wasn’t happening and teaching was continuing as normal. I think cut your kids some slack and don’t worry about these things. In the end, raising kids who are happy, well balanced and kind people is the aim of the game.

I think these days they just keep pushing the kids through- they’re too worried about self-esteem. Sometimes I do wonder how my kids are in comparison to others, etc.