Teaching my kids at home with EdAlive Central

My social media feed has been full of useful learning-from-home resources, photos of children happily being taught by smiling parents and fun stories about alternative learning options – baking to learn fractions, for example.

So I decided that it was time for our family to adhere to social distancing recommendations and jumped on the learning-from-home boat with much excitement. “How hard could it be? I have a university degree, so surely I can teach primary school kids” I thought smugly. The kids’ teachers had sent home packs full of work for them to do – spelling words, maths equations, writing activities and provided heaps links to different online resources. No doubt the teachers would have done things differently if they had have had time to properly prepare, but to my untrained eye, I thought it all looked pretty straightforward.

Our first morning started smoothly enough; no need to rush for the bus today! We made a plan to start lessons at 9am. And weSarah Dasey relaxing did. By 9:05am, I realised that this was not going to be easy! I am not a trained educator. I went through the work pack and realised that my daughter, who is in year one, was not able to undertake the tasks without constant assistance. Within minutes my one year old was screaming, climbing on the desk and scribbling all over her sibling’s work. I’d sent my son, in year 6, to his room to work independently because one extra child at the dining table was not useful and my poor daughter was in tears because I was feeling overwhelmed at the enormity of the task and letting my frustrations out on her. It was a little after 9 in the morning and mummy was ready for a stiff drink!

Social media lied to me. Teaching children is not easy and I needed help (shout out to all the amazing teachers out there!).

Child using Maths Invaders Online at home happilyThat’s when I jumped online and discovered EdAlive was offering a free 5 day trial of some of their programs. I’d previously heard great things about them, but hadn’t signed up as my kids’ school doesn’t use their products. I immediately signed up. Within minutes the kids were all happily playing Maths Invaders and saving our world through the power of maths! They were happy and they were learning and I no longer wanted to drink at 9am.

We’ll all do some yoga together after lunch so I have something to post on social media, but for now I am going to enjoy the peace, and rest easy knowing that my kids are getting some top notch education while we all navigate through these challenging times.

Personal Account Shared By Sarah, Mum of 3.

 

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