If you heard a collective groan across England on January 4th, it was the sighs of parents who found out that schools would, in fact, not be opening after the Christmas break. Almost a year on from the first lockdown, despite the tier system and Covid vaccines being slowly but surely rolled out, it felt for parents – and children – like being back to square one.
Holidays, eating out, browsing the January sales in person – those all felt like reasonable sacrifices to make. But going back to homeschooling your kids, especially if you’re trying to actually get some of your own work done from home, too? Goodbye, Dry January.
Of course, it’s not that we don’t love our kids, or want to keep them healthy and safe – but parenting and teaching are two very different skill sets, as last spring’s homeschooling taught parents across the UK. Arguments over whose turn it is to use the laptop, monitoring that they’re *actually* doing work rather than watching Disney+, trying to organise a healthy-ish lunch between Zoom calls – it’s no wonder that homeschooling during lockdown can lead to tantrums – from both parents and kids. Fortunately, we’ve learnt some lessons from the first lockdown and with a few items from our edit of everything you need for home schooling, the next few weeks will hopefully be a little bit kinder to us.
The basics of pens, pencils and paper are a given for home schooling, but there are a few well thought out, practical purchases that both you and your kids will appreciate. Our round up includes Glamour’s editor in chief (and mother of three) Deborah Joseph’s must-have for this round of home-schooling – desks from Argos for each of her kids. After sharing the kitchen table with them during the first lockdown, giving them their own work areas is already a game changer in her household.
Other purchases to make the transition back into homeschooling that *little* bit easier include these child friendly headphones for them to follow any online lessons (whilst you Zoom) and a count down timer to keep them focussed for the amount of time required – allowing you too, to get some work done. Plus we’ve included a reward chart to motivate your child as they get through another day out of their routine and away from their friends. As for your reward? Well just leave our edit of the best wine subscriptions here.
