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Luckily my GS is only 3 1/2 but is sucking up education fast provided by my daughter and various teaching aids we are providing. Keeping touch by facetime has been hard but rewarding

Our little grandson is 3 so we send him little parcels which he loves. He’s gone from a ‘car obsession’to a ‘dinosaur obsession’.
We video ourselves reading him stories and his mummy says he interacts with the screen.
FaceTime has been a blessing to ensure we see him developing his skills, and expressing himself.

My two grandchildren are 3 and 4 so not at school yet, although they do miss nursery. We have been seeing them and talking to them on FaceTime (Well not so much talking as they tend to ‘bomb’ in and out whilst we’re talking to the parents).
I have also been sending them challenges to help keep them occupied, anything from treasure hunts out of the home whilst on their walks and inside the home, to making up parcels posted to them containing craft materials with instructions for making cards, toilet roll animals, etc. They are always very keen to show off the results of their challenges when we FaceTime.
They live two and a half hours drive away and we haven’t seen them in the flesh, so to speak, since early March. We don’t know when we will see them again as I am just about to start chemotherapy once again so will have to be very careful and when they ask us when they can come to stay it’s really upsetting. Thank goodness for FaceTime.

Keeping to a routine, but ensuring varied activities and keeping it fun and enjoyable.

My gd lives with us so when schools were closed and home schooling began we found ourselves completely out of our comfort zone. Being responsible for a young child’s education is huge. We were lucky that the school set work but getting our gd to take us seriously as teachers was a battle. What helped? Plenty of breaks, using everyday items to teach maths, adding up pasta shapes, cutting apples to show fractions, loads of junk modelling... all hard work done before lunch, then art, creative learning, planting seeds, baking after lunch. Makes it sound like we got it down to a fine art. It has been the toughest 4 months ... our relationship has been tested and we have often felt like throwing in the towel and leaving it up to the teachers to pick up the pieces in September... but we have persevered and hopefully our dgd will not be too far behind when they go back even if my husband and I couldn’t agree on the same maths methods like where you borrow from and pay back when taking away?

I found keeping to a routine as helped a lot. Lots of positive praise and making learning fun. I think its been a learning curve trying to keep in touch during lockdown. My two year old granddaughter didn't get it and wouldn't speak to me. All is forgotten now though.

I have been teaching two grandchildren aged 7 and 9 for an hour each, every day via zoom. I use BBC bitesize and concentrate on the English classes. I won’t say it has been easy, it is quite frustrating not being in the same room to check their writing, spelling etc. During each hour, I get them to do a few star jumps or a couple of runs around their kitchen in my effort to refocus them. I would say it’s been better than nothing but definitely not as effective as a day at school. Hopefully it has helped them.

Showing an interest in their progress by asking questions about how they got on with particular tasks, finding out what is next and praising them for completion.

Kept in touch on FaceTime and read stories to the grandchildren. This helped keep our relationship strong. Keeping learning to short periods helped as they are very young.

A timetable and lots of fun creative things to do

Plenty of encouragement and try to make it fun. Try to be flexible, and go with the weather, lessons can be done outdoors if it is nice.

For a 4 year old making the learning organic and tied in to their surroundings. Playing while incorporating learning at the same time. Lots of praise for good attempts and trying.

I have been homeschooling my grandson aged 6 but not virtually, he lives with me and his mum. Mum works upstairs and I keep him busy. If the weather is good we spend time in the garden so we are flexible about what we do. I do believe that half an hour one-to-one learning fractions is the equivalent of hours of school. Whatever we do we talk and he asks questions. He’s a great little gardener too and can tell you anything about growing vegetables. Websites like kids countdown maths and playing scrabble where he has to count his own scores make maths great fun. It helps that he is fascinated by science from electricity to the Birth of the universe to the natural world and an enquiring mind and a love of reading, It has been a lovely experience.

I miss my other grandchildren. I stood 9ft from my 12 year old grandson last weekend and he said “oh nanny, I wish I could hug you “ so I don’t think this experience could change my relationship with any of them.

My daughters and their partners have been juggling working from home with home schooling for children aged between 11-17. They see themselves as parents 1st and educators 2nd, not putting the youngsters or themselves under additional pressure in what are difficult times, while trying to encourage some learning to take place. Its a tricky task to get the right balance and I’m very glad to be just the granny and not the mum!!

Sharing their learning experience and having fun on line has brought us closer together.

Making the learning fun and not getting too stressed about getting them to do things is the key

I'm still shielding, Contact with grandchildren only via video for them to show what they were doing. Their mum would appreciate this Learning Resourses pack. And me too!

Having the children help with other things like cooking, gardening and painting inbetween and making these things fun. It has been quite hard on us all as my grandchildren are so loving with their cuddles and hugs. Cant wait for us all to be safe and continue where we left off.

My grandchildren have had teir homeschooling mostly with their parents but enjoy having a bedtime story read to them by myself or Grandad and also playing games like bingo and scavenger hunt on facetime!

nothing beats personal contact, but when needs must, you adapt - as with everything. FaceTime is a novelty and surprise calls are best. A reality check is needed right now, but hopefully we'll be back to 'normal' whatever that is, very soon now

We did struggle for weeks with being closed in but I am lucky enough to live with my granddaughter so as she is only 2 we found keeping a structure in place was the best thing, even when the difficult days arrived with mummy working upstairs from home and Daddy not used to being home we tried to calm the waters buy breakfast then an hours play followed by a snack and some learning like singing rhymes then lunch with a bit of bite size then followed by colouring or flash cards then a little bit of chill time in front of the Disney Chanel until mummy finishes work then bath fun tea and bed but let me tell you it has been a difficult and winding road but hopefully normality is getting closer ?

Making learning fun. It may not be the same things they would learn in school but my dgc have enjoyed lots of new experiences. We share over zoom and Skype, read together. We probably talk a lot more than normal because we all have the time

Love and understanding, empathy patience and praise. Once you have these things a child will learn.

We have kept to a routine, but have developed other skills such as planting seeds in the garden and baking :D

By keeping in touch and keeping a routine