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My great grandson has work set by his school and often shares his finished work with us on WhatsApp so he gets plenty of praise. He has also developed his love of birds by adopting it as his project. |He recognises most bird songs and all the birds he sees in his garden and local woods.

Praise, encouragement and turning learning into games eg I spy for sounds

Definitely have a routine ,or timetable, and stick to it. Always try to include something that has an element of fun.

My grandchildren are home educated all the time and they have absolutely thrived on it. There are so many positives to it, plus they still make a lot of friends with drama club, Rainbows, Scouts and Brownies, and the biggest bonus is aside from missing their clubs, things didn't change too much for them, so they have all stayed very settled which has been lovely.
Because its home education and not home schooling, the onus is on the children deciding what they want to do, and they thrive on doing things that interest them...my younger two love baking and writing, so they concentrate on those areas, and the older ones most enjoy art and geography. By only focussing on the subject the children enjoy, we get so much more out of them, they are happy and eager to learn, which makes them a pleasure to be around.
I wish I had home educated my own children. x

I have got much closer to my grandson, he seems to pay more attention to me.

I generally read a bedtime story via FaceTime twice a week which is lovely to see them settled down for the night & they look forward to it. My daughter FaceTimes often to show me their school work they are doing at home & I have to say I’ve been very impressed. They understand it’s not forever & really look forward to FT

keeping in touch with WhatsApp and Alexa video calls, sending them links I see online, great one this week www.forestryengland.uk/resource/tree-trumps so they are out collecting leaves in the garden and tomorrow we are meeting them to collect some in the park and play French cricket. When we couldn't meet up sent seeds, art and craft materials etc so they could show them to us and have something to talk about on video calls.

Really like BBC Bitesize and all the sessions on there.
They are fun and explain stuff much better than I!
Certainly made a difference.

The grandaughter has had a very structured day art, craft music play sessions reading. Playing with water and sand Nature walks story time sessions. Don't think she even realises she has been missing nursery.

An agreed strict timetable with regular breaks to just relax, run around and let of steam.

I have been giving help with my granddaughters art assignment. I have found that tapping into their interests and encouraging independent learning works well. My 7year old has been struggling a bit, the other 5 have positively blossomed with independent learning. One got 98% for his end of year science exam - books and u-tube really interested him rather than formal lessons! Another has been writing creative poetry and has raised a chicken from an egg.

Although children previously benefitted from learning with their peers this (temporary) change in their lives has afforded them the opportunity of experiencing life in a different environment. With both parents and grandparents involved in their tuition they are being given a broader perspective on things. Plenty of fun exercises for both the body and brain will hold them in good stead for a happy return to their regular schooling.

My grandson and I have both completed his weekly challenge from nursery class, separately , then compared our efforts on line. One week was to make a castle to trap ‘Evil Pea ‘ from Supertato . We also set each other to find out ‘ 5 things about....’ different things each week.

Before lockdown I looked after my 3 gc. 2,5 and 7. Only being able to see them remotely was very hard indeed and I think the 2yr old and I grew a little apart. The boys have short attention spans and favour tablets with games and puzzles over reading or writing so the trick has been different activities for short time slots. It's felt important not to pressure them and make things fun. Lots of outdoor activities around nature, science experiments like making rockets and volcanos and watching BBC bitesize. The resources in this competition look fantastic!

My grandchildren who attend school have a few hours of schooling in the morning and do the work sent to them by their teacher. I have FaceTime with my oldest granddaughter who is eight and she texts me on hangout and we send pictures to each other ,so I think we’re becoming closer as it’s one on one time without her younger sisters. My youngest grandson has turned a year old in lockdown and is now running around. I’m still shielding so can only sit in their garden and I can’t pick him or his three year old sister up. It is absolutely soul destroying and I wonder what will happen when I can hug him, will he even want to ? I feel I’m rejecting him.

I've introduced them to personal hand written letters from the 'olden' days. They've taught me 'Messenger' from today. Both heart warming and bonding.

Take something that captures their interest, and work from there. Be flexible with what happens when, and abandon strict routines in favour of 'go with the flow' activities

my grandson needs praise and regular breaks, so we have made lessons fun by going outside

My little grandson loves singing, so we sing lots of songs. He loves being outside so we try to combine where we can using lots of practical activities where he can work things out for himself. We also try to extend his speech by repeating what he says and adding words in. To a large extent, given his age, we take a lead from him.
A total joy to be in his company

Simple things like cooking at home, they are using maths (weighing and measuring), nutrition, science (how eggs for example makes a cake rise), they are reading the recipe, and they are learning important cooking skills to learn how to make a meal. Not all of their learning is through a textbook or what the teacher tells them to do. We aren't so good at the online vitual calls, so we have been writing letters and sending pictures, which is a lovely way to stay in touch, as well as phonecalls so it hasn't changed our relationship.

Keeping a regular time for video calls with fun and exciting activities to keep them interested has increased my closeness with the long distance grandchildren. I made some finger puppets of their favorite charters who appear on each call. They get so excited and makes them laugh a lot. Joining in on homework from the school web site posing other interesting facts to keep them engaged. Drawing pages of animals to make into a book posting a couple of pages a week with a story line. They love receiving mail and send pictures and stories back in a prepaid envelope. Keeps my brain active and such a pleasure.

I did zoom lessons online with my reception age granddaughter for a few months until she went back to school a few weeks ago as mum was working from home and the school had sent a lot of homework to do. It was lovely as I saw her a couple of times a week and saw more of her than I had been doing before the Corona thing.

We did do some of the school work and I was able to reaqd books online sharing them with her as well as board books I held up. I had to coax her to do actual reading herself and write a little.

I found the most successful thing that she enjoyed was when I got lots of photos of her and her mother and brother and family and put simple sentences on each one, making them into pages for a book about her. She remembered the photos and knew the people and, being a unicorn princess at the time, loved having a book about HER. I was able to make fresh pages now and then.

She also got file cards I sent her and she drew on them and made a story to tell me with them She showed them in the same order and told me the story several times, in one go and other days. We also sang songs and watched videos together. Some suggested by the school.

Another way to get her to write was that I sent her postcards with simple text on and an envelope with pre-addressed and stamped postcards to me, her cousin and grandfather and other grandmother for her to write and send to us. I miss it now she is back at school.

Granddaughter only 5months but lockdown and working from home has given quality time with lots of sensory activities and water play in the lovely weather. More difficult for niece with 3 active boys of 3' 7' and 9 so this prize would be wonderful for them. She used internet school work alongside lots of physical activities but as with lots of families not easy.

Fresh air and outside play mixed with study times

We’ve been playing “ Guess Who” on Zoom, great fun,
Especially when it goes wrong!