In the last week, parents have had to ditch the drop-off as schools across the country closed their doors.

Many families have swiftly had to take to homeschooling as a way to educate and entertain their children while they are house-bound by the coronavirus pandemic. And some are already realising the scale of the task and struggling to maintain their resolve.

To give you a helping hand we’ve compiled a list of useful homeschooling tips. These will help you stay sane and persevere whilst your children are at home.

Firstly, break up the day! When there’s no mates to chat to, break time to look forward to or teacher watching with an eagle eye, your children are bound to find it more difficult to motivate themselves to learn, especially when there are so many other fun things to do at home! Keep concentration times to a minimum for maximum focus and set targets to work towards.

Joe Wicks AKA ‘The Body Coach’ launched P.E. With Joe on his YouTube channel to help children stay active, healthy and positive. The workouts are streamed live at 9am Monday to Friday and are suitable for all ages, so no excuse to watch in the background!

It is also important to communicate with your school. Make sure your children are prioritising any work that has been set. In most cases teachers will be providing material so this should be the focus when they are doing school work at home.

Get savvy with subject revision guides. These can be purchased from Amazon so no need to leave the house and they can be bought for all subject areas and key stages. Look out for guides that include exam-style questions (like these complete study & practice guides), these are excellent for testing knowledge. It helps for your home students to mark the questions themselves. They can correct any answers in a different coloured pen to really take in the information. These guides are really comprehensive and will help to avoid gaps in knowledge when they do get back to school.

You can also make the most of online resources. Some of the best ones are free and easy to navigate. Websites like Bitesize and BBC Teach are brilliant and have a wealth of resources for all subjects and key stages.

Finally, don’t overdo it. We all know the angst that can form in a household when tensions are high. Stress doesn’t promote productive learning. Let your child design their own daily timetable, within reason, to maintain a routine whilst also making it manageable for them. It is vital that they get down time and creative outlets in order to make their homeschooling more effective.

If you feel out of your depth, you are not alone! Make the most of family support systems, friends in a similar position and online communities like Mumsnet which has a huge repertoire of advice and discussions for parents with children of all ages. Remember we are all in this together!

Above all, stay safe and make the most of this time with your family. The team at Merrick are here to support you whenever you need us.

We’ve also written about helping children with coronavirus anxiety.