Well, where to start? We are currently in our 3rd lockdown in the UK which means schools again had to close (unless your a key worker). Corey attended 1 day before the announcement and Derry didnt even get a chance to return. If you want a little catch up of the latest announcement on schools here a link Click here. Correct as of 29th Jan 2021.

With this meant we as parents suddenly had to become teachers to our children. Our school has a system put in place through an App Called seesaw. We never had this in the first lock down which felt more like a holiday, we the sun and free time. However this time they were more prepared and so each day work is uploaded to the app for the children to do. Brilliant right? Wronggg.

A little back story if your new here about Corey is he has Autism and other learning difficulties. If want to catch up abit click here. For a few weeks we actually couldnt access the app so I had been doing my own work with Corey. We had been watching YouTube videos on phonics, practising spelling and maths. Well eventually we got on the App and instantly we were overwhelmed. We were behind on all the work over 290 pieces infact.

We started the work the best we could but it soon became apparently the work was too difficult. Poor Corey became so upset saying he felt stupid, he was embarrassed he couldnt do it, he became anxious every morning and when it was time for working. We had ALOT of tears, he just didnt understand the work and being completely honest sometimes I didnt myself! I sent a message to the teacher explaining we just couldnt do the work.

She gave us a ring later in the day and tried to reassure me to not worry. The next day I sat with Corey to try and do some work again but he instantly started crying and begging not to do the work. I thought this is too much and putting to much pressure on him. I closed the laptop on the Wednesday and decided enough was enough we weren’t even attempting anything till Monday!

Monday came and I decided not to go on the App and do our work, the stress free way we had been doing. It went smoothly and I even uploaded the work to the app for the teacher to see. On the Tuesday I had a phone that took SO much pressure off. It was from the special needs teacher from the school who already works closely with Corey in school. She agreed the work was way out of his league and that in school he would have managed it with the specialist support they offer him but in his home environment it was impossible to complete. She was brilliant and offered alot of support in how to get through the home schooling tasks and she decided she would upload some different work to the other children that would be more suitable for Corey.

The problem we were having is the app work was for a class as a whole rather then catered to each Childs needs. Obviously I don’t expect the teachers to be able to set work individually for 30+ children but like the special needs teacher had said, when in the class he would have had support from 2-3 teachers whom know his needs. Im not a teacher nor am I trained in working with children whom have special needs, im just mum I do my best but we needed more support in his learning.

Yesterday we stared the new work and it went stress free easy peasy work as Corey said. No tears or stress on either of us and it felt amazing. I haven’t mentioned Derry at all in this post because she is only in reception the work is easy and she loves to learn so we’ve had no issues at all with her. Hopefully now we will have no more issues with his learning.Ive decided to take it easy on him, not to stress, if we can’t do the work set im closing the laptop and doing our own work. Take each day as it comes. I know im not the only one who is in this boat and alot of other parents are struggling too. We are all in this together and all just doing our best.

How are you coping? Do you have a good support from school?

Nat x