
Be realistic about what you can do
- You're not expected to become teachers and your children aren't expected to learn as they do in school.
- Giving your children some structure at home will help you.
- Experiment, then take stock. What's working and what isn't? Ask your children, involve them too.
- Share the load if there are 2 parents at home. Split the day into 2 hour slots and take turns so you can do your own work
- Take care of your own health and wellbeing.
Keep to a timetable wherever possible
- Create and stick to a routine if you can. This is what children are used to.

- Involve your children in setting the timetable where possible.
- Check in with your children and try to keep to the timetable, but be flexible. If a task/activity is going well or they want more time, that's fine.
- If you have more than 1 child at home, consider combining their timetables. For example, they might exercise and do maths together – see what works for you.
Make time for exercise and breaks throughout the day
- Start each morning with a PE lesson at 9am with Joe Wicks
- If you have a garden, use it regularly.
- Get your children to write in a diary what they did each day
Other activities to keep children engaged throughout the day
- Where you have more freedom in the timetable, make time for other activities. Add some creative time or watch a dance video from Go Noodle to get the heart-rate going.
Get your children to write postcards to their grandparents
- Ask grandparents to listen to your children read on FaceTime (or ask grandparents to read to younger children)
- Give them chores to do so they feel more responsible about the daily routine at home
- Help you to cook
- Accept that they'll probably watch more TV/spend time on their phone – that's ok but you might want to set/agree some screen time limits
Examples of home-learning timetables
- Horniman Primary School in Lewisham created this timetable for its parents
- Five Minute Mum has a timetable including lots of activities for younger children

