Kirkcaldy mum Khadra's classes at home

Thousands of Fife students have been told to stay at home due to the coronavirus as schools nationwide shut their gates last week to help stop the spread of infection.

School children of all ages have been told to continue their education at home, and have been issued learning packs alongside daily online tasks to complete while studying at home.

With the possibility that schools may not open again until after the summer, many parents may find it difficult to keep their children engaged with homeschooling – so, they are being encouraged to break up the learning process with fun tasks.

https://www.fifetoday.co.uk/health/kirkcaldy-mum-homeschooling-2527139

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Khadra Duff, from the Linktown has been homeschooling her children – Annabel (10), Kari (7) and Dean (5), – for the past week.

She said: “They are not enjoying being stuck in the house, as they spend most of their time outside playing with their friends, but they are just getting on with it.

“Kari’s best friend lives upstairs from us, so they have been talking with each other through the windows.

“My kids have been getting worksheets from the school and the teachers have been using Twitter for daily tasks.

“They have been really good with keeping in touch and making sure that the kids are getting on okay with their work.

“Annabel, has just been getting on with her work, but I have been helping my other two with the tasks that they have to do.

“I have also been trying to make some of their work more fun and interesting.

“Kari has had spelling tasks, so we made the words out of flour and we have been doing maths on the path outside with chalk before sharing all of their work with their teachers online.”

Khadra feels that breaking up the lessons with a daily routine helps her kids manage being stuck in the house.

“When we get up in the morning we do some yoga and wake up shake up that the kids do at school, or we do the Joe Wicks fitness routine.

“Then we do a couple of tasks before lunch time, we might watch a film with lunch and then do a couple of more tasks.

“We do other fun things like baking cakes, where we all help out to measure ingredients and follow the recipe, which is also learning, but it is fun so the kids don’t see it as learning.

“I am rubbish at art but my uncle is really good at it, so he has been Skyping and has been giving the kids different art lessons.They did pictures of jelly fish the other day.

“It also gives them someone else who is teaching them to mix it up a bit from just me doing it.”

Khadra admits she is trying not to think about how long they might have to social distance.

“We were supposed to be in Blackpool last week and we are due to see Little Mix at the end of June, so we might not be able to go to that. My kids are really looking forward to it. We are just taking it one week at a time.”