Home school ideas for parents and teachers
Over the years, I’ve been a primary school teacher, EdTech collaborator (for Seymour & Lerhn), and now home school teacher for my children.
I think it’s fair to say I’ve had quite a bit of experience of using tools and technology, to create home school ideas for parents and teachers to make the most of!
I thought I’d create a blog to share with you, and suggest some activities you can do at home with your children, during this time of teaching at home.
All the apps and software I will discuss are all free to use at the moment, so make the most of them! (This includes the Seymour & Lerhn eLearning platform, which is free until the 15th of May!)
Many businesses have generously lent their support to teachers and parents to help keep education going during the Coronavirus outbreak, so I’m sure I speak for the rest of the educational community when thanking these businesses for helping us to get through this.
So without further ado, here are some home school ideas for parents and teachers to make the most of.
Find out more about teaching at home during the Coronavirus.
Home school idea 1: Great Fire of London
My daughter has been learning about the Great Fire of London at school, so we did a home learning activity based around this topic!
First, we went on to Seymour & Lerhn and took a walk down Pudding lane.
We then logged on to Purple Mash (my child already has a school account, but this is now free for everybody) and used ‘2Animate’ to create our own animation of the Great Fire of London.
Home school idea 2: Material hunt
After learning about materials at school, I decided my daughter should go on a material hunt around our house!
Firstly, I used the Seymour & Lerhn ‘Materials’ virtual tour to find different materials in the virtual house.
Then using Seesaw, I created 4 pages for my daughter to go on a material hunt around our home!
Her challenge was to find 5 objects made of wood, material and glass…
… and she did!
Discover more top online teaching resources.
Home school idea 3: Let’s go live with Maddie & Greg
Maddie & Greg have been uploading free daily lessons for children to do at home from their YouTube channel, so we’ve started to make use of them! I’d highly recommend them to parent’s who are currently homeschooling their children.
After watching our free daily lesson, we went into the garden to do our very own minibeast spotting and photography.
We found bees, woodlice, worms, and a range of small beetles (which we weren’t sure of exactly what they were!)
After we finished outside, we went on the Seymour & Lerhn animal habitats virtual tour, and had a look inside an ants nest!
Find out how VR can help education.
Home school idea 4: Our home zoo!
We started this home school lesson by watching the Seymour & Lerhn Emperor Pengiun YouTube video, and found out where Emperor Penguins live, why they like the cold, how they’ve adapted to living in cold climates.
We then decided to invite an emperor penguin into our house, using only the Google search app.
We had so much fun we then invited lots of other animals. We even got a carrot to feed the shetland pony!
Simply download the Google search app on your device and search for animals such as a panda, emperor penguin or tiger, and scroll down to the 3D image section.
Then sit back, and watch your children be amazed by having full-sized animals in their home!
Home school idea 5: The alphabet hunt!
Why not start the day with a challenge?!
A quick idea I had was to set my daughters the task of collecting objects from around the house!
There is also a fun rule to add to this game…
…every object must fit on one plate!
That’s 26 objects from around the house, each object starting with a different letter, all fitting onto one plate.
Quite the challenge!
Home school idea 6: Mind and body
Its important to keep on top of your mental and physical well-being whilst we’re all stuck inside our own homes.
The same applies to our children – they’ve suddenly gone from running around school every day, burning their energy in the playground, to the seclusion of their own home.
Something for the body:
You can’t go wrong a with fun, family yoga session with Princess Poppy from Trolls!
Cosmic Yoga for kids is a great way to introduce mindfulness and relaxation to our children.
Its also fun for all the family to get involved!
Something for the mind:
Is there a better way to relax than have a story read to you?
I’m not sure there is – which is why I sat my 2 daughters down with the Seymour & Lerhn Jack and the Beanstalk Virtual Tour.
The girls loved exploring the different locations, and at one point my youngest was even scanning our living room for the giant!
You could also check out the YouTube version of the tour too:
Home school idea 7: Finger painting
We first used the Seymour & Lerhn ‘step into paintings’ page and selected the Matisse virtual tour for inspiration for our own artwork.
After much consideration, we decided to create a fingerprint tree!
I told my girls that some famous artists actually make all their paintings using dots – so we decided to create a dotted fingerprint tree ourselves.
This activity is easily done at home, and is the perfect example of using interactive technology to inspire creativity.
Home school idea 8: Explore the world from home!
I decided to get my nieces involved for this activity (remotely, of course!) and visit the continents of the world.
We may be in lockdown, but it will soon the school holidays, and I thought it would be great to do some exploring!
They started by drawing the continents onto a balloon to visualise what the world looks like.
Then, thanks to the Seymour and Lerhn geography resources they visited London, Amsterdam, Pompei and many more!
Home school idea 9: Day at the beach
Why not visit the beach during the school holidays? (With a little help from technology and imagination of course!)
Use the Seymour & Lerhn coasts virtual tour to create a beach experience for your children, and enjoy a day in.
My daughter put on her new swimming costume and had a splash around in the sea.
Luckily – we also have some ice cream left in the freezer for after!
The great thing was when we got ‘bored’ on one beach, we then moved to the next one.
Try the S&L relaxation YouTube video for a calming beach experience!
Home school idea 10: Seasons
For this activity we looked at the seasonal changes virtual tour.
We then thought about our favourite activities to do in each season, before creating a little game for my daughter’s grandparents to guess which season we were recreating!
Home school idea 11: Story telling
My daughter loves telling stories, so we started to work on our own story.
We had a look at the different settings available on the ‘settings and story planning’ tour and we chose the forest.
We enabled gyro and turned the sound up to get a truly immersive experience!
My daughter was so excited to explore the forest. We even used the attached worksheet to use our senses to describe the setting.
Home school idea 12: Art!
We had a go at a virtual art activity.
We stepped into the bedroom and had a good look around – we even commented on how tidy it was!
We then used the activity sheet to create our own picture, and decided to use the black and white version as then we could colour it in.
Home school idea 13: Green screen
This activity does require a green screen, however, if you’re lucky enough to have one lying around the house then this activity is perfect for you.
After watching any of the Seymour & Lerhn YouTube videos, or doing one the activities available on the platform, you could draw a picture about what you’ve learned and use a green screen to share your knowledge!
If you haven’t got a green screen, then it’s fun to just practise your art and recreate a scene.
Keep your eyes peeled!
I’ll be updating this page daily to keep you informed of what I’m doing to homeschool my two little ones.
Make sure you keep checking in to get new ideas for your own children or pupils!
