We are well and truly into the swing of lockdown life now and homeschooling here, well I guess we should be seeing as we are entering week 15? 14? 16? Who even knows, I barely know what day it is anymore.
The kid’s school emailed just over a week ago stating we had the option to send the children back 2 days a week from 29th June and we had a few days to give the school our decision. I chose to decline this. My reasons being that the kids are doing fine here at home with me. We are continuing to home school, I won’t say it’s all plain sailing, they have been tears from myself and the children at times but it’s working.
We do some of the work set by the school and also other activities which fall into the curriculum, such as art, science, PE and some which don’t fall into our school curriculum but I class as life skills such as cooking/baking, gardening and sewing.
I’m loving spending all this time with the children and while they do miss their friends they were totally with me on not going back to school (I guessed that as its not their favourite place at the best of times). This decision isn’t for everyone and we did think it through very carefully. Another deciding reason was that we are going to Cornwall soon to stay with Paul’s Aunt, she’s just finished up another course of chemo and radiotherapy and I’m doing all I can to limit contact with others so we don’t pass any bugs, germs or virus’ to her when we visit come August.
Bedtimes have gone out of the window here, but that’s fine by me as it means the kids and I lie in a little in the mornings. We have a slow start then I home school for an hour and a half a day, usually one on one. I tried doing both at the same time but they fought for my attention, argued and little actually got done. By doing one on one it means I get some quality time with each child and I can explain what’s needed and help them better.
We’ve also been making time to relax and unwind, for the kids, that means tablet time usually but they’ve taken to playing games together and using teamwork during this time, they play Minecraft together on their own tablets but in the same game so help each other find what they need, build houses together and generally this is a fun bonding time for them (unless one mines all the diamonds and the other breaks their sibling’s house in a rage…).
We’ve sorted the whole garden too and planted out all the veggies we potted up on the windowsill at the start of lockdown. We have so much growing in the garden now, and the kids love tending to their veg and picking them when they are ready. This year we have:
- Runner beans
- French beans
- Peas
- Blueberries
- Raspberries
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Squash
- Cucumbers
- Leeks
- Cauliflower
- And lettuce
(we’ve a plum tree growing too but that will take a few years to produce).
[AdSense-B]
Emmy has learned to use a sewing machine while she’s been home and can now thread it up entirely on her own, cut out the material and make face masks from scratch unaided and she’s also made a skirt all on her own and scrunchies.
I’ve just purchased a brand new sewing machine and she’s enjoying playing around with that, we are awaiting a fabric delivery then she will make some new bits with the new machine (she’s outgrown her kids one now). I’ve made lots of kids clothes now (a post on that later in the week).
Harry is enjoying arts and crafts again, junk modelling and building forts or traps. He likes to pile all the furniture inside the front room doom to stop us from getting in, it keeps him amused even if it’s messy and a pain to tidy again.
We are walking loads, helped by having no car but we’ve always walked as a family and find it enjoyable. 2 weeks ago we walked to my parent’s house and back, walking 10.6 miles and clocking up 24000 steps. The kids were broken after that but it was great fun.
[AdSense-B]
We’ve also been back to the driving range to hit a few balls about.
Usually, by the end of the summer holidays, I’d be tearing my hair out ready to send the kids back off to school, even celebrating with a day of laying on the sofa binge-watching TV I want to watch all day but I’m not doing that now, I’m enjoying this time. Embracing it I guess and while things are quiet here on the blog as its hard finding writing time with them here, that’s OK with me. We all needed to slow down a little and I’m not missing going to the shops one bit!! I’m still getting home deliveries and avoiding that too.
I may be feeling a little differently come September!
[AdSense-A]
Related Posts:
Discover more from Emmy's Mummy
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
