The last six days have disappeared in a blur. Each evening I’ve sat down and tried to write this diary and failed miserably. I’ve just been too tired, or simply too busy.
This home schooling lark is taking up a considerable amount of my time and patience. I know that the schools are not expecting miracles with a year 2 and a year 5 child in the house, but sadly it seems that my children’s normal teachers are so wonderful that they’ve set the bar extremely high! Today is the first day that the 9 year old hasn’t had a melt down when I’ve suggested that we didn’t need a formal paper timetable for the day. Each evening I’ve been printing worksheets like mad and spending spare moments marking them and researching the million and one “useful sites” that I’m being bombarded with on all social media platforms and the numerous WhatsApp groups that have sprung up.
We’ve found some great things over the last week. Joe Wicks’ morning PE lessons are fab, if a little too energetic for my kids’ liking. Twinkle is simply magical in terms of all the worksheets and plans that you can download. I also really enjoyed a life history lesson that we did last week from the Western Approaches Museum in Liverpool.
Today my 7 year old took part in an online History of Railways talk that an academic from the University of York was doing. At just 30 minutes he managed to fit in numerous interesting facts whilst making it accessible to a young train loving audience.
It hasn’t all been school here though. My daughter Cub pack started with an online Zoom Cub meeting last Wednesday evening and then, seeing as she was supposed to be on Cub camp last weekend, they ended up doing an online Virtual Cub Camp from Friday evening through to Sunday morning. With four Zoom sessions for all Cubs over the weekend there were also numerous activities for them to join in with. We had bridge building, campfire making, map reading skills, survival skills and even a Harry Potter online Escape Room. She made a den in her bedroom (from her little sister’s Wendy house) and slept in that for the weekend – meaning that she even qualifies for “nights away” under modified Scouting rules. It was epic, if a tad exhausting for those of us facilitating it all. A brilliant way of keeping the Cub Pack all together though and making the children still feel involved.
As for me… Well, last night I finally managed to catch up with some of my WI friends online. I’m honestly struggling to find the time to do things for me though. I’m yet to read anything and my crochet has sat abandoned too. With everyone in the house all day every day the amount of housework increases exponentially and there are still the the jobs like ensuring everyone is fed and has clean clothes to take care of. I see people online talking about having time to bake bread, watch box sets and take up new hobbies and I think they must be living in a lockdown parallel world to the one I’m in. Just having the kids at home 24/7 for over a week now is taking up pretty much every waking hour. The fact that the youngest in the family has been teething badly (and so not slept properly for the last 4 nights) just adds to how tired I’m feeling. What I wouldn’t give right now for a couple of hours of peace in front of the TV with a cuppa and my crochet and knowing that I’m on top of the housework. Add trying to work and earn money into the mix and I’m finding it all pretty overwhelming.
Anyway – tomorrow is another day. And I’m really hoping that I might finally get some proper time for myself. I made a real effort on Sunday afternoon and whilst the youngest was napping I handed the older two their tablets and sat down with a jigsaw. I’m just slightly regretting my choice. All the tube lines are now complete, but the white background is proving to be more challenging than relaxing!
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