If I’m honest I feel too tired to write properly tonight.
Today was Mother’s Day and I was really hoping to carve out a bit of “me time” today so that I could recharge my batteries a bit for the week ahead. No such luck. I did get a gorgeously cute card from my youngest though, a brilliant picture my eldest made at Brownies and some yummy chocolates from my son, plus a letter thanking me for tidying his bedroom! The important stuff.
My kids seem to think that I can seamlessly step into their teachers’ shoes at 9am tomorrow. Somehow I’m going to wake an expect in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 (Years 2 and 5, if you’re interested) and that in-between all the other million and one things I have to do running a house of 5 people I will have designed a whole singing and dancing curriculum that will engage them from 9am to 3.15pm. I fear they’re going to be disappointed.
In the one hour today that I got between breaking up fights and cooking meals (errr – isn’t today the ONE day off the year when I’m not supposed to be doing that?) I managed to knock up a very rough timetable for tomorrow. I scoured the various resources that are being shared madly on both class’ WhatsApp groups and printed loads of worksheets from Twinkl and various other sites. I designed a worksheet on bridge design as my son keeps telling me that he is desperate to learn about this and I made a quick list of educational TV programmes that we might be able to base some of our learning on over the next couple of weeks at least.
I know the school don’t expect me to suddenly magic up a PGCE and an intimate knowledge of the National Curriculum, but my kids do. And to be honest I’m more scared of letting them down than their teachers.
I had so many other things I wanted to achieve though today and seem to have failed at all of them. Knowing we’re going to be at home and needing some fresh air I hoped to get the lawn cut. No chance. There were things I wanted out of the loft to keep the toddler amused whilst I deal with the older two tomorrow. They’re still in the loft. There’s a pile of ironing that needs doing and in just a weekend my laundry basket is overwhelmed again. The kids also seem to be eating me out of house and home already. Ideally I’d find the time to do some baking as well so that I could top up the snack supplies that way, but time is the thing I’m lacking right now.
I also wanted to get the desk we have assembled and in my son’s room before tomorrow, but we can’t find all the bolts to put it together. That means he’s going to have to work at the kitchen table instead, which is where I was planning to squeeze in a bit of work myself. Ho hum.
Oh, and to top it all off, tomorrow is the day that Royal Mail increase all their prices. So with my work hat on I have 200 listings on eBay that I need to go through and alter the P&P charges on before midnight. Because, you know I’m just sat here at 10pm on a Sunday evening twiddling my thumbs and wondering what to do to fill an evening.
Seriously though – I need to take a bit of down time right now, or else I fear burnout pretty soon.
There were a few nice bits of today. I managed our first family FaceTime session with my mum, sister, brother in law and nephew to celebrate mothers day. I’m not sure we’re technically savvy enough to run a family pub quiz online yet, but at least we got to talk to each other. It was also nice to see that my mum’s local pub are offering to deliver meals to people in her village. 12 weeks is a long time for her to be sat at home so at least she can enjoy a meal cooked by someone else every so often.
There is also one thing that I’m looking forward to tomorrow. The BBC have brought forward their launch of a new adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers. It’s described as Downton for kids and to be honest, having seen the trailer I can’t wait. I just need to persuade the nine year old to watch it with me, rather than rushing ahead and bingeing it all straight away on her table!
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