Lockdown January 2021 end of Week 1

These first few blog posts are catching up on the first couple of weeks, transferring frenzied thoughts into typed up prose... it'll catch up with real time real soon...

My husband(A) was back to working online full time before the primary schools were sending out work and I took this as a golden opportunity to introduce the thrill of learning through creativity, play and fresh air.  I felt I needed to readdress the balance of Christmas toys & TV bingeing and get us all in the mood for some new year/term reflecting.

I had a simple, loose plan for our first day: 

1. AM: Decorating mini (porcelain) plant pots, filling with compost and planting some seeds of their choice.  I'd pre-selected seeds for January indoor planting: peppers, cauliflower, sweet corn, tomatoes and cress; all still in their labelled packets.
2. PM: Drawing/writing our 'Hopes & Dreams' for 2021on a huge pre-cut communal circle of paper.

Great ideas, huh? Simple, wholesome, accessible for all ages.  I started the day with a sparkle and shine, thinking- no... knowing- that I am a wonderful human being, a nurturing mother, a compassionate teacher/facilitator.  This is what I've been waiting for: a chance to blend my awesome parent prowess with some Outstanding teacher tactics, based on professional training and years of experience.  My husband had made me a hot cuppa, in my old 'Teacher' mug, which was on the kitchen counter.  How hard could this really be, to have only three lovely pupils, rather than the usual 30+? Ever since our eldest started school, I've been wondering whether we should make the leap into homeschooling and this was the perfect way to dip the toe in the water.

By 10am, the pots had been 'decorated' with the especially purchased (permanent) markers, but so had littlest one's face and arms, which was all part of the creativity, if not the plan.

A had left a big tub of compost on the patio for us, ready for the kids to go out and dig into.  All good apart from the torrential rain which had left it water logged and churned up all the worms to the surface.  Two out of three children were willing to get on their coats and boots, dutifully trying to fill up their pots in the pouring rain.  

I took a moment to see if my tea's still drinkable, but decided to zap it in the microwave.

Once back inside, the boys happily chose their seeds and started poking them into the soaking wet soil.  I was busy helping to clean littlest one's mud-caked fingers while the older two got stuck in.  My eldest told me he's planted pepper and sweetcorn and our middle born is all about the cauliflower right now, but i'm not 100% confident of what's in each pot, but they excitedly carried them off to the window sill, to wait for the first sign of life. Littlest one poured out thousands of cress seeds, some of which made it into the pot.

The boys were now happily role-playing something about dragons so despite needing a wee, I thought I

better plough on with preparing lunch before we hit the dangerous hanger zone.  While getting set up, I thought ahead to the afternoon plan: some reflective chitchat about the year ahead, while drawing our hopes and dreams onto the giant sheet of paper.   I'm not sure how it started, but our 4 year old was suddenly very angry and it took about 40minutes (and all my remaining energy) to help to calm him down and coach him through some dark emotions, something about wings.  Meltdowns leave me totally exhausted, but I try to see it as an opportunity to reconnect.  By the time all was calm again- I'm sitting on the floor in the lounge doorway, 4 year old curled up in my lap, now busting for a wee- I notice that our eldest has popped the telly on [his last lockdown legacy was to master the remote control] and littlest one had hoisted himself up to the windowsill like the mini Ninja he is and found the kid's trowels; he was delightedly digging up all the pots, compost and seeds, looking very pleased with himself, his smile smeared in soil and wriggling his little finger, enthusiastically signing 'worm'.

Feeling totally spent and frazzled, it was at this moment that my husband cheerfully bounded down the stairs, singing some ditty, ready to high five us all, chirping, "how's it all going? Have you all had lunch?" Grrrrr.

Fast forward a few minutes and A takes over post-meltdown, trying to explain why Papa has been shut in a room all morning and then gets on with the now very late lunch.  I quickly replant the  displaced seeds into the older boys' pots, trying not to worry too much about how excited they were about the specific veg. I can't see any pepper seeds and the cauliflower seeds are microscopic anyway, so I take a few fresh sweetcorn seeds and bung a couple in each.

I finally get to the loo for a minutes' peace, emerging to find another meltdown brewing in the kitchen, this time something about a plate.  The lunch is done but A has to rush back upstairs to start his next lesson, stomping and huffing back up the stairs, seemingly frazzled and spent after spending exactly 22 minutes downstairs. I make a fresh cuppa.

Needless to say, the epic Hopes & Dreams project got delayed and we all watched a lot of Paw Patrol all afternoon. I have to reheat my tea and find my first brew stone cold, the Great Teacher mug quietly mocking me.

Before going to bed, we got set up for the school tasks, which would be appearing on Google Classroom in the morning.  I managed to find two old mostly- unused exercise books; I gathered some stationery and then dusted off the 'Four H. Homeschool' rules, which we collectively (ahem, ok, mostly me) came up with last March.  I think I had a mental checklist of other things but I cannot recall these right now.  A and I found all the log-in details and made sure they were all working, including the (excellent) Phonicsplay.com and MyMaths website.  We had two days of 'homeschool' before the weekend and I decided that we would just see how we went and wouldn't put too much pressure on myself to 'succeed', but the content the teachers upload is bloody brilliant- creative, fun and even differentiated- and in respect of their hard work, I want to give it our best.

After breakfast, and a BIG prep-talk, including a refresher of the H.Homeschool dance we (ok, I) made up last year (Yes, I am that mum), I went to fetch the screens.  I pressed the buttons and nothing happened.  And then I remembered my first mental note of Distance Learning: remember to charge up the laptop the night before.  Even my phone was battery dead.  So, that was abandoned until later.  Boys wanted some morning TV so I enjoyed a second hot cuppa and a leisurely breakfast.  We tried again after lunch, all gathering around the laptop and successfully logged on to the two separate platforms, but then I remembered my second mental note: always read through all the tasks, information and slides before engaging the kids. Overwhelmed by the content, we abandoned it until later. 

Finally managed to help the eldest to access and do a few tasks.  He loves it and is unbelievably keen (which isn't exactly what I recall from last March).  He is proudly using the brand new exercise book, creatively titled: 'Lockdown Learning'. However, the other book was promptly scribbled on, my neat handwriting crossed out and replaced with 'Pokemon', but spelt without the 'e'; the first 10+ pages were soon filled up with glorious artwork, depicting a colourful array of TV characters. It keeps him happy and busy for a very long time. Counting that as win.

On the last day of the week, I decided that we had all worked very hard and declared that today was a day off and we should just chill, play outside, play inside, watch a film.  Littlest one planted a lot more seeds. We feasted on fish and chips for tea and cracked open the wine by 4pm.  

We then finished the week with our family disco, remembering to agree the playlist first to avoid a meltdown, making it extra fun with glow-sticks.  Mental note for next disco: make sure we all have the same colour glow-stick FFS.  Always learning. 

Reflections: these meltdowns are coming thick and fast and makes me remember that this is hard for us all.  All the boys are missing having their dad around all day to play with and cuddle.  They're all still so young and are constantly learning through play and daily interactions. We try and plan for some 1:1 time with each child over the weekend.  I know we've done 'our best' and I know this sounds dramatic, but I can't help feeling enormously overwhelmed by it all, which I can't seem to shake.  I'm sure a zero-plans weekend will help, with lots of outdoor time, time to read my funny book and maybe even a whole mug of hot tea.