Lockdown February 2021- Week 5: Hope is in the Air


Week 5 began with fresh determination to make a go of it.  After giving up on the previous week, I felt a renewed sense of responsibility to make this a week to count.  It all started well, very well indeed.

  • While the boys watched a little bit of morning CBeebies, I prepared some (screen-free) versions of the Reception activities to try to catch up on Week 4.  If you've been reading my blog, you might recall that our 4 year old doesn't want to do any of the tasks if it involves a screen, which is a bugger because all the tasks have instructional videos, interactive slides and documents.  I had spent most of my Sunday night reading through all the tasks and ensuring I'd understood the Learning Objectives.  First activity was a quick matching animals to classification groups (easily done on a tablet) but our version was a to sort out our animal model collection (a beloved assortment slowly built up over years of regular trips to Whipsnade Zoo, which we miss so much at the moment).  This proved so popular that it took over the whole day, stole the attention of our 6 year old (who was supposed to be learning about noun phrases in the kitchen) and ended with creating alternative habitats in the garden. Win. 
  • My husband (A) managed to get the old printer fired up again, which is a game changer considering the extreme screen fatigue.
  • Letters in the post from Grandad arrived on Tuesday: beautifully written, illustrated and coloured, personalised for each of our boys, with questions, activities and stories.  This inspired our own letter writing, drawing (and plasticine to keep the younger ones happy).
  • Child-led playing/learning took over for much of the week, involving lots of construction (maths), role-play (empathy, literacy, maths (playing shops)), model making and drawing.  The only other activity I set up was to re-classify the animals into hot and cold climates, but the 4 year old wanted a ''Spring/Autumn'' category for the ones in the middle, so we came up with Temperate Climate for the dogs, cats and horses.
  • On Wednesday we made bird feeders: a school task which fitted our plans and post-bird watch weekend perfectly.  It worked brilliantly and engaged all three ages, using the ends of the loaves, biscuit cutters, peanut butter, bird seed and string. And birds (and chickens) loved them too.
  • Our new hen has now settled in nicely, accompanying Flower 24/7.  It was fascinating to observe the ritual of the pecking order and it made our older boys a bit sad when the new hen lost a few feathers: "Why can't Flower be nicer?" I do wonder if Chicky-Whitetail (name now settled as both) will ever rebel, especially as she seems stronger, can jump higher and seems much bolder, taking advantage of the open kitchen door, strutting passed our toddler (who I'd left to put on his wellies) and coming into the house on Thursday.  Luckily, I interpreted little one's alarming "Mamamamamama" as "chicken in the kitchen" and shooed her back out the door. 
  • Thursday was the 6pm clap for the passing of Captain Sir Tom Moore and dashing out to clap into the darkness made me suddenly really emotional, contemplating those lives lost to Covid.  I swallowed it down because there were neighbours to greet and then dinner to get on the table, but it's these moments that remind me that we're living in a freakish global pandemic and none of this is normal.
  • Friday was gloriously sunny and warm, inviting lots of garden time: hello snowdrops and crocus,  tree climbing and our four year old wanting to photograph a spectacularly large unidentified turd.
  • Saturday began with glorious sunshine before apocalyptic thick cloud descended, engulfing us as we made it to the local playground (our first trip out the house in a week).  I then skipped into town as the clouds lifted and the air warmed, to enjoy a rare sociable (socially distanced) walk and coffee with a friend.  I still have to fight the urge to fling my arms around my friends, taking so much concentration to simply flap my arms up and down in excited warm greetings.  I ended up passing loads of different friends- mostly other school mums- who all shared the same dazed and delighted expression, thankful for a weekend and a breath of fresh air.  
  • Sunday was supposed to be a full on snow day, hyped up by all the early weather reports, but any disappointment was soon forgotten after a wonderful act of kindness at our local supermarket.  A always does the weekly shop and usually takes our four year old with him, who takes his co-shopper responsibilities very seriously, helping his Papa and waving at the very lovely checkout workers.  Today, after more enthusiastic smiling and waving, one of the checkout ladies gifted both our bigger boys Kinder eggs, which was such a wonderfully kind gift that has brought much happiness.  Thank you Tring Tesco!  The boys came home in a flourish of Kinder kindness, wanting to draw her pictures and gift her some flower seeds (D wants to give her pansy seeds, L wants to gift her some tulip bulbs, but shhhh, it's a surprise). 
All in all, week 5 was a very good week.  Even the elusive onion seedlings have appeared.  

The nights, however, have been hard.  Our little two year old continued to wake regularly.  I seem to have been in a permanent state of exhaustion all week.  I get through with my three main pleasures: tea,  chocolate and automatic play on Paw Patrol .  Around 11am and again at 3ish (& also 6ish), I can often be found in the back corner of the kitchen, totally absorbed in a world of my own.  I'm probably waiting for the kettle to boil, looking out the window, contemplating complex theories, no doubt.  Somehow, in this blackhole of time, whole multipacks of Cadbury Mini Rolls have been known to disappear.  I have no idea when or how or how many, but as the kettle reaches its climax, I will often look down to see several purple wrappers in my hand, or an empty biscuit pack, or once, only the crumpled remains of a chocolate orange. Gone.

We've now watched so many Numberblocks, Octonauts and Paw Patrol  that we can predict and recite most of the dialogue; our youngest's first words are "Pup pup!" But the boys can also tell me what square numbers are, the exact location of the Mariana Trench and the complex diet of a Giant Siphonophore.  Thank you CBeebies.

Meltdowns seem to be calming, which is a blessed relief.  But it's only a matter of time, before the next developmental wave rolls around. Our youngest has started to become very upset suddenly, demanding me to be with him all the time.  Good job I've got no where to go.

By Sunday, I was feeling pretty chuffed with how the week had gone.  In the morning, I even managed to carve out some sacred time to cuddle up with our eldest to pick up our reading book together.  In the afternoon we gathered around the laptop for a big family Zoom chat.  Haven't done one for a while, but I love them, seeing all my favourite familiar faces together in mosaic mode, like we're all treats behind square windows, like an advent calendar.  Later on, we had a little boogie while we tidied up, trying out some new "pick it up and put it in the box" moves and rolled into the bedtime hour feeling chilled.  

But then it was all wrecked.  At least, momentarily.  I logged onto the kids' Google Classroom platforms to upload all the evidence of home learning going on, you'll remember the animal classification win, habitats, maths play etc. etc., but it just didn't seem nearly enough compared with all the tasks set.  I know that there's NO PRESSURE to do everything, or even some of it, but the big red capitals "MISSING" after most of the tasks (a charming feature of Google Classroom) is hard to ignore.  I don't usually let this get me down, but this time, it really did.  Why? Because I really tried really really hard this week and we all loved it and learnt a lot and what's more, we all got on really well.  But it kind of feels crappy when it looks as though we're not keeping up.

Thankfully, I'm bloody proud of everything we're doing (and not doing), and grateful for the slower pace to connect and be together, but I found further comfort in the wise words of my old friend and child Educational Psychologist who co-runs 'Mellownest', advising to do things your way, to suit your family, sharing a weekly schedule of homeschooling that looks more like this.  






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Babywearing: One Mum's Fall Down The Rabbit Hole.

Parenting in a New World of Walls

10 Unexpected Highs of Motherhood