I know some of you may be thinking ‘Oh good, another post about the coronavirus!’ I totally get that! However, we wanted to share some of our experiences and the activities we have done so far to help us get through it. You may or may not be looking for ideas, and everyone is different so what we do might not work for you, but if it helps anyone – GREAT! If not – we’ve got it for our record to look back on!
Last week was our first week of staying at home. We went out each day for a walk – luckily we live a 2 minute walk to some open fields, so getting space and fresh air hasn’t been too difficult for us….though the fields were a little busier than expected. We also made a video for a bit of fun too! Click here to check it out and let us know what you think! The kids found it a bit strange that we didn’t have our shopping delivered and that they couldn’t come to the local ASDA with me to get some food, but they seemed to understand.
EXPLAINING IT TO THE KIDS
There’s a lot of opinions that differ on this matter – do we or do we not to tell our children about all the scary things in this world. In my opinion, I feel it’s part of my job as a parent to educate them in everything and help them understand. If I am telling them that they can’t go out and play with their friends, they can’t go to school, we can’t meet up with anyone – they deserve to know why….especially as they haven’t done anything wrong, I don’t want them to see it as a punishment. We watched the Prime Ministers speech (where he told people to STAY AT HOME and said that the Police we be enforcing the rules). As we watched, we paused it to make sure the kids understood what was being said. We discussed it in a calm way but also stressing the importance of it all.
They have taken to it all VERY well. I am SO proud of them. (I do have to wonder why there are so many adults and teenagers who don’t seem to be able to take it onboard as they have??)
HOME SCHOOL
I felt no pressure with this. The kids school have been brilliant! They emailed home packs to be done and have a list of useful links on their website.
I’m not really running it as school….well actually we kinda did the first day because the kids wanted to and thought it would be fun. We run a laid back home school!
We start off with exercise – usually some ‘Just Dance‘ videos on YouTube, or ‘Jumping Start Jonny‘ or ‘GoNoodle‘. The kids find these fun and we have a good giggle whilst doing them. I then give them the work that needs to be done that day and they can do it in whichever order they want – they just have to make sure it gets done. I have set them a few challenges – Make a Lesson Plan for PE, ‘Still Life’ drawings, etc.
We do a lot of cooking and baking too.
Whatever we are doing, we try to include Maths, Science and of course English! We are also trying to learn some French.
I have also tried to get them to get more used to dealing with money. I set up an Art Shop. The girls set up a Hair Dressers/Beauty Salon and wrote up a price list. Freckled Face number 1 set up a Tuck Shop and at lunch time I make them buy the food and drink they want. They are REALLY enjoying these activities! It helps with their math skills and their confidence.
THE GREAT OUTDOORS
We are obeying the rule of only going out for one form of exercise a day. As I mentioned at the start – we live so close to big fields. We do scavenger hunts on our walks, play I-spy, tag, make different shapes with our shadows, etc.
We are also taking this time to do some much needed work on the garden. We will be doing a blog post about that in the near future (hopefully near anyway!)
CHURCH
As our church is no longer meeting, we are doing our own learning and discussions at home. We are keeping it fairly short – for the kids sake! However, throughout the day we are playing games and watching ‘Living Scriptures‘ films and programmes.
On Friday we have arranged for a Quiz Night (using Zoom) with some others from our churches congregation. Should be fun!
That’s how we are getting on so far! How are you doing? We hope you are all well!
4 Freckled Faces 