I thought I would share a little post on what we have been up to during the lockdown so far.
We joined in with painting rainbows for our windows, for people to spot on their daily walks. Ru really loved getting creative with his paints and ended up doing all sorts of designs that we now have up on display, he's also posted a couple to his friends and grandparents.
Home learning has been a bit of hit and miss recently, it all started off really well and they were all very excited to be learning from home, but that soon wore off.
The twins and Ru are easier to keep focused by using print offs from Twinkl.com which I have been using a lot but Noah is a different story.
We get sent 10 or more texts a day from his homework app to say he's been set more work or he has work due in, some of which he has no idea how to do and others his passwords no longer work for him to be able to log into the websites he needs to get on.
So we are doing what we can and I am trying to find him other bits to do when his school app is stressing him out. A stressed-out pre-teen is pretty much like dynamite and I try to avoid it at all costs.
We are currently doing around 1-2 hours of work a day and getting in at least half an hour of physical activity, either in the garden or by joining in with Joe Wick's PE sessions in the morning.
We've been going for walks around the village occasionally, as we have a decent-sized garden that the boys play in every day so we tend not to need to go out on a walk every day and plus the thought of bumping into people really has put them on edge when we're out so it's just calm and easier to stay at home and play in the garden.
Though I am planning to make them walk to the beach and back at least once a week, as I do miss seeing the waves.
We have been baking A LOT!
we've done countless amounts of banana loaves,
chocolate chip muffins,
brownies,
slow cooker bread,
cheese scones,
shortbread biscuits
chocolate chip and marshmallow cookies,
and one vanilla sponge cake with sprinkles.
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| Muffins |
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| cheese scones |
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| Noah's banana loaf |
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| Vanilla sponge |
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| brownie |
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| slow cooker bread |
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| shortbread biscuits |
The boys have all been creative with different slime experiements and building little characters out of air drying clay.
By doing crafty things like this, it helps limit their screen time - which if it was up to them, they'd be Fortnite all day long.
It also helps them relax and enjoy being together because lets face it .... they can fight like cats and dogs when left to their own devices.
Most of our afternoons are chill-out time and the boys do end up doing what they like, be that playing on their games, watching a film or playing in the garden whilst I read my books. Life is less stressful this way and everyone goes to bed happy.
I have also managed to finish my first full year at uni, as my last TMA was cancelled so once I submitted number 5 I was done. I put my books away with confidence and now I am looking forward to starting my first part of year two in October.
We have also made our own playdough and have really been enjoying time together when the lockdown was first announced I was slightly dreading being stuck in with the boys as I just assumed it would be fights and arguments every day but actually it has been really lovely.
The boys are much happier at home, no stress from school, we aren't running around to all sorts of different clubs and we are just taking out time and doing things when we get to them.
I've been trying to keep myself from buying unnecessary things off the internet but I failed when it came to buying new plant babies!
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| A babyMonstera Deliciosa and Monstera Minima. |
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It really has been a bit of a wake-up and maybe we do need to take things a little slower and maybe question our usual routine.
We are already considering homeschooling the younger three as in June, their school is due to shut down and a lot of the local schools do not have room for more students, and seeing how they are all much happier with the home learning I think we may be on to a winner. There are also so many home ed groups in Norfolk that I know we won't be stuck for things to do or places to go and learn about.
I definitely feel my mum mojo is back, I'm no longer stressing about my job, the house is constantly tidy, the washing is always done and put away and I am enjoying spending time with the boys.
I feel this has been a bit of kick up the backside from the universe and it's telling me what is more important in life!
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| Lockdown style! |
xxx Stay Safe xxx
