When we became parents we never believed this would ever happen! The coronavirus has given us our worst nightmare, teaching our kids!
Being stuck indoors with the 4 monsters?, that’s why we send them to school, I know my abilities, I may have used to be a retail manager, a pub manager, facilities coordinator, but I chose government schooling as I don’t know my Nouns to my adjectives (you must have seen my gramma and my spelling! as I get reminded regularly by my favorite Spanish teacher x), I didn’t want to spend hours doing lesson plans and spending money on glitter and coloured paper to do arts and crafts.
But it has happened, I love my kids, but stuck in the house with four children, 11 and under for at least 3 weeks to possibly 3 months, aghh and the school work!.
I spent 20 minutes trying to work out the kid’s paperwork and realising that I didn’t have a clue!, but it’s all here and there is youtube, so fair enough to Mr. Bojo it had to be done, keeping our children safe and I do give thanks to the teachers for getting the packs ready for us in such short notice.
So we have tried planed it (well I’m stuck at home as “G” still working), a slow introduction to homeschooling, firstly for me as on a Monday morning to get over the wine from the night before, but for the children who don’t understand why they can’t go out to the play park or have a play date and why we have to wash our hand all the time, it is a scary world suddenly for them.
Squash now in his last year a primary school pupil, has had this year cut short, will his old year 6 meet up before secondary education starts? will he get to ware his leaver’s hoody in the playground before he and his peers start there new journey?.
The kids in year 6 made good of it on the”last day” by the shirt signing but there were more tears for the uncertainty that is all of our futures, teachers, and pupils stuck in this numbing early end of the year and shedding a tear for the unknown.
The children are lost, not just ours but all around the country (and the world), so we as parents have to comfort and talk about what lies ahead (and somehow put in social distancing), so we plan 1/2 day schooling, this because I’m no Professor Brian Cox, but a Dad juggling 4 sets of different levels of education, with breaks and fitness, then maybe the Xbox can finally go on.
On Monday morning (the first Daddy school) I chose Maths (token of my lesson plans, choose something I may actually understand, open the pack and start a page 1) KS1 easy, add by 10 subtract by 10, Fantastic! then KS2 for the boys, this is where it got tricky, thank god for youtube and google! and of course the good of fashioned calculator!.
ASBO in his normal stance protested that maths was silly and it was sooo easy until I pointed out that all his answers were incorrect.
Meltdown number 1, I am always happy to help him get to the answer or steer him on his way, but he will always give up unless you tell him the answer, so yellow card followed shortly by a second yellow and his marching orders to his bedroom for a cooldown.
The others got on with it, they just carried on, so the first day (once ASBO had “calmed down” and understood his choice words were not very appropriate) went well and we even did P.E. with the lovely Joe Wicks and 800,000 other parents & children!.
It’s going to be a long slog and the kids will get used to it, sadly life has gone totally digital but it’s the only way to connect with each other (we have spent so long keeping the children off the internet for us now to embrace it!, and we are now talking about getting Squash a phone, another digital product we were not keen on him having but he needs to see his friends, somehow before secondary school.
As they said in the first world “it will all be over by Christmas!”, will it?
Keep safe, keep in, keep the belief!
Matt
