A New Normal

 There were moments before the Lockdown arrived when the thought of being quarantined with my knitting and books appeared an attractive proposition.

 Of course the reality is far different from this, this is not a holiday.  I guess many things we take for granted: freedom, social interaction, spontaneity,  meeting with friends. Even a simple coffee out, take on new significance when we are no longer free to do them.





We have all had to discover what is important for us and find new ways of doing them - we have had to let go of what is familiar and normal and discover a new normal and with it the acceptance that this time is potentially prolonged and certainly open ended at this point.

The first challenge was how we did education - what school would look like without a school! This experience has been very mixed, a sense of grief for the loss of independence and of social interaction - not simply talking to friends but shared experience, of response to each other and their environment and endless chatter about absolutely nothing at all!

The key for us is a schedule combined with the flexibility to change and adapt - we started with all three children in the same room now one works in her room - tidied for the occasion!! Whilst the other two co-exist!

There are lots of ways to approach learning from home and  to be clear I don't think there is a 'right way', it is certainly not a one size fits all experience. For us a clear schedule has allowed Keith to work effectively from home and gave the girls a defined start and finish bringing much needed structure to their day.

It also meant weekends could feel different - opportunities to sleep later, to watch movies and play on their phones. We have the opportunity to take a longer walk all together slightly later than our usual 7:30 stroll!

Sundays for us feature church, its part of who we are  and in itself help make this a different day.

School work is set by school so really to define it as homeschooling is a slight misrepresentation. What I am doing is supporting and directing, being mum rather than their teacher. What does that look like - well mostly printing, getting into programmes and forums and generally trying to keep them on track whilst refereeing the numerous disagreements!

I've learnt some new computer skills over the last four weeks, and some maths I'm not sure I even did the first time round!!

I have also learnt that being a team is about playing to your strengths and not seeing it as failure if sometimes you need to bring in the skills of others!

So happy that I married a maths teacher - even if he hasn't taught for 19 years1