Being Together – Week 1 Round-up

So, how was it? Awful, fabulous, stressful, useless, great fun, mixed? Feel free to comment below and let me know how the first week has been for you.

I think we’re all beginning to settle into some kind of ‘daily rhythm’ and find what works for us and our families and situations, and that’s just what it should be – what works for you. Those who were in plain panic at the start of the week have managed to see the positives and find something that works, or at least, is manageable. Don’t worry about what others are doing or compare yourself to them…you are you.

The other thing I’ve taken from the week is the be flexible. Often, calls come in that were unexpected and you have to throw something at a child and let them have a go independently, or else leave them to their own devices for an hour or two…that’s life. It’s just how it is. Don’t beat yourself up over not being there for every thing they do. Children need to try things out on their own and learn what to do and how to deal with being ‘bored’. Or, on the other side, some ‘new’ online experience will suddenly announce it’s going ‘Live’ at 11am tomorrow only – again, don’t rush and cancel everything just so you don’t miss it. Often the ‘live’ versions are then kept on YouTube or Facebook pages for you to view again, at your leisure, at a time that works for you! Schedule it when you want it!

Being a bit of a control freak and teacher, I wanted to begin with quite a structured daily routine, that went something like this:

• Wake-up and Connect
• Breakfast and Chores
• Study Time – Explore and Learn
• Lunch
• Quiet Time
• Play
• Imagine and Create
• Dinner
• Stories by Candlelight

Now, so far, it hasn’t quite worked out like that, but I’m not too bothered as we’ve found a way of working where everyone is engaged and doing. For a start, the chores are never done after breakfast, although the girls are definitely doing more around the house generally, making sure bedrooms are kept tidied, plates put in the dishwasher, etc, so although there’s not a set time for chores, it’s working for us with reminders that over this time, we’re all sharing and trying to help out and do our part. (Hopefully it’ll continue when all this madness is over too!)

I also wrote off Monday morning as the cleaners couldn’t come, so we all mucked in for a couple of hours to dust, clean, sweep and hoover to have a clean house before we begun any work at all – I have to have a neat, clean area to think and work , so this was important to me before we started, otherwise I’d already feel I was losing as I’d be trying to get it done while the girls were working and we’d all end up grumpy! And now we’re home all weekend too, while the girls helped daddy ‘clean’ the car (move the mud around from one place to another) I sorted the house ready for the coming week.

Our mornings have generally been work set by the school for the 8yo – we’ve done My Maths activities, a few bits and pieces from Purple Mash and a paragraph a day of her Greek Myth story where she’s added detail, written, redrafted and copied up ready for her book. In between, I’ve been setting up phonics, rhyming and reading activities for my just 4yo (have a look at my Facebook page to see what we’ve done each day) and she’s really enjoyed them. We’ve also counted, found bonds to 10 and looked at more and less statements. Then, after she had started and knew what to do, I went back to the 8yo for a bit of ‘teaching’ time for the maths fractions or the writing.

I made up snack boxes for the girls with a water bottles and 3 snacks that they can choose when to eat during the day, but once they’re gone,  they’re gone! They go out for a ‘break’ tor 20 minutes to the garden anytime between 10 and 11am, and again for a run around after lunch. Talking of lunch, it’s been great as Chimney House Dad has also been home so we’ve had a family lunch every day.

There has been no ‘quiet time’ after lunch, much to my chagrin, as that has generally been our #wellbeingwalk time where we scoot or walk and count the beautiful rainbows in windows – we saw 65 on our last walk! If you’re joining in with our Themed Weeks, changeover day is Monday and the theme is Hearts. I’m hoping to bring in a quiet time, probably around 3.30 for half an hour or so, just so everyone can decompress and chill, but it will depend on the weather as we’d still like to get out for our walk.

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Imagine and Create has been going on in a ‘family activity’ type of way. Monday was a music afternoon with some Charanga singalong activities copying pitch and rhythm and learning Mamma Mia followed by using percussion instruments for CC while F did Flute practise. On Tuesday we completed the Brownies Engineering Challenge and the girls began a nature journal each. Day 3 was Wednesday, which is my day on the teaching rota so I was in school a lot of the day. That said, we reversed the morning and afternoon and baked a chocolate banana bread before I went, then the girls had time with dad in the afternoon while I was at work. Thursday was seed planting, hoping they’ll fruit before Autumn, looking at different seeds and learning new words such as ‘trowel’ and ‘compost’. Day 5 was another Brownies Engineering challenge designing and racing sail boats then we unearthed dinosaur eggs with warm water and tried cracking them by throwing them on the patio. Cc decided she’d also like to paddle in the Tuff Tray so spent a fair bit of the afternoon in her swimming costume!

Next week, I’m hoping to do more ‘themed’ afternoons, such as ‘The Body’, ‘Space’  or ‘Animals’ and have a variety of activities and books for each one, but we’ll see how it goes!

What has really helped me, which is a personal thing and will not suit everyone, is not being strict about timings. Activities have taken as long as they’ve taken with no rush to get the next thing done and no stress about fitting everything in. And we’ve worked with the weather too, going for a walk when it’s bright and sunny to make the most of it. If something has come up that one of them particularly wants to do, we do that instead instead or build it into the afternoons. Having said that, having a more structured activity for Cc in the morning has meant that I can also spend time with F making sure she understands what she’s doing, otherwise I’d have the little one around my legs constantly asking for ‘rubbish’ on the iPad or a snack!

And as for Stories by Candlelight…erm, well, that’s something to aim for in the next week or so! I don’t want to burn the house down!

So our daily rhythm now looks more like this:

• Wake-up
• Breakfast and Connect – Joe Wicks and Andy’s Wild Workouts
• Study Time – Explore and Learn – Maths and English School-set activities
• Lunch
• Play
• Well-being Walk
• Imagine and Create – family activity based on Science / Technology / Engineering / Art
• Dinner
• Bedtime Story

As said, I’m hoping to add a ‘quiet time’ in as I think this is so important – we’ll all go mad if we do everything together all day!

Now, let’s see what the weekend brings! Enjoy your next week everyone. I’d love to hear how you’ve been getting on and the sorts of things you’ve been up to so don’t forget to comment below!

#inittogether #wellbeingwalk