Being Together – Easter & Beyond

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been so grateful for the good weather, meaning we can still get out and about, even if we’ve been self-isolating for 4 weeks as Cc, the youngest, has had a high temperature and cough – twice! Luckily, she seems to be on the mend and coping admirably, so our routine of home-school mornings and fun themed afternoons have still worked well.

We had our two weeks off for the Easter break but still did some lovely activities, such as Easter Tree decorating, bunting making etc. But no school work, which was a nice break for everyone!

Home-School:

I’ve re-jigged the timetable now we know school expectations for the next few weeks, so it looks somethings like this:

The two key things have been fitting in a quick task at 8.45 til 9, then working through til 1pm, giving us the afternoons free. We’re trying do do something ‘quick’ after breakfast, say tt rock stars, tables questions, spellings activities etc. Then Joe Wicks or Andy’s Wild Workout for Cc.

Then we start with English (a writing task from Pobble, or a comprehension or spelling activity…not all three) and if its a short one, e.g. spelling, we follow it with a task from the year group thematic work.

Next is break time, followed by MyMaths with a possible follow up of a worksheet or a White Rose session. What’s making it work, is working til 1pm when we have lunch as it coincides with my husband’s meeting schedule. This means we’re all done and get the afternoons off to do something the girls want to do, or make dinner, or play out.Timings aren’t strict and things take as long as it takes but approximate timings are here, dependent on whether we do the maths or English session first.8.45 Spelling or times tables.

9.00 Exercise

9.30 English

10.30 Theme work if not an English Pobble write at 9.30

BREAK

11.30 ish Maths and continuation of Theme work if time before lunch

1.00 Lunch

Once started off, I work with the youngest, Cc who turned 4 in March. I try to look at basic maths and tackle anything she is unsure of the next day. We’ve been looking at number words and recognition of these and what makes a teen number, knowing the 1 is actually worth ten. We’ve also done some measuring using non-standard units (you could use pasta pieces) where she had to measure some drawn ‘Socks’ since we’d read Simon Sock, then draw some the required length! She also loves a ‘hiding’ activity, where I hide sticky notes with numbers on around the house. She has to find them ad work out where they go on the number line. You can make it harder by including sequences that go backwards, or that jumps in twos, threes, etc. for older children.

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With Reading and Writing, I’ve been led by her. We take a familiar story and watch it, read it, find key words, write key words and sound out. I put together a ‘story sack’ idea, with object she could use to re-tell the story. Activities have included her sounding out and writing cvc words from the story, e.g. jam, red, etc; ordering and sequencing the story; her telling me her version of it and me writing it down with her illustrating it; acting it our; playing with it!

And when ‘school’ is finished, F, our 8.5 year old, chooses a topic to get involved with. The last two weeks have been space! We’ve stayed up to watch Elon Musk’s Rocket Launch of new satellites, then seen them zoom over our heads 30 minutes later; watched Maddie Moate on YouTube with Space Week and made a pocket Planetarium; Joined UNSA’s Astro Science Challenge; and even made Duplo and Lego satellites and rockets, with a view to making a short animation.

This is the sort of learning I prefer – child-led, amazement and wonder because they’re enthused and excited as its been their choice!

Creativity: 

We haven’t just done schooly activities – there has been lots of making fun too! Both girls have used paper strips to weave an ‘Elmer’ background and used tissue and milk cartons to create a recycled Elmer.

I put together a Drive-Thru McDonalds using Lad Bible’s simulator and make a homemade version with boxes and everything!

The girls helped create a Theatre for the afternoon, making tickets, putting on ‘free’ glitter activities and making nachos and popcorn. We settled down to watch Cinderella from The Mercury in Colchester.

We re-purposed a pallet into a chalkboard door for the garden den, gave it a good clear out and the girls made it a new Fairy Den, planting Stocks and Gladioli and generally making it a nice place to have fun. I helped out by cleaning and tidying the old mud kitchen and building a new ‘water wall’.

And F set up a day nursery for Cc (mainly so she could boss her around I think!) but they had fun together. F made a video introducing all the aspects and drew up a daily timetable of activities!

One of the most enjoyable activities for me and F was using a Hapa Zome technique to create Fairy Skirts! You simple put petals or leaves or grasses under some material and bash them til the dye bleeds onto the fabric! I then rough cut holes along the top of the materials and threaded ribbon through to create an outdoor Fairy Skirt!

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Another fun one was adding petals to egg-shells where you’ve used the egg by just creating a small hole in the top, then filling with water and freezing in the egg-box to keep them upright. The girls were very excited to peel the eggs the next days and expose the flowers…I think they quickly became dinosaur eggs, inspired by a Pobble writing task from earlier in the day!

Life-Skills:

Over the last few weeks, the girls have been far more involved in ‘running a home’ and have been getting to grips with cleaning, sweeping and hoovering a little more! As usual, tho, cooking skills are the ones they really enjoy. We’ve baked lots. F wanted to do pancakes on her own, so I created a jug with levels marked where all she has to do is tip in the right amounts and mix up. She loves this and even cooks them herself.

My first attempt at sourdough was, let’s say…well, a complete disaster is a bit of an understatement. It took an hour to get the ‘loaf’ out of the baking dish! Photos of the disaster are on Facebook for anyone needing a good laugh! I’m going to try again tho – I’m fairly determined with this one, so will see how I get on!

Again, both girls loved using the mixer for homemade pasta – 100g of ’00’ flour and 1 egg per person for a simple pasta. And the Foccacia turned out much better than the Sourdough attempt too! Thanks to A Good Crumb for the perfect recipe.

We’ve also done lots of planting, sowing, watering in the garden to keep the plants fed and watered.

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Well, I think that’s about if for the last few weeks. I dare say things will stay pretty much the same for the next few too – I’ll continue to be led by the little one in terms of her learning and the big one will get on with the school work. Another theme I’m hoping to do is Our Body as I’ve seen some brilliant activities for that, and it’s something more tangible for Cc too.

But do you know what, this is the sort of thing I love – creating, doing, cooking … if you don’t, then don’t worry! If doing a bit of schoolwork then turning on the tv gets you through, do that. If it’s a case of bribery with 3 hours of X-Box, so be it. We’re all adults, we need to choose what works best for us, our family, our children. The most important thing at the moment is that they feel loved and secure. And how that works for you will differ from anyone else. My eldest likes routine, she likes to plan and know what’s coming. And the little one likes to copy, so it works well for us. She is also far more enthused if any ‘extra’ learning is of her choice, so garden play, creativity and theme ideas work well in our house, but I know they won’t for everyone.

Remember, we’re #inittogether – the same storm, not necessarily the same boat.

Stay safe x

 

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

A Beginner’s Guide to your ‘Being Together’ Journey

So, this is it. Schools are closed, anyone who can is being told to stay at home. The Key Worker list is much longer than expected, which, in my opinion, defeats the object of closing schools and social distancing, but there you go.

Many of us are now, as a family, being at home together…for the foreseeable future. It’s been great to see the community spirit soar in the last few days, and not just individuals and local groups, but celebrities doing remote duets (the Gary Barlow / Ronan Keating one is brilliant) , school publishers such as White Rose, Espresso and Pearson producing online learning videos and packs, Authors reading stories online, Joe Wicks aiming to be the nation’s new PE teacher…the list is endless.

But, as with all these things, there’s now so much information, links, ideas available, it can be quite daunting, especially for those not actually in education. And, let’s be realistic, it’s not a ‘one size fits all’ thing. There are families and children who crave structure and routine, who are frustrated without it, while others who know that trying to stick to a structured day would end in tears and tantrums, and that’s just the grown-ups! There are single parents trying to make a living and juggle childcare, work and home-life whilst keeping everyone safe,  those who aren’t classed as key workers but are still trying to work full-time from home or they wont get paid and juggle older children, or indeed, several children under 5 (I really, really feel for you.) But no matter what your personal and family circumstances, we are all going to face challenges, feelings of guilt for not ‘doing it right’, meltdowns, and tricky situations.

I fear this is what wfh may look like with a toddler!

So, with that in mind, this first post hopes to be a way to get started, with key ideas and ‘structures’ (a term I use loosely) for what might or might not work for you and your families.

1. Don’t put pressure on yourself to be the ‘teacher’. Remember, you’re a parent first and foremost. And that means reassuring your children, hugging them, caring for them and letting them learn in their own way at their own speed. Use it as an opportunity to spend quality time together.
2. You don’t have to stick to a schedule, but I would highly recommend treating your weeks as ‘school days’ and keeping to similar bedtimes, lunch times etc. so there is some sort of consistency.
3. Some of you may prefer a more rigid timetable – if so, choose what works for you. I’d suggest an active ‘learning’ morning to keep things like the maths and English ticking over, with a more creative afternoon – research projects, arts and craft, outdoor time, etc.
4. Others may gain more from a more ‘themed’ approach. For example, have a baking day, ‘Space’ day, or board games day – you’ll soon find there are lots of Reading, Writing and Maths activities involved in nearly everything you do, so keep talking with your child.
5. Don’t be afraid to mix it up (if you’d like to!) Again, this might not work for people with children who prefer to know exactly what is happening when – but if it’s a gorgeous day and there are lovely outside activities you could be doing, then change your schedule to go and do them. Make the most of good weather.
6. Talking of getting outside, do. Go out. Play, in mud, grass, open spaces. Take the dog out, run around the fields, make fairy soup in the garden, plant seeds. Being outside is so vital for everyone’s mental health…so follow advice, keep your distance, but get out into the fresh air – you included, not just the children.
7. If you have a child who thrives on routine, then make it visible. Use visual timetables, pictures prompts, order them with your child the night before so they know what’s coming up. Use chalk paints to write it on the windows (this is also a fun way to practise spellings!)
8. If you have children of ages who can’t perhaps access the same learning, try to have a similar theme and change the outcomes slightly, (for example, if story writing, one might order the pictures from the story and match a word to each whilst the other would write their own version)  or give one something you don’t need to be there to help with while you spend time with the other – even if it’s watching You Tube videos of CocoMelon for half an hour, or ‘playing’ with building blocks.

I’ll be posting some of our daily schedules as we go along but we’re very open to changing them as the mood sees fit, so I’l try and write a little about what we actually got up to as well! As a teacher, I’m also going into school on various days to look after other key worker children too.

Now for resources. Most children, if school age, will have either been sent home with a pack of sheets and activities to do, or be learning remotely from home. I’m very aware that these packs may not last particularity long – it seems that what it takes 45 minutes to teach and do with a class of 30+ can be easily completed in 10 minutes with one child at home! – especially if we’re here for more than a few weeks. I’m also aware that toddlers and pre-schoolers may not have been sent home with any ‘learning’. So with that in mind, I’m going to list a few ‘key’ resources and ideas. There are huge long lists published with every link and idea going, but for the moment, I’ll keep it succinct and useful, with one or two ideas for each part of learning, to get you started. Over the next few weeks I’ll post more themed ideas you can dip into, such as ‘animals’ or ‘science’ so hopefully there’ll be something to interest everyone.

• Reading – read anything! Magazines, newspapers, books, leaflets. Share stories together, talk about them, ask about the characters, ask children to predict what might happen next, discuss why characters might have behaved in certain ways, get the dictionary out and look up words together, list synonyms for those words…the list is endless. With younger ones, investigate letters and sounds – use sand trays, play dough, felt tips to draw and sound out letters. Use phonics videos and games to help get started. Teachmonster is a great starter app for phonics, as are the Jolly Phonics videos. The site has some simple videos showing how to have a go at letter formation etc. Oliver Jeffers, a great author and artist, is doing ‘virtual’ video storytimes which you can find here, and children can even listen to stories read from the International Space Station!
• Writing – For really young ones, focus on letter formation, putting sounds together to create cvc (consonant, vowel, consonant words – c-a-t) words, finding rhyming words, looking at cvc words and seeing which parts look the same then saying and hearing the rhyme. Having a go at writing a word, phrase or short sentence to match a picture, for example, 3 pictures that tell the story of Goldilocks and the children write a word or words, or a short sentence to tell the story. You could make it into a little book. With older children, give the writing a purpose: a letter to a friend, an information leaflet on outdoor activities, a newspaper report on the day we can come out of isolation (!). Sit with your child to look at similar writing: what features does it have? How is it organised? What sort of language does it use? Then work with your child to create their own trying to emulate styles, vocabulary, etc. Make sure sentences have capital letters, full stops or other punctuation and make sense! Edit and alter, improve vocabulary, identify spelling patterns and how to correct them (children will often make the same mistake again and again, e.g. only adding ‘d’ to make words such as ‘happen’ or ‘open’ past tense).
• In terms of learning to read and write and develop skills further, Oxford Owl is a brilliant site – have a look around it.
• Maths – Keep up with the Times Tables, now is a perfect opportunity to get them learnt by heart and with super recall speed! Play matching games with sums to answers, quick fire question each other, time them completing a multiplication grid to see if they can beat yesterday’s time. Google has lots of ideas for learning these! But don’t forget to also learn the related division facts, for example, if you’re looking at 3×6=18, don’t forget to also learn that 18 / 6 = 3 and 18 / 3 = 6. Use equipment to help demonstrate these ideas – sort pasta (haha!) into groups, draw arrays, write and record. For anything else, I’d suggest looking at White Rose who have put together ‘teaching’ videos alongside activities and sheets. They have 5 days of ‘lessons’ and are adding them a week at a time so there is one maths activity a day.
• Science – This could include anything from growing plants, to learning about space, to finding out about the Human Body. Yes Bebe have a lovely selection of books to support this. I often see little fun experiments on the Mel Science  Facebook page too, and Mr Shaha’s Recipes for Wonder comes highly recommended.
• Excercise – Really, this can be anything! From the children putting together their own ‘work out’ and teaching it to you,  an outdoor assault course made up from  stuff you have outside (you could time them each day and see if they get faster if they’d like more of a challenge!) to joining Joe Wicks every morning at 9am as the nation’s newest PE teacher! Or why not try some children’s online Yoga from Cosmic Yoga? You and your children can be Pokemon, Anna and Elsa or even go on a 3 Little Pigs adventure – there’s something for everyone!
• Calm Time – This is soooooo necessary. I have no idea how I’m going to ‘teach’ my just 4 year old that it’s important we all spend some calm time by ourselves – being together but apart and doing our own thing. But I will. I think if we’re consistent with the time of day this happens and the types of activities involved, she will soon ‘get’ it but it may well take a few days! Things such as building towers, reading, colouring – anything calm and quiet.
• Outdoor Time – Another necessary one I feel. Do try to get outdoors at least once a day, even if it’s just to go and post a letter. Why not ask friends to draw rainbows and put in their windows for others to ‘spot’, or go on a ‘bug hunt’? Go to the local country parks or woods, whilst distancing yourself from others of course – and let them run off some steam. Or do a family run or bike ride. Make fairy soup in the garden with leaves, petals cones, etc. Collect flowers (from the places you are allowed) then come home and identify, draw and write about them. There are some specific resources for Outdoor Learning here or here. Little Bees also have some lovely wooden outdoor toys.
• Rainbow Hunting – In our local area, children are painting rainbows and putting them in their window for others to spot. We’re hoping to change the theme weekly. Find out more on my Facebook page.
• Creative Time – this could be baking, drawing, building, making, exploring — basically, anything really! Children could make a stick theatre with a shoe box and retell a story, or use play-dough to make bowls of porridge for Goldilocks. Older children may like to make crafts based on their History or Geography theme at school – Roman shields, gas masks from yogurt pots and binbags, volcanoes etc. There’s some great online drawing tutorials popping up with not so much emphasis on skills buts an achievable result. There are some videos showing how to make simple toys that all ages will like. Or why not have a go at completing Blue Peter Badge challenges to earn one? Little ones may find some of these activities fun!
• If you need craft resources delivered, then have a look at the extensive range at Yes Bebe. They have some traditional and some more unusual ideas, such as weaving kits, needle-felting, etc.
• BBC Teach – Loads of Live Lessons which are brilliant, and other resources. Search via the top bar for primary or secondary.

Ok, I’m stopping there. Really, just keep the reading, writing and maths ticking over and really enjoy the other things, no matter what you choose to do. As said, I’ll try to group and theme resources over the next few week so you can tap into other things.

Stay safe, and remember, we’re #inittogether

In It Together

What a month so far: huge worry for some, panic buying, big decisions to make…a lot of ‘wondering’ what to do for the best. I’ve always advocated you do whatever you see best for you and your family, however, not if others are put at risk because of your decision. I also believe the people at the op (virus specialists, scientists, etc.) know what they’re talking about and will give the best advice they can in any given current situation – and I’m happy to follow that, closures or not. Who’s to say I know better than them?!

So, my advice would be to fact-check, look for reliable sources of evidence, not Facebook posts from, let’s face it, anyone! It could be me writing, telling everyone I’m a doctor from India with this and that knowledge – who knows? Have you checked the credentials or simply read it and taken it as fact, as true? Or, again, a post from someone in a highly infected country…just an normal, everyday person – like you and me. Are they somehow more informed, better informed than the top guys over here? They may have experienced it first hand, but do they have an evidence based, scientific knowledge of virus spread and procedures? If not, surely their opinion is no more relevant that yours or mine?

Let’s let our top advisors, scientists and people who have experience in this do their job, and go with, follow, their advice. Anti-bacterial cleansers are all well and good, but it’s the alcohol percentage that kills the germs – this is a viral infection, not a bacterial one – and it responds best to soap to dispel the lipids. Do what you’re told, whether you agree or not, and don’t get into silly arguments over it – at the end of the day, it’s not worth it, no matter how much you disagree. Facts are facts and, let’s face it, you or I (on the whole) can only give opinion based on what we have been told. If you’ve got a point to make, or feel strongly about something, then by all means, make it, say it – I’m all for healthy debate – but don’t be surprised if others want their say too!

Ok – if you’ve got to the bottom of that, well done! Please feel free to leave any comments – positive or otherwise – on this post. I’d be most interested hearing your opinions, whether I agree or not!

#inittogether