Home Truths

The birds are still singing, the cherry trees are still blossoming and we have spotted the first butterfly in the garden. Gil's cucumber seeds are sprouting and the sun is shining.

We are, however, feeling massively daunted, especially me, as Billy will (hopefully) still be working, at the prospect of five days of home schooling a week, particularly as I have a child who does NOT like worksheets or writing, does NOT like sitting down and most definitely does NOT like Mum teaching him. Our Fridays have often involved going out, something we will no longer be able to do, so somehow we are going to have to utilise the house and garden in a creative and will-he-cotton-on-that-we're-trying-to-learn-something ish way.. On top of this and just to make matters even more difficult, I'm not planning on much screen time either as Ferdy goes slightly mad and grumpy in front of a screen. Plus we don't have a very fast or efficient internet connection.

And I wasn't exactly filled with enthusiasm when we started a diary this week, and Ferdy's answer to one of my suggested questions, 'what did you learn today?', was:

All I can say is EEEEEEEK!!!!!

But we have some ideas: my opera singer brother is going to do a weekly online music lesson; my Mum (who is self isolating on her own in Dorset) will be doing story time with Granny; we will have a what's in the news? lesson; we have lots of books and audiobooks and it's the perfect time for planting seeds. Ferdy has also made some suggestions of his own: story PE (which involves telling a fairy story and doing various stretches and movements related to it eg going small like Thumbelina); a weekly Horrible Histories lesson; poetry with Michael Rosen; RE from all over the world and he wants some of our weekly topics to be deserts, grasslands, Africa, Narnia and magic.

And we managed to get 38 books out of the library this Friday before it closed; I am blessed with a boy who loves books more than he loves anything else (and this includes his parents and food).

Two for me, thirty-eight for the boys

And Gil and I have started a letter and picture a day project:

A is for apple, b is for bog roll. I wonder what c will be for...

So henceforth, this blog will be a summary of our week, its successes and also its failures. I'm not going to pretend we are doing great schooling when we aren't and I'm not expecting miracles. Ferdy is very unlikely to return to school able to write joined up, or be more attentive and he most definitely will not have written his own version of King Lear.

We'll do our best though, as Ferdy would say. And hey, he might dislike homelearning so much, he'll be desperate to get back to school...