When it was full lockdown we adhered to the laws. Friends and family were completely off limits, I only went out of the house (solo) for essential food shopping and we stayed local for our exercise once that was permitted. When we returned from holiday this summer we quarantined for 14 days. That was VERY tough as we couldn’t leave the house at all. Period. We managed it though.

Rule of six when you’re a five

It has been fantastic seeing friends and family again after months of isolation. We, like most, haven’t been meeting up in vast numbers. We have continued to socially distance, have been generally sensible about everything and are fastidious about wearing face masks where mandatory.

The rule of six for families of five obviously means you can only socialise with one other person outside of your unit at a time. One grandparent or one friend (but they can’t bring their partner); a child can’t meet a single friend (even from their own class) out of school as a parent coming with them takes the count to seven.

The rule of six seems to fly in the face of other advice

This all seems rather crazy and arbitrary when children are back at school and we’ve all been encouraged to get back out and about again.

• My children are in year group bubbles. My eldest (who’s just started secondary school) is in a bubble of 150!
• We were encouraged to Eat Out to Help Out in August and can currently be inside a pub or restaurant with lots and lots of perfect strangers. By the way, many places are continuing the scheme independently through September. Details here
• We’ve been told it is safe to return to the office and we should go back if we can
• Ditto public transport. It’s fine to be cocooned with lots of random people. Ubers are fine too
• Hunting and shooting are exempt from the rule of six
• Recreational team sports are back on the agenda (props to my daughter’s netball club for fantastic organisation, sanitisation and implementation of safety measures)

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Sadly, I think COVID-19 is going to be around for a long time yet. We need to strike a balance between safety and containment, and getting back to some sort of normality for the sake of the nation’s mental health. I believe we have to learn to live alongside this disease and to do this need to employ common sense, not take unnecessary risks, ensure the most vulnerable are shielded and take sensible precautions. The rule of six seems rather a blunt, incongruous ‘solution’ to a very complex problem.

And let’s not even think about the ramifications for Christmas

You might also like:

Eating out post-relaxation of lockdown rules

Lockdown letter – a reminisce about the last three months

Easter holiday on lockdown

Lockdown shopping list

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Initial homeschooling experiences

Tasks and Timetable

Every morning so far we’ve started the ‘school day’ with Joe Wicks. It’s a great aid for setting a routine, but I must confess I’ve had achy glutes since day two!

School sent over a good variety of tasks (for a two week period) across the subjects. It also provided a suggested timetable, which balances up academic, creative, exercise, electronic and quiet time. I’ve found the girls definitely need structure for the day. We don’t follow it religiously or have a stopwatch on but it gives a good framework.

We pick a few activities per day and then put them up on our little whiteboard. Additionally, reading time happens every day.

Lay the foundations

My three don’t need constant supervision, but I have to spend a decent amount of time at the start of a new activity to go through it properly. Rushing this bit is a false economy and results in being interrupted with questions every five minutes! It’s best to spend 15 minutes giving a good explanation, examples and discuss ideas ahead of a new task.

My 8-year-olds can work independently for about 30-45 minutes and my 11-year-old often works well over an hour without needing my input.

Be flexible

I think I was a bit too authoritarian on the first two days, so have lightened up since then. However, they still get a lot done. We try to mix it up as much as possible. My eldest’s tasks are usually more in-depth so she often completes less things in a day but produces a lot of work. We tweak the timetable to accommodate this.

I’ve started adapting activities so to they incorporate things that they’re particularly interested in. They are far more enthusiastic if something is relatable. Similarly, I’ve got them to ‘plan the holiday.’ I asked them to come up with ideas for things we can do over an Easter holiday where we can’t have visitors and have to stay in the confines of house and garden. They’ve come up with a lot of suggestions!

Free time during the day

We include a number of breaks/free time where they play a game, use devices, read, play outside etc. Again, I was quite rigid on when free time was at the start, but now I let it happen naturally when someone has finished something or if concentration is on the wane.

Not getting bogged down

I’ve been sent lots of different homeschooling resources from all quarters, which is great. However, I started to feel a bit overwhelmed. I’ve come to terms with the fact that we can’t do everything and I’m being more selective.

Marking and feedback

We’ve been looking at the work they produce together and I’ve been marking it. I don’t want them to think they’re doing stuff for nothing and it doesn’t have any value. Maria and Gabby – who are eight – have even been putting their own learning objective at the start of their work and then asking me if it’s an ‘LO met’ or ‘LO met plus’! I’ve not done this as I’m not qualified to judge but I have been giving feedback and making corrections. I’ve also been dispensing the all-important team points.

Hobbies and leisure

The girls all love netball and we have a great post in the garden so we’re really encouraging this (not that they need encouraging). We’re quite a games-y family anyway and love playing card and board games. We’ve just taught them poker and they are now obsessed.

We’ve upped our game show quota; House of Games is a new regular.

I’ve been taking more photos than usual (with my Fuji Instax Mini 90) and the girls are documenting their days in a journal and using my photos.

Zoom, FaceTime, Houseparty and WhatsApp

You can’t underestimate the social aspect of school. To fill this void, the girls are having plenty of scheduled chats with their friends. I think it’s really important for their mental well-being as it’s such a morale boost. As well as chatting, they’ve also been playing games with each other on these apps.

Final thoughts

Homeschooling is a balancing act and can be tough (though no one’s been bored yet!). It’s been great to actually have such input in what they’re learning and be able to specifically focus on anything they want further help with or practice on.

We’ve discovered that necessity is the mother of invention and we’ve all come up with new ways of learning and creating entertainment.

I won’t lie though, I will be happy when they’re back at school.

The post Homeschooling: what we’ve found so far… appeared first on The Parent Social.

I would not stockpile, but here’s what would be on my essentials list for a Coronavirus lockdown or any other period of quarantine.

Lockdown shopping list

Olive oil – the starting point of about 80% of my cooking

Tinned tomatoes – I’m half Italian, tomatoes feature quite heavily in my cooking

Pasta – (see above)

Soup – As a working-from-home freelancer I always have a stock for lunch; might grab a couple (I mean a couple) of extra cans/cartons .

Calpol – Suddenly realised yesterday that we’d run out. Went to get our usual bottle and discovered, surprise, surprise, it had run out at Boots and Asda. Managed to get a 24 packet of the fastmelts, which we’ve never had before   

Flour (plus yeast) – We make quite a lot of bread; 350g of flour will make a loaf and it costs about 30p

Paracetamol – Matt suffers with headaches, so we always need some in the house. Also, required if we get a temperature. We were extremely low, so I bagged two very cheap packets at Lidl. Which? has a great article about the cheapest places to buy popular medicines

Cannellini beans, kidney beans, chickpeas – these are staples of so many favourite family meals. They are always on my shopping list.   

Lentils – We had Lincolnshire sausage & lentil simmer for the first time the other week. Amazingly the kids loved the Puy lentils; healthy, filling and pretty cheap, I’m going to buy more and look for other recipes. Suggestions welcome  

Tinned tuna – We’re all fans of fresh fish, but store cupboard tuna pasta bake is one of Maria’s favourites. It requires two tins of the fishy stuff, so I’ll make sure I get some in

Wine – No explanation required

Berries, bananas and any other fruit that freezes well – Not just about fruit, this is a good guide on stocking your freezer

Frozen vegetables – I’m a big fan of frozen veg anyway: it works out cheaper, means I include it more regularly in the kids’ meals and it cuts down significantly on waste

Milk – We get ours delivered from milk&more; no trips to the supermarket and it comes in environmentally-friendly glass bottles. They also deliver our eggs, butter, orange juice and a number of other groceries

Rice – Another staple in our household from accompanying winter warming chilli con carne to a quick egg-fried rice at lunch

Replenish first aid kit – embarrassingly, until a couple of years ago I didn’t have one. Make sure you do (for any event). The Millie’s Trust one is great.   

Pack of A4 paper – pencil and paper are the best boredom busters ever

Bleach – my dad has always been obsessed with it and uses copious amounts when cleaning floors and bathrooms (he does a lot of my cleaning!)

Chocolate and biscuits  – Long shelf-life and good for energy and morale!

Here the Independent provides a list of the supermarket rules for lockdown shoppers.

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