At home with the kids week 8...

We've been home for 2 months now, schools closed here on March 8th. My five year old has stopped asking when he'll be going back to school and my 3 year old has forgotten that there was time when we were all out at work and she was home alone with the Nanny. Slowly, slowly we got used to our new normal. We were gently plodding along; however this week I have been feeling really down and on the verge of a 'jolly good cry' a few times. I've been saying all along this is not easy but we can and will do this! Compared to what other nations have been through before us this is a small test but the fact that it's so small and we're complaining so much is proof of how far mankind has come.

I'm trying to stay positive, keep my kids' spirits up and at least chip away each day at at least 3-4 of a mountain of tasks that seems to grown as fast as it can each time I close my laptop. I've decided to take it easy and do what I can and refuse to feel guilty about what I can't do. I'm tired. I'm a teacher and a mother and a human. You can't pour out of an empty cup, so I researched some ways to work through this hump and i'm happy to share what I found.

1. "A change is good as holiday" Each morning I come downstairs to the kitchen table where I work, every morning I sit at the same spot which shows me the same view; this morning I changed my spot looking at a different area of my (overgrown- but lets not talk about that!) garden, I was able to watch the kids on the trampoline outside rather than the, albeit gorgeous, palm tree. It actually uplifted my spirit more than I thought it would so I might rearrange the furniture in the living room next.
2. Although I have to spend time in the kitchen as it is my temporary office I don't want to spend a minute extra so I have found some easy recipes - listed below to save time so you can spend more time doing the things you love (or have to do 😬😬) One of the biggest changes that i've made is try to get to zero waste in the kitchen so I found some recipes to make with leftovers so again saving you time as the leftovers are already cooked so you're repurposing them.
3. My lesson planning is quick and easy to be honest so I don't spend much time on that but I do end up spending time on re-teaching topics. So recording my notes has saved me some time on that front. Making tutorial videos is very time consuming so I aim to be good enough but don't allow myself to be a perfectionist. I also conduct a lot of online Quizizz so all I need is to transfer the marks from there into my Gradebook. 
4. Planning activities for the little ones so that I can teach online is imperative, I collect items from around the house and literally make up things for them to do, recently I followed a 'cutesy ' group on FaceBook where the awesome mums are really pulling out all the stops and making fun activities for the kids. All of mine really enjoyed this toilet paper roll activity -we made a family and i'm not sharing our exact pic because its ok that it's not Pinterest perfect - we Nailed it! 
5. Everyone needs good coffee and time to recuperate at the end of the evening sit back and relax, a little dessert and chill time is sometimes all you need to survive. Remember to smile 😊

I really hope that this brought a spring back in the step for some of you- please do share your ways of getting through lockdown below. Don't forget to sign up and join our community where we'll be sharing Homeschooling ideas and there's a homework club for your children to communicate with teachers and with each other.