Week 2 of Home Schooling

As I come to the end of the second full week of home-schooling, (they go to their dad's tomorrow as I'm a keyworker and have work), it's not as bad as I thought it would be. (Although maybe ask me the question in September!)

We created a schedule, and because I only have the one laptop, Kieran works on his academic work in the mornings and Ben uses the laptop in the afternoons to do his. (I work on a PC). They are both keen to do PE with Joe, so I let them.

To keep themselves fit, because of their lack of after school sporting activities, Kieran has been running with me Tuesday and Thursday mornings and Ben does his runs in the afternoons. However, due to my hamstring, I might need to dig out my bike and cycle while Kieran runs. His little legs are faster than mine, and my hamstring really isn't right. (Which is soooo frustrating!)

Wednesdays, which is a non-run day, I'm trying to make us go out for a family walk after lunch, so that we've all escaped the house once for our daily exercise. I think this is good for our mental health as well as our physical health.

Therefore, and I know this is only week 2, I think we're all coping rather well with our social distancing but we have been lucky with the sunshine, and being able to escape into the garden if desperate, so a different story may appear when the rain returns.

What I am enjoying is the time to make dinner. (I know that sounds daft, right?) But as they're not off to football, hockey or athletics, and needing to leave the house early, I can actually make dinner and take my time about it. Dinner time is more relaxing. I'm not rushing at it and occasionally I'm trying to get them involved, which leads to my next point.


They are taking it in turns to bake each week. Now I have the ingredients, they are baking sweet treats. Kieran helped bake his birthday cake last week, and Ben made flapjacks with Barry Lewis' live streaming on YouTube. (Barry Lewis is like our local Jamie Oliver celebrity. He only lived around the corner from us until recently, but has moved, but we do know where.) Next week, Kieran is going to make Easter chocolate nests, and I may attempt Jenny Kane's Mars Bar Scones!

Because of the lack of clubs, I'm also enjoying our evenings altogether. We've been watching movies! So far we've watched all of the Harry Potter movies - yep all eight! I think the next thing is to revisit Lord Of The Rings.

My writing isn't waning too much either, (as I feared it would) as I work when they work. Yesterday was productive at nearly 1500 words. The thing I'm forgetting to do is my studying.  I am finding it harder to remember that I need to do my proofreading/copy editing course.

In order to encourage more reading, especially from Kieran, I've set up a reading challenge, too. If we each read 2 books by the end of April, we get Pizza Hut delivered. (I enjoyed Pizza Hut so much for Kieran's birthday I wanted an excuse to order it in again!) Ben and I have already agreed that if Kieran doesn't want to participate in this challenge, he can watch us eat the pizza! Ha ha!

What I'm not enjoying is the bickering. Some days they do try my patience.

Anyway, from the Morgans, who are remaining sane for now, please stay safe.

Xxx