Thursday photo #308

Isn’t it amazing how busy it’s possible to be without even leaving the house? With the children at home, we’re slowly settling into our new routine. My work is pottering along surprisingly well. I haven’t got quite as much as normal, but having two completely different streams of freelance income often means that everything comes at once. Whilst it’s difficult to fit it all in, I’m making the most of having work to do. It’s notably better than the alternative.

Finding our homeschool routine

When I first started helping the girls with their school work, we’d all sit together at the dining room table. After a few days, it became apparent that this wasn’t going to work. The two of them are incapable of concentrating when there’s the option of messing about together. They’re each too interested in what the other is doing to get on with their own work.

For the past few days, I’ve tried teaching them separately. One plays, or watches television or the tablet while the other does school work, then they swap. This worked a lot better. The one on one attention helped them to understand what they were doing. Being apart also allowed them to concentrate. Unfortunately, there was a problem with this too.

We ended up spending all day doing this bit by bit. So, I wasn’t getting my work done and the girls were getting hardly any time to do anything else. I still haven’t really found the right balance. Yesterday, I spent some of the day with one of them working at a time and the rest of the day, they were working in separate rooms but at the same time. I’m not sure whether this is the answer, but I’m hoping we’ll find our balance eventually. If you’re getting through school work a bit more successfully than me, I’d love to hear how you’re doing it.

Time outdoors

As I mentioned last week, we have just had our front garden fenced off. It has made such a difference to the amount of space we’ve got, particularly as we’ve also moved a couple of sheds to open up the rest of the garden. As a result, we spent almost all weekend outside. My husband and I were working hard to get the garden cleared and the girls did their bit too. Libby helped with a bit of digging and a few odd jobs on the Saturday. Lia decided she didn’t fancy hard work though and spent virtually all day in her bedroom on the tablet. We wouldn’t usually allow that much screen time, but we didn’t mind her having a day of downtime. By Sunday, she wanted to be outdoors too and both girls helped to prepare our vegetable plot.

We still have quite a lot of work to do in the garden, so I’m sure we’ll be at it again this weekend. I’m so pleased with the timing of this, it has made all the difference to have something to be getting on with at home. It’s nice to get the girls involved too, they are particularly keen to grow some vegetables.

Thursday photo #308

Like many people this week, we’ve been having fun with the Google 3D animal images. Lia was delighted to have a horse in her bedroom and we all thought this penguin was rather cute.