Thursday photo #315

It seems so strange to think that next week is half term. We were due to fly to France tomorrow for a few days. It would have been the first time Lia had been on a plane and the first flight Libby would be old enough to remember. We were due to visit Puy du Fou theme park and spend a few days in Nantes, where I lived for a year during university. Instead, we’ll be enjoying a few days off schoolwork and preparing to send Lia back to school.

Staying at home

It is a strange feeling having one child who will be going back to school after half term and one who won’t. I know not everyone is sending their children back but for Lia, going back to school is absolutely the right thing. Lia gets quite nervous about change. Being at school without Libby will be difficult. But not going back to school would be much harder. The longer she is off, the more she will build it up in her mind to be something scary. I look forward to her being back and remembering that it’s somewhere she enjoys being.

Libby is also keen to get back to school but I’m quite pleased she’ll be at home a little longer. Doing schoolwork one to one with her has been a bit of a revelation. She can get on and do her English with no help from me at all, asking Alexa for spellings and definitions. Maths is the opposite. When she first started schoolwork at home, maths was a real chore. She needed loads of help all the time.

Now though, she is whizzing through it. We’ve worked out strategies to make basic maths a little easier. We’ve gone over multiplication and division sums and she now understands them. Each new piece of work seems somewhat easier for her to get her head around than the last. She has learnt to cook, bake and grow things in the garden and on her windowsill. Much as it is tough for her not seeing her friends and tough for me working and helping with schoolwork, I think something positive will come from it in the long run.

Back to swimming

Being quite antisocial at the best of times, lockdown didn’t impact me too much. I was still able to run, I could close the door and sit quietly away from everyone when the constant company from my family became overwhelming. But the one thing I did miss was open water swimming. This was expressly permitted in parliament as of last Wednesday, so that was the day I went back to it. Since then, I’ve had a long swim in my usual swim spot and a shorter swim in a new spot a bit closer to home that I haven’t visited before. I’ve got another swim planned for today.

In accordance with the advice issued by the RLSS, this isn’t a good time to start open water swimming. But for those of us that already do it, it’s an amazing time to get back in. I already feel so much better for the couple of swims I’ve had. The children are keen to get in too and as they’re quite seasoned river swimmers and paddle boarders, I’ll be taking them to a safe spot when the water warms up a little. We’ll be avoiding popular swimming spots over half term though, especially the beaches. We are very lucky around here to be able to easily social distance while we swim. I don’t think it would be so easy on a busy beach.

The girls have been loving the freedom to explore on their bikes over the past few days. They have just finished reading the Famous Five so everywhere we go, they’re looking out for adventures.