Thursday photo #316

School holidays are a funny thing in this strange limbo we are in at the moment. We all look forward to the extra downtime with the girls not having to battle through their schoolwork. Then the holidays arrive and they feel somewhat odd. We haven’t been joining the hoards on days out to the beach or anywhere else far from home. We’ve been out walking or cycling every day but otherwise, life continues as normal but without the school work. Until next week, when everything changes again.

Back to school

Lia is in year 1, one of the first cohorts to return to school as we are gradually released from lockdown. Whilst I know many people have agonised over whether to send their children back to school, that wasn’t the case for us.

In the first few weeks after Lia finished school, she started to get a bit worried about going back. She’s not fond of change and she worried about whether she’d have a different teacher. When she started to have that slight wobble, I knew that we would be sending her back to school as soon as we had the opportunity. If we waited until September, I know she would have got upset about it and the transition into year two would have been difficult.

Thankfully, the school are reopening on Tuesday and Lia is delighted to be going back. They had said that they were going to split the class alphabetically to allow a maximum of 15 children to be together. However, it sounds like only 11 of them are going to be returning next week. This means that Lia is likely to have her usual teacher and be with the friend she has been really missing who is also going back. I know sending children back to school isn’t the right thing for everyone and that the pandemic isn’t over. For us though, this is absolutely the right choice and I’m sure we’ll soon settle into our new normal.

Responsibility

Libby has always craved independence and responsibility. Being at home for so long has been frustrating for her because she really loves school and gets on well there. She has a small group of friends who she is very close to and she is missing them terribly. She is also desperate to get back into swimming and gymnastics. Thankfully, Libby is capable of throwing herself into anything with gusto, so she has found other interests at home.

Earlier in the spring, Libby and I planted quite a few plants on her windowsill. Most of them have moved gradually to outside and we now have a small but very full and thriving vegetable plot. The only things that have ended up staying put indoors are her cucumber plants. There are two reasons for that. Firstly, I accidentally bought indoor cucumbers that really should be in a greenhouse. Secondly, they are so enormous that we don’t have space for them outside.

Luckily, they seem to be thriving on Libby’s windowsill. For several weeks now, we have been eating cucumber most days for lunch. She has subjected her teacher to a detailed explanation of how to grow cucumbers and how to make them into a salad. Best of all, she is loving being responsible for growing our food and I’m sure it’s something she’ll continue with in the future.

Thursday photo #317

We’ve been getting out and about a lot more this week for walks and bike rides. I love this photo of the girls on the Malvern Hills. I feel incredibly lucky every day to live within walking distance of scenery like this.