New 'normal'

So 'normality' has been thrown away and we have a new reality.  My business has ground to a halt but I'm not upset - means I can dedicate myself to Tom's homeschooling without distraction.  It isn't something I ever thought I would have to do.  Matt's work, thankfully is unaffected, so he is working as usual Monday to Friday.

First Monday of homeschooling, Tom and I sat down and tried to come up with a schedule.  He wanted to keep it as close to school as possible.  In fact he is being very mature about it.  We have decided the following:

9am - PE with Joe Wicks / Pilates with Jess followed by choosing time.
10 to 11 English
11 to 12 Maths

1 to 1.30 Reading
1.30 to 3pm Mindfulness (anything else)
3 to 3.30 Diary

Learning to touch type

School haven't really given us anything to do - just given us some links to some educational games on-line, so really it is up to me to think of things, especially as the games tend to make the computer run hot and crash!  

Maths isn't so bad - I can come up with work for him to do, but I have no idea when it comes to English.  I ended up getting Tom to write some letters to his grandparents which worked well, but I guess he needs to do other things too - just what?

Powertool!

Hammer

Mindfulness is more fun.  On Monday we played board games, Tuesday Tom washed the car - he was very diligent.  Wednesday he made some lemon cupcakes and Thursday and Friday he did DIY.  We have been talking about upgrading his bedroom for a while but have never got round to it.  As the lockdown was getting more and more likely we quickly got onto IKEA and ordered some new furniture (wardrobe and desk) which got delivered on Wednesday.  He got to use power tools and a hammer to put them together with no injuries and even more amazing no arguments (although I stayed away).

Beautiful letter

We also need to paint his room - but we were too slow getting paint and now no-where has any.  Will keep checking - problem is the whole nation is doing DIY at the moment.

Washing the car

PE with Joe Wicks

Anyway we survived the first week without too much incident.  We are feeling how small our garden is - the only game we can really play in it is beach tennis so that is what we do for 'playtime'.  We keep 9 to 3.30 as the school day, have an early tea and then go for our 'Boris walk' afterwards.  We are lucky to live in such a lovely area - think we will discover lots of new walks from our front door over the next couple of weeks.

The weekend was slightly different - no school work.  Lazy morning, making of a picnic and then a long walk from our doorstep.  Return home, showers, watch a film, snooker, tea, board game, David Walliams audio story and bed.  I'm not exactly looking forward to the 'Easter Holidays' as not sure what to do without structure of school day to keep us going during the week...

Countdown to lockdown

Wowzers - how different the world looks now!  Normally at this time (week before the school holidays), I realise that I have got behind with the blog and quickly write up the past weekends ready so I can write daily about our holidays.  Impossible now - so so much has happened and to be honest our weekends weren't that interesting - mainly football and walks.

Why - oh just a little thing called Covid 19!  A little germ that somehow got transferred from the animal kingdom to humans in Wuhan in China (no-one is 100% sure exactly how at the moment).  That happened in December, the Chinese then shut down their whole country to stop it spreading, however, the rest of the world didn't quite realise what was going to happen and still allowed foreign travel.

The virus then kept popping up in other countries - mainly S.E. Asia (Korea, Japan etc) and on cruise boats.  Countries started flying their citizens home and put them in quarantine for 14 days before they were allowed out and about.  It was being contained...then February half term happened.  People and families traveled all over the place.  Outbreaks of the disease occurred in Italy and Spain.  Problem with it is, not all are affected which means you can be a carrier without knowing.  People came home from their holidays in the sun / snow and went back to normal life.

Within a couple of weeks cases of Covid 19 were being found in the UK in people that hadn't travelled to any affected countries.  The virus had got out and was being transmitted between people. It was getting serious...

Thursday 12th March  - Boris said all those with new continuous coughs (what does that mean) and temperatures to stay at home for 7 days to self isolate.
Tuesday 16th March - Boris extended period of self isolation to 14 days and for it to include all members of the household
Wednesday 17th March - all schools to close on Friday indefinitely.  Everyone to social isolate from those not in your household (keep 2 meters away)
Monday 23rd March - you are only allowed out for one walk a day and essential shopping (groceries / pharmacy)
Thursday 26th March - you are not allowed to travel by car to go for a walk.

Who would have thought it?  Terms such as lockdown, social isolation, self isolation have become common place.  The government who have had 'no money' for years and had been squeezing the poor and local services out of their pennies for years is suddenly able to pay all non-essential workers 80% of their wage and after what seemed an eternity 80% of self employed wages too as well as bailing out transport etc etc.  I do realise that we will have to pay for it later, but you do wonder where this money has appeared from?

So, Tom probably had his very last day at Ingleton Primary School.  It was very sad for Year 6, so far all they had done was work, work, work ready for the SATS and then after those they get a term of treats - lots of outdoor activities, days away, they do a play, have a leavers do, leavers hoodies, trial days in their new schools etc etc.  They have missed out on it all.  They took in white shirts on Friday and got lots of autographs but that was it.  Their teacher though has said they they will be invited back for a proper leavers assembly once things go back to 'normal'.  Tom's year has always been the golden year - the teachers were as upset as the children.

End of year photo!

Here are some emails we received:
"I have just had confirmation from the DfE that SATs will be cancelled this year. The very year when your bright bunch of children would have done us proud and moved us up the league tables considerably! But, it doesn't matter, they know how great they are and so do we. We all have other priorities at the moment this is the least of anyone's worries.

Keep smiling everyone, the sun is shining today.

Jo Colledge"  

"Dearest Parents

This week has been the hardest of my teaching career.  What a very strange day it has been today, but hopefully your child feels they have had some well -deserved fun and added some good memories to their bank. A few highlights were: giving Harry Dawson and Mrs Morphet a fright while playing manhunt; Charlie ‘hiding’ amongst the children in Wensleydale while they were enjoying a story outside with Mr Forde and enjoying a delicious ice-cream this afternoon.

Your children have been amazing throughout and have shown great maturity and sensitivity to the situation. They truly are a special bunch!

I feel desperately sad for my Year 6 children, whom I have nurtured and fed for a few years now. They have grown in so many ways and they were excited to show everyone what they were capable of in the forthcoming SAT tests. They were looking forward to showing how they would have put on the best show Ingleton has had with our KS2 production. They were looking forward to being the most respected Year 6 we have had and spreading important messages to their peers about the environment and healthy lifestyles. They were looking forward to taking part in the debate competition and lots of other opportunities. They were looking forward to their leavers assembly with all the ceremony and celebration that would bring.

These things may still happen, but I fear, this virus will take a long time to pass. If we are still closed by the end of the summer term, I have vowed we will still have a leavers assembly. You will all be invited back to Ingleton for a special assembly where they will receive their leavers hoody and enjoy the congratulations they so deserve.

In the meantime, we will endeavour to help you support your child at home. Yesterday they all brought home their learning packs. I have fully explained these to the children and they understand the idea of consolidating knowledge and skills they have already been taught. The suggestion is, your child picks five activities/tasks to do each day. I have suggested they have a timetable for Monday to Friday so they have some routine to their days.

In the coming weeks I will introduce other tasks and activities to complete. It is also really important to take this opportunity to take time to be with each other and do some of the things we struggle to fit in.

We are all experiencing unprecedented times and are trying to make sense of the gravity of the situation we find ourselves in. At the heart of all the inconveniences of our new restricted lifestyle, is the safety of everyone in our community.

Rest assured I am available as always via email and any questions or queries you have (or just a need for a friendly message) contact me at r.clements@ingleton-pri.n-yorks.sch.uk anytime.

This time will pass and we will re-emerge from our social hibernation. We need to keep smiling and remain positive for our wonderful children.

Take care everyone and please keep in touch

Rachel Clements"

Tom in his autographed shirt

To be fair, Tom has taken it all in his stride.  He hasn't felt sorry for himself at all.  I think they must have approached the subject well at school as he came home ready for homeschooling and has accepted home arrest with the two of us with good humour.  Children are resilient - I'm thinking he will be fine.  I do worry for his lack of social contact with other children, he is going to become a mini adult in this time, but hopefully when the kids go back to school, they will spend time letting them adjust to being in social situations again before the hard work starts...

Extra day? Time for a day out!

So Janine and I had arranged quite a while ago to finally have our girlie day out in Leeds. We were a little worried at one point that it wouldn't go ahead as we have had so much rain and the trains around here aren't the most reliable, but it was fine, they ran.

Bubbling magic drink!

Matt took us up to Ribblehead and the train arrived on time.  We got seats, shortbread and a drink from the trolley and settled down to watch the scenery go past. We got into Leeds and headed straight to the Alchemist for cocktails.  The Alchemist does a great range in cocktails - very expensive but great for showmanship.  I very much like anything with dry ice and chemistry type glasses etc.  First one I went for was a colour changing one where you pour in two different liquids at different times and the drink changes colour whilst bubbling with dry ice.  Great entertainment and tastes good too.   Next one was pimms, gin, ginger beer and mint, with dry ice of course.  Really tasty and very cool too.

Then we headed to the corn exchange and then Bundobust for lunch and a beer.  Then another walk including a stop at TK Maxx and a very giggly incident around a huge pink waterproof poncho thing. Next stop was Alchemist but the other Alchemist.  But OMG - the clientele was quite different.  It was full to bursting with young 20 and 30 year olds - all of whom were very orange, bleached hair, HUGE eye lashes, pouty lips, weird tights with no heels, in shiny black pants and leopard print blouses.  It was stifling and suddenly J and me felt very old, very frumpy and very in the wrong place.  We turned around and made a dash for it through the pouting selfie taking orange ladies back to the streets where we felt a little bit normal again.  We found a rock shop full of band T-shirts and gear and spent a good half hour calming down amongst the black t-shirts and normal people - I much prefer a goth to an orange lady!

We headed back to the Trinity Centre, thinking we would go back to the Alchemist, but that was full of orange ladies too now.  Then I remembered that the Everyman Cinema has a bar so we headed there and found a lovely quiet retreat with comfy chairs where we could feel normal, hear each other and relax.  So, we got in a bottle of white wine and relaxed, was lovely.  We then got the train back.  Spent an hour waiting in Shipley as the train in front of us had broken down but it was no bother, plenty of very drunk people on board keeping us entertained and it was warm and comfy.  We got back with no dramas - a very lovely, relaxing day.

Sunday - a bit of a quiet day.  Tom came home with Pat and Bob (he had got the bus over to Settle again to watch the snooker).  Tom and Bob then had a game of snooker here (Tom bought some snooker balls for his pool table with his birthday money) and then we went for lunch at Goat Gap.  The afternoon was spent doing homework - that took pretty much the whole afternoon.  Then tea, and snooker final until it was Tom's bed time.

Model Railways

The beloed fiddle yard

Today was model railway show day. We'd been looking forward to this for a while, and we were lucky that it went ahead - there were rumours the then-developing coronavirus situation might see it cancelled.

Anyway, we got up far too early and met Katie and Rebecca at Ribblehead station. The train from Leeds arrived bang on time (!) and trundled up to Carlisle with hardly anyone board. An hour's whizz up to Glasgow took us to the SECC, where the exhibition was being held, as was the Scottish Wedding Show. Very easy to see who was going to which show - somewhat different attire.

The show itself was pretty much what we expected - lots of retail stalls and even more layouts, some of which were hugely impressive. Some people take this stuff extremely seriously, mostly men of a certain age. Tom, as ever, spent more time looking at the fiddle yards than at the layouts themselves, some which had amazing attention to detail.
Still, Tom and Rebecca were suitably entranced, and they got on very well, better than when we went to the Direct Rail Services open day last summer. Tom went there with a fistful of dollars thanks to his recent birthday, but in the end, he only spent £60 on three more Pullman coaches, complete with carriage lights. He was planning to buy scenery stuff for the new upper deck of his model railway, but as soon as he saw the coaches, it was a done deal. To be fair, it was a bit of a bargain.

Lunch was very average - a cheese and onion pasty and a bottle of Irn Bru, sat on the corridor outside the hall, just by the loos. Hey ho, exhibition food. Katie and Rebecca had brought sandwiches of course, and I was slightly envious of them. They looked much nicer than our greasy fare.

I think we timed it spot on. By the time we'd seen everything in the show, from huge steam powered locos to tiny T-gauge (1:440 scale) layouts, our feet were staring to ache and it was almost time to head back to Central Station for our train to Carlisle.

The journey home was just as easy as the journey back, and we got back to Ribblehead all smiles, especially as I had time for a couple of quick halves in the craft beer pub on the platform at Carlisle. The girls were excellent company, and Katie gave me a hilarious account of the more interesting parts of her past. Gave me a good laugh. I reckon we may think about doing it again in the future.

Half Term

This half term started on Friday with the Blezards arriving after a week at Center Parcs in Warminster.  Was half the price of the Penrith one being far away from Scotland!  They arrived 5 minutes after we got home from the climbing club meet up.  We had make your own pizza and then the boys then played back to back pool whilst we sat in the kitchen and drank copious amounts of alcohol.  Didn't get to bed till late and we were all a little hung over in the morning.

Saturday was a truly awful day with storm Dennis bringing rain and wind.  We went to Wensleydale for lunch and a cheese shop and then returned home.  Matt and Neil went out to see Thorton Force, the boys played countless numbers of games of pool whilst Sharon and I sat and chatted about nothing in particular.  We then went and did a lap of the village (whilst leaving the boys playing pool), a quick beer in the OPO and then back home for a lamb stew, more pool for the boys and then early to bed as we were all tired after our over indulgence on Friday night.  Typical Sunday, although windy was a nice day, but they had to go home for school tomorrow, so we waved them off and then headed to the Station Inn at Ribblehead for lunch and onwards to Horton to walk to Hull Pot to see if there was a waterfall there - there was.

Then back home, a cuddle up on the sofa whilst watching James Bond and then early to bed all round.

Monday - Tom went for a mini adventure on the bus with Sierra and Emily to Settle.  Steph and John were keen for Sierra to get the bus but with someone.  Half term is the easiest time to do it.  At the last minute one of Sierra's friends wanted to go too, so we waved the three of them off from Ingleton on the 11 o'clock bus with enough money for lunch.  So good to give them freedom, but you do worry!  They had a good time, went to The Folly for lunch: Mrs Jeffery, a TA from school works there and greeted Tom as he walked in.  Emily's cousin also works there, so they were in good hands. They went shopping around the town (Tom bought a really annoying voice changer - oh joy!) before returning home.  Sierra and Emily got off the bus at Austwick as they went to Emily's house for the afternoon whilst Tom came home.  We then went to Caitlin's to deliver her a birthday card - she was in, so we ended up spending a couple of hours there, playing a very silly game: Throw Throw Burrito which Tom won (his throwing skills coming into play against Rich!).

Tuesday - we headed to Manchester for the day.  The plan was to go to the Chinese Consulate to get our visas - but that obviously isn't happening now!  We had booked train tickets to Manchester, so we decided to go anyway for a day out.  The trains were on time, arrived around 11am, did some shopping - very successful: new trousers and a bargain cheap winter coat for Tom, a T-shirt for Matt and a new file for me (rock and roll hey!).  We then headed to Northern Soul for lunch (as recommended by Rich yesterday).  They do grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni cheese.  The boys went for Mac cheese, I went for a grilled goats' cheese sandwich.  Mine was good, but the mac cheese was out of this world! We then decided to walk the mile or so to the Museum of Science and Industry to try to get our digestion going - not sure it did, but it was good to get some exercise.  We discovered a new hall full of airplanes which Tom enjoyed (sadly the red arrows simulator was out of action - only £3 a go which is very reasonable).  We then watched a science show and stopped in a cafe for a drink.  At this point I heard from Karen who was heading to the museum, so we met up for an hour or so which was good.  Then back to the station and home.  Soup for Matt and I (the cheese was still sitting in our tummies!) and a pasta ready meal for Tom (pig!)

Wednesday we played host to Ellis for most of the day.  He came round at 10am, he and Tom went to the pump track together for an hour or so, then played pool and scalextric before we all headed to Inglesport for lunch (soup for me and curry for Matt and Tom, however there were mushrooms in the curry, so I had curry and Matt had soup!).  We came back home for a game of Ticket to Ride (did I mention the weather was atrocious - went, grey and cold!), then Craig came to pick up Ellis and we settled down for a film.

Thursday, guess what, it rained again.  So much so that we were worried we might get cut off.  Tom was due to go to Dallam for cricket with Luca and Ethan but the roads were filling up and we were beginning to worry whether our Civic would make it.  Luckily Luca's parents have a tall 4x4 so they offered to take them.  It was a good job that they did as even they had trouble getting through the floods and had to detour a number of times.  Matt and I stayed at home, I worked on building up my chocolate stock whilst Matt did some translating.  Matt then left early to pick them up.  Luckily the rain had stopped and around here the floods tend to disappear almost immediately the rain stops, so he got there in good time.  He got them all back no problems.

Friday, guess what...it rained all day!  We gave up - didn't even try to leave the house.  We pottered around, played plenty of pool and then snuggled down in the afternoon to watch Yesterday.  Tom was in bed nice and early as he and Matt were due to have a long day out tomorrow.