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...