Back to School

Making brownies

So Monday was still officially Easter Holidays, although the teachers seemed to forget this and send through an extra-ordinary amount of work on Monday morning for the children to do.  I didn't go into my email until the evening so it was too late for us.  I had to point out that Monday was still officially a holiday which is why we didn't do anything, they had forgotten!  We of course then spent the rest of the week playing catch up and never quite got there!  Basically we have 5 Maths lessons and 5 English lessons to do each week and then loads of extra work and activities if we wish to do them.  The Maths is ok (ish) but I found the English extra-ordinary hard, I seriously had problems doing it and was not sure we had the right answers at the end.  Tom was completely lost.  I ended up acting loads of it out for him to try to help, but not sure it did - the text was quite abstract and he had to infer what was happening.  I would have struggled at 16, let alone 11!  I am now seriously worried for High School English.  I always hated English as it is so subjective.  People read different meanings into the same text so how can you possibly mark it right or wrong?  Maths and science is so much easier when it comes to finding the answers.

Cherry blossom in the village

Monday Tom wanted to do some baking and I gently nudged him towards chocolate brownies, I managed to find a recipe I used many years ago and remembered was good.  I didn't help him at all, and wow - they were amazing.  The best ever chocolate brownies.  Tom didn't think they were up to much but Matt and I were in 7th heaven.  They didn't last long!

Tuesday was back to school.  So back to getting up at a school time and a routine to the day.  The days certainly go much faster when a routine is in place.  In the evening we decided to do the river walk over to Country Harvest.  We bumped into a number of friends on the walk which was good.  It is so good to have a chat.

Wednesday, another school day and an evening walk down by the river at Storrs and then along to Skirwith and up to the Ingleborough path and back again.

Painting his room

Concentration...

On Thursday for mindfulness we started painting Tom's room.  He had decided on lime green and teal as his colour scheme.  We ordered the paint right at the start of lockdown, but it took a good month to arrive.  Anyway we finally started the painstaking task of moving the furniture, masking taping everything etc.  Tom was excited to help paint and took to using a roller very well.  Paint obviously went everywhere, but most of it ended up on the wall.  Today, Matt did a mega long ride, from here to Austwick, to Hellwith Bridge, Ribblehead and back again.  He wanted to test himself, see how fit he has got and surprised himself, he did it very quickly and without too much discomfort.  Tom and I went for a walk in the evening around Green Lane, there were a lot of
people about, so social distancing became a little difficult.  The government have done a good job - I am wary of other people now!

Friday - not wanting to have the same experience as last night, we decided to bike ride along the lanes, much easier.  I went with the boys, but peeled off home earlier than them as I can't keep up with them!

Tom not overly happy with his hairdo!

Saturday - I had to become a barber again.  I wanted to 'attack' Matt's hair again as it was looking a bit messy from my previous attempt.  It was easier this time, I have been studying his head and knew what I needed to do.  I was quite happy with the outcome.  Next was Tom - his hair has been getting out of control, so I gave it a go.  I was worried as he has such fine hair.  I did an 'ok' job.  His fringe is a bit dodgy and I couldn't get the hair around his ears to cut properly and he has a 'bald' patch on one side where I got a little too enthusiastic.

On the limestone pavement

Today, we went for a long walk - we walked up to Crina Bottom on the slopes of Ingleborough and the up to the limestone pavements.  They were fab.  It was soooooooo quiet up there, no traffic on the road below meant that bird song was deafening, wish I knew what they all were.  We had lunch on the limestone pavements and then headed down towards the A65 to get back home again.  We had trouble finding the style out of the Open Access area and at one point got sworn against by the owners of White Scar Cave who saw us and told us that we shouldn't be there and that he didn't give a toss that the land was Open Access Land etc.  I think he thought we were tourists - we were well in our right to be there.  Doesn't hurt to be polite - he could have told us where the styal was.  Anyway,  we found it and had a lovely walk back home across some fields, bumping into some friends too which was a bonus.  We came home tired, so had showers, tea and then Tom and I collapsed infant of Paddington 2, whilst Matt was in the kitchen taking part in a comedy Zoom beer night.

Sunday we decided to have a quiet day.  We spent the morning playing cricket in the community field - the cricket club said people were welcome to use it as long as social distancing was observed.  Was nice to do something different.  The afternoon was spent doing lego models.