Hello again
Hope you are all still keeping fit and healthy and most importantly, away from everyone else. A couple of weeks isolated with your family – what could possibly go wrong?
Well, if you aren’t interested in finding out the answer to that particular puzzle, here are some more suggestions of things to do during the lockdown.
1. Don’t be too hard on yourself
There’s a lot going on at the moment – even if you are not a parent trying to cope with home educating and working from home for the first time! So, relax a little, and don’t try to do everything. Find a balance between home life and home school that works for you (I speak as someone who has home educated for years). I know that lots of you will have timetables or even scheduled online lessons from schools, who are doing their best to cope with this situation, but suddenly becoming a de facto supply teacher is pretty stressful, quite apart from everything else that is going on. So, try not to get overwhelmed. Remember that there is a big difference between teaching and learning; and you can be sure that your children will be faced with lots of new learning opportunities as a result of the change in their routine, even if their ‘normal’ lessons are interrupted. They will come out of the other side of this having learned some invaluable lessons that they could never have learned in school.
2. Slow down,
and get ALL the toys out
If you are at home right now, take a little time to appreciate the chance to slow down. Throw out the timetable (if you ever had one) and relish the fact that you are not rushing between breakfast club, school, childminders, after-school club etc, just for a little while. Get all the toys out – in the garden if the sun is shining, or in the front room if it is not. Make an indoor den with bedsheets, or see if you can lay that toy train track all the way through the house. Above all, say yes to what your children want to do (within reason!).
3. Make a God’s Eye
These are easy to make, and very calming. See our video guide to making a God’s Eye here. Transcendent experience not guaranteed, but you are likely to have a quiet house for at least half an hour.
4. Try a barefoot safari
Great for encouraging use of other senses, and another calming activity as children have to pay attention and slow down while they are blindfolded. Find a safe space indoors or outdoors and make a trail of different surfaces to walk over barefoot, with your eyes blindfolded. If you are indoors you could use: bubble wrap, brown paper, a blanket, a baking tray with cold water. Don’t use Lego….
5. Find and make Stick People
Everyone knows the story of Stick Man, but did you know that there will be Stick People living in your garden? With a little help from you, and some wool (and maybe the odd pipe cleaner) your Stick People family can come to life – who knows what adventures they will have….
Some more suggestions to (hopefully) help you through, same time next week.
