Lockdown 2021: Week 9 and final week of home school

 1st - 7th March 2021

This is our final week of school at home. Isabella will be back at school from the 8th March. We've settled into such a good routine at home though. Isabella finishes most of her school work between 6.30 - 9am and has been really good when I need to work.

The weather turned warmer and Isabella was excited to run around barefoot.

We fed some swans and enjoyed a walk in the woods.

That wobbly tooth finally fell out!

And we now have some antigen tests in the house which we'll be doing twice a week.

And that's the end of the no-school lockdown and also of my weekly blogs. Now that school is back on I expect we'll be getting busier and have less to write about. Andre and I will continue working mostly from home for now but we'll probably start going back to the office soon. Hopefully once we get our vaccines we'll be even more back to our normal routines, although we've all really enjoyed the slower pace of life at home.

Lockdown 2021: Week 8

 22nd - 28th February 2021

I'm a little behind with the past two weeks' blogs! Here are some pictures of our 8th week with no school, although Isabella has been off school since before Christmas when the Christmas break started so it's been even longer at home with very little contact with anyone else.

Isabella is so into horses at the moment and bought this on eBay with her own money which she's been saving.

Tabby is always around to check on school work.

Remote play dates. Playing an online game with a friend on FaceTime.

Daily Teams calls with her class and teachers.

Still fits!

Lockdown 2021: Week 7 Half Term Break

 15th - 21st February 2021

This week was half term break. It was rainy all week. We did absolutely nothing and saw no one. On Monday I drew up a cleaning plan for me and Isabella so we deep cleaned a different area of the house each day. Isabella started out well helping on day one and I kept it going until Day 4. Day 5's work still needs doing from two days ago...

The most excitement we had this week was Isabella developing an itchy rash on her legs. She had it lightly before, but we didn't pay it much attention then and it resolved itself pretty quickly the first time. This time however it got much worse, spreading further across her legs, really red and bumpy and very itchy. Eventually we got an anti-histamine from the pharmacy. When after two days on that there was still no improvement we decided to make our first doctor's appointment since Covid started. That's a year now without visiting the doctors! The procedure now is a telephone consultation after I emailed photos of her rash. By this time it had also started spreading across her upper body. The doctor said it's an allergic reaction to something and prescribed 5 days of steroids. Isabella and the cat are now on the same medication! Typical, it started fading before she started taking the steroid tablets, but still taking them to resolve it completely. We're not sure what caused it. Will see if it happens again...

So otherwise nothing further. Went for a walk in the woods this morning as we finally had a dry day. 

Tomorrow we'll get confirmation whether schools might reopen in two weeks time, from 8th March. Isabella isn't missing it yet. At least another two weeks of online/ remote school.

The home office. Next to the ironing which needs doing and the toilet paper.

A muddy puddle walk.

Looking so forward to spring!
Isabella took this picture of some daffodils on our way home from the woods this morning.

Lockdown 2021: Week 6

8th - 14th February 2021

Happy Valentine's Day!

We made each other handmade gifts and cards, took some stuff to the recycling centre which was the furthest from home we've all been in a long time, even if it's just about 15 minutes from our house, and tried to bake Valentine's cookies which didn't turn out as expected but still tasted good.

It's half term holiday this upcoming week, so no school work and no school Teams calls. It's also a year ago that we last went to Germany, the last time we saw family and it was on the way back from that trip that we heard about Covid spreading through Italy.

It's been a pretty cold week, temperatures generally between -3C and 1C all day, all week. This coming week looks like we'll be back to milder temperatures and rain.

Messy art was part of this week's school work.

Isabella has started carrying Tabby around like this.
Luckily he doesn't seem to mind it too much and just hangs until they reach their destination!

We baked bread. Three loaves in three days and made one of them part of school work too!
There's a video on that too on Isabella's Theatre.

And we had lots of snow flurries. At one time we had these picture perfect snowflakes!

Lockdown 2021: Week 5

 1st - 7th February 2021

Another regular lockdown week with school work and my own work. Times tables, plurals and...

making edible slime!
There's a video on her YouTube channel (Isabella's Theatre).

Isabella discovered a proper computer game. She's learning to use the mouse and keyboard.
And best of all, only girl characters! It's a horse game. Boys can play but they'll have to play a girl character.

Saturday was beautifully sunny. We spent time in the garden,

and played hopscotch in our street.

Sunday was freezing cold. We were outside for a bit, Andre actually cleared some gutters, but we were so cold afterwards.
Then Isabella, Tabby and I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory since we recently finished the book.

Lockdown 2021: Week 4 - Needle Felting

 25th - 31st January 2021

Our week in pictures:

Monday: What was left of the snow. It was all melted away by the end of Tuesday.

We had some lovely sunshine this week. Tabby was grooming himself here
on the BBQ in the sun, that's the reason for his wild hair look!

Isabella and I painted our nails rainbow colours.

Isabella wanted to learn how to edit a video. She did really well, remaining patient and following
instructions.

School went well this week.

Isabella and Andre had an early morning start one morning in order to get a writing task out of the way.

Isabella requested a disco on Friday evening. The neighbours might have 
found it entertaining too!

We finished all school work by lunch time on Friday and, perfectly timed, a needle felting kit arrived
which Andre ordered. We had already watched some video tutorials so Isabella got right to work. 
The kitten was her first creation.

Isabella made her own video tutorial this evening which we hope to have on her channel by tomorrow.
She's really enjoying this craft!

Lockdown 2021: Week 3 and Snow!

 18th - 24th January

We've had a good, busy successful week. School work keeps us very busy every day. Isabella is however really good when I need to work and is able to work independently when I need her to or to do her calls with her friends and teachers on her own when needed.

School tasks this week included, reading and writing as always, maths this week was measurement (we did fractions the first week), we've done photography, cooking, religion, PE, music, to name a few.

Today we were treated to two hours of quite heavy snow, leaving us with a really good amount to enjoy. You can see a video of our snowy day on Isabella's youtube channel.

Channel link or search YouTube for Isabella's Theatre: click here

Today's snow day video link: click here

We enjoyed some sunshine this week too which was lovely.

Andre pulled Isabella on the sledge behind the bike!

We built an igloo!

All three of us are playing Hay Day!