Day 50 in COVID-19 Lockdown

Monday, 11th May 2020

Weather: Sunny, but cold and windy

50 days since the schools closed and 50 days + 1 week working from home. 

We heard that schools MAY POSSIBLY reopen 1st June for Years R, 1 and 6, but this is only the earliest possible date. We will also decide then whether we feel it is safe to send Isabella as currently she isn't missing school or her friends terribly and we're doing a decent enough job of keeping her educated at home. I have started preparing her though, telling her she might be going back to school in 3 weeks time and that school might be a bit different then. She seems ok with it. She did say she'd prefer to stay home, but when I told her it would then only be seven weeks before summer holiday she said that's ok then. 

But so far no change and we're carrying on as normal, or the new normal, with no contact with anyone. We've managed to get shopping delivery slots when needed so haven't even needed to go to the grocery store. Isabella has been made to drink less milk though as that is always the first thing we run out of even though we always order as much as we can keep fresh!

So, what did we do today...

Isabella decided we each needed a 'postbox' outside our rooms, so she hung a shopping bag on her door handle and two shopping bags on our door handle for us. We then had to write notes to each other this morning and throughout the day and 'post' it. I decided to see it as today's writing practice and some Afrikaans reading practice too.

Reading our notes.

After playing post office, Isabella and I gave upstairs a good clean, dusting skirting boards, doll houses and window sills. Then it was on to school work which was a little less exciting today and more challenging. I really enjoyed the maths challenges myself, but it was too hard for her and too hard for me to explain. It's maybe been too many years since I've had to explain more challenging maths! English was writing or typing a story she made up last week. We opted for a very summarised version of her story, typed on the iPad which offers predictive text. If not for that there would have been shouting (from mummy) and tears (from Isabella). When she asked me to spell "she" I said right, time to restart daily spelling practice. "She" is not a word she needs help with spelling. She was just not in the mood for it and I just wanted her to put some effort into it and get it done. So I made a list of all the words she needed help spelling (there wasn't anything unreasonable or difficult) and asked her to add a few more (she added Autumn, April, and all seven days of the week).

The maths challenge.
It was labeled a challenge and previous work she complained was too easy so a challenge was good too.

We've also been a bit lazy with reading practice so from tomorrow it will be reading and spelling again first thing every morning. As long as I prepare a to-do list for her on her white board, she will make sure to get through the list as quickly as possible.

Oh, there was also a design and technology activity. They're learning about textiles and it required her to make a short video clip as explanation. It was super easy, and she loves making YouTube videos, but for some reason does not want to make videos for her teachers. She did do it though.

And last one was yet another on carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. And it's the last one on that we will be doing as she grasped this the first time and is getting as tired of it as I am by now. 

So after we fought our way through today's school work, and we are not required to do it, but neither of us can stand leaving a 'work' task uncompleted (house work and tidying up is another matter for both of us!), I told her that if from tomorrow there are any activities she doesn't want to do, mainly because it's too simple or it's becoming too repetitive, she can choose a different educational activity but has to post it to her online journal for her teachers to see. We have so many great online resources we can use so there is no shortage of school type work to choose from. And there is no way mummy is able to play all day long.

Ok so school work complete, we played with her now completed 3D aquabeads project, the horse and carriage set. Video coming soon! She did this entirely on her own, every single bead. It kept her busy for quite a long time.

And I can't think of anything else we really did today, besides hang out washing, feeding and playing with the cat, feeding ourselves, watering the garden... Andre went to the office until after lunch which does make it a little easier for all of us as he is on calls with colleagues most of the time.

Off to bed now. Another exciting day ahead tomorrow! Day 51!