It might sound crazy to celebrate Day 1 of homeschooling, it is important to me to give ourselves a pat on the back though. Yesterday was the first day I had to do the combined homeschooling and working from home thing. It was lots of fun and stressful, all in one. But I think the stress was only due to the pressure I put upon myself.
Hubby and I have a routine that means I do homeschooling with the kids until lunchtime, then working from home in the afternoons. Catching up if and when I can around this. I didn’t get a chance to do anything else today… it was very full on.
Morning
So, the morning is Mummy time with the kiddies. We started off by doing PE with Joe Wicks which was fun. You can find his videos LIVE at 9am every weekday via his YouTube channel, or you can pick these up at any time afterwards as a normal YouTube video. He does a 20 minute exercise session, which has 20 different exercises in it so the kiddies do not get bored. It’s a great way of getting them exercising on a daily basis.
After this we worked through our worksheets, I downloaded some packs that Twinkl put together for their year groups and we have been going through these. The kiddies do them quite quickly. I did get to the point where I had to give them 3 or 4 things to choose from, to get through an hours worth of work. They zoomed through it. By the time I had marked it they had moved on to the next piece of work. I have also purchased a word search book. So I am ask them to do one of them a day, to learn new words and something a little more lighthearted to do. I really enjoyed being with them for the morning and it went really quickly.
Afternoon
Daddy took over after lunch and they had great fun doing more practical things than what Mummy chose to do. They did a bit of bush crafting, where they chopped up sticks together to make stuff. Noah and Isla made stickmen, then Isla made a shelter for the small animals in the garden. They also started to make a bird box which will be good to see when they finish.
They then decorating the front window with rainbows, this has started from social media to cheer passers by on a walk and to give the kiddies something to do when out walking: they simply count how many rainbows they can see en route. It’s a lovely idea. We had some specific window pens from Helix and they came in very handy for this task! You can just about make them out in the middle 2 windows.
Whilst I was working from home
I think one of the main things I need to remember when I am working from home over the next few weeks is that it is OK to be interrupted. I know there will come a day when I am in a team conference call and the kids will come running in to shot, screaming something silly. Everyone is in the same boat, everyone will have this same situation over the next few weeks and that is OK! I think once I let go of this, I will relax a little more. It was nice to have the family around me, albeit I was a little paranoid they would talk over me or butt in. Rambo certainly enjoyed chilling next to me in our make shift office.
After I finished work we took the dogs for a walk to our local park, which is less than a 1 minute walk from our home (amazing). It was good to let the kiddies run around in the vast space, nowhere near anybody else, and get the dogs out for a much needed walk too. I have been really paranoid about walking the dogs, as we can’t simply just ignore their needs but very conscious about this virus at the same time. Thankfully we can do a dog walk in the park and not be near anyone. The kids can burn off some energy too. So this is day 1 of homeschooling!
This is our pattern for the foreseeable, unless it stops working. Fingers crossed it does carry on working as I am not sure what else we can do. I do feel like, although my Husband is here at home with me, I have hardly seen him! Amazing how busy we are both now with working from home and homeschooling.
What do you think of our day 1 of homeschooling? How are you organising your day? I would love to know in the comments below or on social media: @mummyconstant.
