The pandemic and home schooling
Life in the time of a pandemic means that most things have changed. The once stress of balancing writing, work and being mum is now made greater with home schooling.
So, if you are now home schooling due to COVID -19 how are you getting on? I’m learning how bad my maths skills are. I can teach year two, explaining the five times table and pictograms, adding and subtracting. Discussing verbs, adverbs and nouns and adjectives.
Year four, I’m struggling trying to understand place value charts, decimals and fractions. Thankfully my eight year old can do most of it. I worry though about the bits I really can’t help him with. I’m not a teacher but I’m doing my best.
These last few weeks I’ve done more maths then I have in years. We have learnt about St George, the Anglo Saxons, the Vikings and last week, King Alfred the Great. His portrait is above, drawn by my eight year old son.
We’ve been stuck indoors going nowhere. Most communication has been on Social Media. Watching the updates on COVID – 19, watching the figures increasing and feeling more depressed by it. The nation has been in lock down and yet there are people ignoring this advice.
Reading
Still in love with my Kindle, I’ve read twenty books so far this year, which is good for me, but less time focused on writing. The latest have been the ‘Miranda Rights mystery series’ by Linsey Lanier and ‘Three girls and a leading lady’ by Rachel Schurig. I’ve just started reading ‘The girl who lived’ by Christopher Greyson.
‘Book bub’ keeps tempting me with 99p and free books, so I’m not short for a good book. With the pandemic and lockdown admittedly I do have more time to read. I possibly should be reading, relaxing and enjoying my garden more.
Reflections
I’m spending too much time worrying about the pandemic. With one family member shielded we are all shielding, the isolation is real.
However, it helps that I was anti-social before this, so I haven’t got a hectic social life to miss. However I would have felt different if this had happened when I was in my teens. If suddenly school every day (which I hated) became staying at home and not seeing my friends for weeks / months, I think I would have been climbing the walls.
If I had been told that I couldn’t see my boyfriend, I would have struggled to understand and there would have been arguments. I’m sure there have been many going through this torment. Yes, now we have social media but its not the same as actually seeing that person. How many young couples have broken down because of this? How often is ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, actually ‘out of sight and out of mind’?
I’m grateful that we now have social media, we can see our loved ones and our work colleagues. The likes of ‘Microsoft Teams’ and ‘Skype’ have really benefitted the workplace. I wonder after all of this, what percentage of work places will adopt more remote working. Less traffic on the roads, less racing to meetings. I personally like a remote meeting but then as I’ve already said, im anti social.
UK and the COVID-19 pandemic
As the UK comes out of lockdown, some people are reluctant to leave the house and others are looking forward to seeing friends and family. Many primary schools are reopening on Monday June 1st, to Years – Reception, one and six. There has been much debate and disagreement over this, but the bottom line is that the economy needs to be restarted.
I’m grateful to be working from home and will continue to teach my children as long as I can. I’m assuming they will return to school in September. Though its not known whether this will be a phased return, with school trying to follow social distancing rules.
Achievements and life
A long time ago I studied for a degree and redid my Maths GCSE, with aspirations of being a primary school teacher. Due to life changes and purchasing a flat I couldn’t afford to then quit my job and study full time. I then lost all confidence completely. Now I often ask myself why I bothered with the degree. Life doesn’t always work out the way you plan it. In recent days I’ve wondered about doing a TEFL course. However, teaching children on line is different to teaching your own children. Especially as the only one’s judging my achievements are me and my two children who appear to be happy working with me.
Life and the people around you help to shape you or is this just me? Life’s put downs stopped me from teaching. It is also why if I have to talk to a group of people, I feel sick with butterflies and start to stammer.
So, my positive out of the COVID -19 crisis is the time I’ve been able to spend teaching my children. I’ve enjoyed it, especially as they do appear to be learning and progressing.
There is also the extra time as a family, quality time that we wouldn’t otherwise have had.
Many families have struggled with this crisis and I know we have been lucky. However, for me, I’m worried about what happens when shielding ends. This virus is not going away and sometime we are going to have to live alongside it.
My writing
I’ve achieved very little, this pandemic is not helping me to stay focused. It’s hard keeping up with my blogs and I haven’t added to my time warp book in months. At the moment I’m too tired to focus properly. If I stop completely then there will be nothing written.
I’ve stopped sharing blogs as much as I was because time just isn’t there. I’m missing the blogging promotion but my family are my priority at the moment.
I know that I need to get on with my novel but my head is too busy with everything else that is going on in life.
Is anyone else experiencing similar problems? and how are you managing working from home and home schooling?
For more see, Corona Virus (Covid-19), fears, life and writing
See also my other blog Quarantine poetry, looking back on today
