Home schooling Update

So we are 5 days in to the lock down and things are not easy by any stretch of the imagination. The cars haven't moved since Monday and the only time we have left the house is either for exercise or to pick up some essential groceries at the Tesco Express around the corner.

Coronavirus is still rife in the UK to the point where even Boris Johnson, our PM, has now been diagnosed with it. Last night the nation pulled together at 8pm to stand outside the front doors or at windows and applaud our NHS staff who are working so hard to try and handle the increasing number of infections everyday.

Having to home school for all of this week has been very challenging and in addition to applauding the NHS, I think all teachers deserve a massive pat on the back. Admittedly we are not trained teachers, but we are finding it tough with 3 kids, let alone having a class full of 20-30 to handle!!! I am still trying to work from home which means I cannot fully commit to the kids during office hours, but try to support Tina as much as I can. In some respects it is fortunate I am working from home as I do not think Tina would have coped this week without the help. It will certainly be hard going for her when I return back to work.

As the week has evolved I think the hone schooling has got better. Rather than try and structure a school day we have basically said to the kids that they have 6 things to achieve each day before they can have their leisure time. These 6 things are:

1. Minimum 30 minutes reading

2. Two lots of 30-45 min academic sessions.

3. Something creative.

4. Some form of P.E.

5. Some house chores.

With have given up chasing them to do the work, they have the list, know what is expected, and if they want leisure time then it is in their interest to get it done. Within the school day we have also told them they can take 2 x 15 min breaks for a snack etc and then an hour for lunch. We have also encouraged them to watch at least one documentary each day as prt of their learning.

For one day this week we managed to get all 3 kids doing Joe Wick's P.E. class.

Brandon doing some studying in the "man cave".

For today's creative work Joshua made a no entry sign out of an illuminating wire board.

The finished article which he wants to hand in his bedroom.

Joshua doing some online BBC maths work.

Holly working hard on some old learning books we had from when Brandon and Joshua were younger.

For P.E. today Joshua and Brandon decided to go out for an early morning cycle and did 2 laps of the Wick (almost 10k).

Holly has got in to a routine of jumping in the hot tub with me mid afternoon just as soon as all my work is done.

3 Week Lock Down, Home Schooling & Joe Wick's PE Class!

The Covid-19 pandemic moves up another notch in severity as our prime minister, Boris Johnson, last night announced that the UK is on a 3 week lock down. The only exceptions which you are allowed to leave your house are for urgent food suppliers or medication, and one outdoor exercise activity in no more than a group of two people from the same family and still maintaining social distancing! We sat and watched Boris's announcement live at 8:30pm last night and made sure the kids where with us as well so that they understand why they are being locked down for 3 weeks.

The challenge this week us to now try our best to make sure the 3 kids are doing some home schooling whilst also maintaining my working from home policy. Holly is doing really well with the home schooling, Joshua is proving problematic but is getting better, Brandon hasn't yet started as he has been poorly with a high temperature and thus bed bound for the last 2 days.

One great thing that we have got the kids involved with is the Joe Wicks P.E. class everyday at 9am. Joe is a famous body coach who has offered to stream a 20-30 min free P.E. class over YouTube everyday to get the kids active. This appears to have been an absolutely huge success and this morning there was close to a million people world wide tuning in to his stream. I think it is a real positive that someone offers up this kind of service at desperate times like this totally free of charge. It also gives parents that 30 mins to prepare for the day ahead and get the rest of the kids activities in place.

Whether the lock down lasts for 3 weeks or more is anyone's guess. A lot of people speculate it will be nearer to 12 weeks. All I can say is it is going to be a tough time for everyone involved.

We all sat and watched the shocking news from PM Boris about a 3 week lock down.

Joe Wick's comes to the Nations rescue with live streamed PE classes every day to get kids active.

Holly and Josh doing the stretching before the 2 x 10 min body weight workouts.

Stretching out the quads and hammies.

Following Joe Wick's instruction from YouTube on the TV.

A bit of home schooling as Tina works with Holly.

Joshua did some home economics today and made pizza's for everyone for lunch.

He even made his own pizza base and everyone seemed to enjoy it for lunch.

Mothers Day Under Social Distancing

Today was probably one of the weirdest Mothers Days I have experienced as the Covid-19 takes a grip on everyone's lifestyles and people are strongly advised to stay at home and adhere to social distancing procedures. Me and the kiddies did have a really nice day planned out where we were going to Mercedes World in Kent and then for dinner at Fire Jacks afterwards. All of this was cancelled and we had a day at home under a self imposed lock down.

Instead of Fire Jacks we let Tina pick a home delivery take away and settled for Fish'n'Chips. Great service from our local shops, dinner ordered for 5:30pm and arrived at 5:29!!!! So we have tried to make the day nice for Tina and she did have some lovely presents, but really it has been a day of just chilling around the house.

I have to say I ordered the Mothers Day cards from the three kids some time ago and think I absolutely nailed it this year. From Holly "Mum, thanks for teaching me how to cook cremate everything!", then from Brandon "Mum, thanks for listening to the 1848 stories about Fortnite", and  finally from Josh, "Mum, the bestest friend, the greatest listener, the one that leaves items on the stairs in hope that I take them up!".

Holly giving Tina a glass of wine with dinner in her new flamingo glass.

Tina looks happy with the wine, Holly not so keen on the smell!

It's not quite Fire Jacks as planned, but a nice Fish'n'Chips with the family.

I think I absolutely nailed it with the Mothers Day cards from the kids this year.

Tina did well for presents with a Pandora charm, a sequin photo cushion, a personalised leg gift, wine, flowers and chocolates.

Holly got Tina this rather novel personalised Lego set.

Schools Close Due to Coronavirus - End of Class of 2020

Is this the last time Brandon takes the walk down the front garden on his way to Primary school?

Well following my previous post on the blog it appears that the Coronovirus pandemic is getting more and more serious by the day with a desperate effort by the government to slow down the spread of the disease in order to allow the NHS to have some hope of managing the sick. 

In the latest set of guidelines by the government, all schools are closing effective today for an indefinite period. Speculation is that this could be for up to 12 weeks which would effectively mean the kids have now finished for this academic year as today is their last day!

This is particularly sad for Brandon as he is Year 6 and this would have been his final year in Primary School before starting Secondary this September. To him, the cancellation of school is not a holiday. It’s wasted time they don’t get to spend with their friends in the last few months before they finish primary school. 

Whilst he doesn't realise it at the moment, it is quite sad to think that after today they may never be able to walk the corridors for the last time or attend their last ever assembly. All of the practice they have done for sports events, leavers assemblies will come to an end before they’ve had the chance to take the field, court, or stage one last time. For months and months he has been working towards completing his SATS exams and now they have all been cancelled as well. That leaves everyone anxious as to how they evaluate and group the kids for secondary school.

The end of year assembly looking back through their young school lives will not take place. They will move on to secondary school without saying goodbye to teachers and classmates alike, who will move to pastures new.

So for today I made an extra special effort to make sure I walked Brandon to school for probably the last time and will also make sure I am there to pick him up tonight. I hope to god this Coronavirus pandemic blows over quicker and the kids are allowed back to school this academic year. Until then it is sad times and Tina certainly shed a tear or two about it last night.

He may be smiling, but this is a sad day as his Year 6 come to a premature end.

COVID-19 and "Tina Express"

So the blog is and has always been like a historical log for the children and I try to include both the good and bad things that happen in life. So I think it is only fair that I add a blog regarding Coronavirus (COVID-19) which is what 2020 will forever be remembered for and will possible have a significant impact on all of our lives for the remainder of the year.

So what is Coronavirus?

Basically the coronavirus (Covid-19) is a fast spreading virus which to date has infected more than 204,200 people with over 8,200 deaths recorded - including 71 people in the UK. The virus is believed to have started in China in a "wet market" in Wuhan which sold both dead and live animals including fish and birds. The animal source of the latest outbreak has not yet been identified, but the original host is thought to be bats. Bats were not sold at the Wuhan market but may have infected live chickens or other animals sold there.

Coronovirus itself has been known about for many years and is a group if virus’s that cause disease in animals, the difference with Covid-19 is that it has now made the jump to humans. The new strain of Coronavirus appears very dangerous for humans (especially the elderly) - so far, around 20 per cent of confirmed cases have been classed as severe or critical, around 15 to 20 per cent of hospital cases have been classed as "severe" and the current death rate varies between 0.7 per cent and 3.4 per cent depending on the location and, crucially, access to good hospital care.

So how has the Coronavirus started to affect our daily lives?

Well to start with I have been made to self-isolate and work from home for 2 weeks and pretty much all social gatherings, after schools clubs, football fixtures, concerts etc have been cancelled. As the severity increases day after day in the UK it appears only a matter of days before we are all on a legal imposed lock down unless you are front line services. The fear of this happening has caused wide spread panic buying in the supermarkets leaving many empty shelves. Weirdly the thing people are bulk buying the most is toilet paper and hand cleaning gel. The hand gel is understandable as hygiene has become a major part of the global containment for the virus, but the toilet roll is just crazy. This week we could not organise our normal shopping delivery as all home delivery has stopped, so Tina tried doing our normal weekly shop the old way yesterday (walking up and down aisles) and ended up spending £30 more and buying probably half the stuff we usually get. The biggest problem we had was no eggs or potatoes.

Slightly off topic but several years ago I built Tina a fitted wardrobe with sliding doors in our bedroom as I was fed up with her not having enough space and leaving a pile of clothes constantly on the floor. Despite my efforts she still has a big pile of clothes on the bedroom floor as she fills a section of the wardrobe with food and cleaning products when you get BOGOF deals etc. Me and the kids often take the mickey out of her secret stash and call it “Tina Express (instead of Tesco Express)”. So whenever we run out of anything it home, the first question you ask is, “Is there any in Tina Express?”. Now with the Coronavirus pandemic, the threat of a lockdown and the lack of available food in the supermarkets – we have now realised that maybe Tina had a point with her secret stash and “Tina Express” may be our saving grace!

Anyway the government have imposed restrictions on any non-essential travel or contact with other people, small businesses are panicking and some airlines have already gone out of business. Most international borders have been closed to travelling anywhere is a complete no, no at the moment. This brings great concern to us as we had a family holiday booked for the summer holidays going to a lovely resort in Bulgaria. Fortunately we have only paid a small deposit with the next big payment due in April, however the way things currently are I very much doubt this trip will go head.

Joshua’s school will now be closing for all of Year 7, 8 and 9 effective tomorrow due to available resources with government restrictions on the number of people in specific locations. So what resources the school does have available are being used on the older children that are preparing for their GSCE’s etc. So as of tomorrow we now have to start planning childcare and out of school learning for Joshua (and I suspect Holly and Brandon will follow very soon after). Fingers crossed the school(s) will send home plenty of work for them to do.

We won’t know for sure whether this is a storm in a tea cup or a major humanitarian issue that will go down in the history books forever. I guess only time will tell and hopefully in 3 or 4 months’ time we can look back on all of this and hope it was all an overreaction. Until then the football season is effectively over, cinemas and restaurant’s closed and the streets look like ghost towns as everyone remains at home.

Joshua getting creative at home and making his own face mask from paper and elastic bands.

Meet the secret stash that is "Tina Express"!

Party Weekend for Holly

You would think that having 3 kids we would pretty much have seen every type of kids party out there. However this past weekend Holly had two parties in the same day and they were both new ones that we hadn't come across before. Her first one was at Pizza Express where she got to don a chef hat and make her own pizza. The second one was in Southend and was a private rental of an arcade facility. She seemed to really enjoy them both and it is still costing me a fortune in buying presents for these party's!

Holly don's the chef hat to start making pizza.

One Margharetta pizza coming up.

Holly playing some Monopoly pinball at her second party of the day.

Who let her loose with a gun?

That's one giant air hockey table.

I think Holly is a bit big for this now.

Holly gets Star of the Week

Super proud of Holly who last week was awarded "Star of the Week" for becoming more independent with her phonics and for given 100% effort to every task she is given at school. Keep up the good work Holly.

Holly was so pleased to show me her "Star of the Week" certificate as she came out of class last Friday.

Rainbows Craft Day

Gone are the days of running the boys around from club to club every evening. They hardly have any outside clubs now other than football. Holly still has plenty with Rainbows, swimming , Glee Club, School Dance Club, Kings Dance Club and so on....

Last Saturday her Rainbows Club had a craft day which was held at Joshua's secondary school and lasted about 4 or 5 hours!!!! Holly seemed to have a great time and came home with a big bag of various arts and crafts projects which she had completed. We also managed to find a picture on the Rainbows website which shows they were also doing some hula hoop dancing!

Holly and her Rainbows friends at a craft day at Beauchamps School.

In addition to the crafts it looks like they had some fun physical activities.

World Book Day 2020 - Mary Poppins

Today was World Book Day and Holly was so excited to go to school as we bought her a Mary Poppins costume which she wanted to wear. Believe it or not the costume is size 7-8 and fits her perfectly (even though she is only 6). The scary thing about this costume is just how grown up it makes Holly look. For the first time I am starting to have to change my mindset from her being out little baby to accepting that she is turning in to a young lady.

The boys have kind of outgrown dressing up for World Book Day so at least we only had Holly to deal with this year. Brandon went in to school wearing his West Ham onesie with a sign saying "drowsy". Don't ask.....

A very grown up Holly dressed as Mary Poppins for World Book Day.

2022 Ski Trip in Vermont US for Joshua!

As a child I do not ever remember having a school trip where I went abroad for a foreign exchange or a skiing trip etc. I always remember thinking what a great opportunity it would have been and was dead jealous of people who did have such experiences growing up. Even if they had of arisen when I was at school, I very doubt our parents could have afforded it anyway.

The relevance of this is that Joshua has just received a letter from the school confirming a skiing trip to Vermont in March 2022 at a cost of over £1,700. It’s a hell of a lot of money and arguable a week away for the whole family, but he has never been skiing and never been to the US so I think it is an absolutely fabulous opportunity for him. We spoke to Joshua about it last night and he was so excited at the opportunity and was all over it (and you can see why when you look at the Jay Peak website), so time to get saving. The pictures of the 4* resort looking amazing and there is even an on-site $20 million water park plus climbing wall for their evening entertainment!!!

On the plus side the school have at least given us 2 years to pay for it, on the negative side I assume I will have the same bill again next year for Brandon!!!!

Jay Peak Resort in Vermont.

The $20 million indoor water park.

Joshua will be hitting the slopes for the first time with 5 hours a day of skiing!

Brandon Joins his Brother at Beauchamp’s High School This September

3:20am this morning the e-mail arrived confirming that Brandon will be joining his big brother at Beauchamp’s Secondary School starting this September. I think it was pretty much a given that he was going to get Beauchamp’s as his first choice because; a) he has an older sibling in the school, and b) this is one of the two schools in our catchment area. Of course that didn’t stop us from winding him up to the extent that I even printed off an edited acceptance letter and replaced Beauchamp’s with Bromfords. Brandon fell for it hook, line and sinker and was almost in tears! So time to get saving for another full uniform with blazer, rugby kit, ties and so on and son.

Brandon tearing up his fake acceptance letter for Bromfords.