stay at home

June 1st…to return or not?

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Since Boris announced that he was hoping for schools to get back as soon as 1st June this subject has been big on my mind. As a mum of a reception child it was a huge shock hearing the age groups they decided to send back. Most parents of a child around 4-5 years old will agree they don’t like to keep still for long and you need eyes in the back of your head to watch what they are up to. I can’t even fathom the pressure teachers are going to feel to keep these distancing measures in place.

I’m not up to speed on all the science etc behind this awful virus. I don’t know all the figures or details of age groups mostly affected, all I know is my view as a mother of my children. As I currently write this I am about 90% sure that I won’t be sending Joey to school. Our school has yet to share any detail of their plans on how they will keep the children and staff safe in school. Obviously I want to hear it before I make the best choice for us. I have a little boy who is really wanting to return to all his friends. He also isn’t old enough to comprehend what it will be like to have to try and stay two meters away from them. I mean I’ve seen grown adults who don’t seem to be able to grasp the concept. I want to make an informed choice not just on my wishes but also on his. My sole job is to protect him the best way I can.

I know many key worker children have had no choice but to be in school. This must be so difficult for their wonderful Parents. I also feel that by returning more children to school, that really don’t need to be there, will be placing more risk on those children that don’t have a choice. I am also aware that if we send our children back their core learning is going to be focused on social and emotional well being. They are not going to be able to share toys or take a book out the library to learn to read. I am such a big fan of working on children’s emotional well being, do I feel this is the right way to go about it? No!

The other argument in the topic is that things may not be any better by September. I agree with this completely so why not wait? why not have the time to create proper plans structures etc instead of causing potential distress and upset for around 5 weeks. God forbid Joey became ill and ended up on oxygen or worse a ventilator. Would those 5 weeks of learning social skills from a distance be worth it? NO!

I am speaking only on my own thoughts for my child personally. Every child is different and every parent will have different views. It will be an impossible task to keep everyone happy but I believe this is a time to trust yourself, maybe go against the grain.

 

 

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The summer term has started!

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The Easter holidays are done! When school closed today was the day the children should of gone back. I’ve said it before but I actually enjoy having them at home.

I did a lot of my own Planning as I feel it’s super important to keep them learning and wanted to give ‘proper’ home schooling a go. So I have used YouTube, Pinterest, Twinkl and just general google searches to find out what my children ‘need’ to know for their current age and how to teach it.

Something I have found that I feel maybe hasn’t been picked up or perhaps, in a class for of 30 kids hasn’t been noticed is that my son Joey (5) is really advanced especially in Maths. He can easily do addition and subtraction (faster then my brain haha) so I’ve decided to jump in and start multiplication. I’ve delved into the knowledge of phonics!! I didn’t even realise this was a thing until Joey started school. He is beginning to read a lot more confidently and his writing is improving. All of this is through one to one attention.

Penny (3) should be starting her 15 hours of nursery from today. There wasn’t a space for her in the current school Joey is at until September so she wasn’t going to be starting anyway but I figured I would give her snippets of learning along with Joey for however long I could keep her attention. Now she has been very behind when it comes to her speech due to hearing difficulties, the by no means has ever held her back in anything. We sat down today and I wrote a P and she instantly copied me! That was easy (phew) I kept her attention for around 5 minutes (I guess I’m pretty boring) and then she went for break and never returned. Oh the beauty of home school.

I have done some research into home schooling and what it’s really like but have found that many of the Facebook groups etc are quiet unwelcoming in the current situation and are very quick to say that this is not ‘true’ homeschooling as a lot of it is still teacher led! Through my research I found that homeschooling works best of you don’t turn your house into a school. So I took the approach today of trying to make a game out of almost everything we learnt. My favourite part of the day was when I read a story and Joey acted it out as I read it. It made such a difference and was a lot more fun then just sitting and reading a book. (Btw reading is my absolute favourite thing to do but 5 year olds like to move) I’m still in the process of building new ideas for mummy school as I call it!

We were loud today, we learnt in the garden, we took a break exactly when we needed it and we enjoyed learning with a difference. I’m just trying to embrace what’s been sent to me and really use this time to build on my children’s education but in my own way. I would love to hear and read about other people experience, even if you do it full time!

Thanks for reading

Amy x

But what do you do all day?

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Taking on the role of stay at home mummy has been a lot harder then I thought it would be! As a child it was my dream, When all my class mates where discussing how they wanted to become nurses, vets and beauticians all I could think was how much I wanted a family. I know weird right?  When I started a relationship with Tony it became clear very early on that we wanted the same things a strong marriage and a couple of kids (and dogs) added in. Perfect!

When Joey came along we decided that I would only go to work a day a week for a bit of extra spending  money for us. We had worked out the costs of child care and we couldn’t justify spending the money I would earn on someone else raising our child. When Penny came along we decided that i would give up work all together and become a stay at home mum.

So what do I do all day? Watch daytime T.V with my feet up drinking tea right? Haha far from it! I get dragged out of bed at around 6 in the morning, normally by Joey ‘Mummy can we go downstairs? Mummy can we go downstairs? Mummy can we go downstairs?’ I make breakfast and rush around getting ready for the school run. My days are then filled with washing, cleaning, naps, crying (not always the kids ha), playing, laughing and just lately becoming a referee! It’s a continuous cycle of never getting a minute to myself even when going to the toilet I normally have a child watching! Its mentally hard some days but you know what? I wouldn’t change it for the world! I feel like we only get so long in life with our children before they are off spending their evening and weekends with friends and their days are filled with school. We might not have all the money in the world, We live in our cute little two up, Two down and we have holidays in England not abroad but I know I wont look back and feel like i missed out on a thing.

I have to give full credit to every Mum out there that goes out and works! I know when you get home you have all the Jobs I listed above to do! I honestly wouldn’t have the drive to do it after a full days work! You are all amazing and deserve a medal. I also Know that not everyone is as lucky as me to have the choice to stay at home and that must be so hard. At the end of the day being a Mummy is all about doing whats best for our family and no two Families are the same.

Thanks for reading!

Amy   x