School holidays and plans during a pandemic
Annual leave
After all being home since March together, I’m now on annual leave and the children are on school holidays. Normally I would be taking the children out, I would have plans to see things and see friends. Despite my shielded husband returning to work on Monday I’m still scared to go out. I’m dreading next week, if he does catch COVID – 19, then what happens? Telling the children that daddy is on a ventilator is not something I ever want to do.
I’m sat here, waiting on the phone to Morrison’s. Tesco have put up their delivery prices in August so I’m hoping that Morrison’s can add us to their priority list. Yes, Morrison’s is walking distance but I’m scared to go in, especially as the children will be with me. For me, right now, the days of running into the supermarket are a memory.
To top everything happening right now, my dad is not well. I haven’t told the children but I keep crying. He’s still young, I have patients in their nineties and hundreds. Again I mustn’t project as these are early days.
I hated my school years, but 2020 is now the worst year of my life. Yes, I’ve enjoyed home-schooling but I’m feeling so stressed!
Holidays
So, two weeks are stretching out ahead of me. We could go to the woods, or to empty fields. Wandering around the town is not something I’m prepared to do. We could do some art, or read and write together – maybe a little too idyllic. How to do you get two game obsessed children of their gadgets? If I tell my nine-year-old, that he’s to come off it, he says, “okay”, but then continues playing.
I need safe outdoor play. My holiday is going to be harder than other years, I accept that, but most things involve crowds and people.
Safe at home
The difference between staying safely at home, in our small cocoon, to going back out into the world and seeing people is dramatic. The figures are now increasing again and parts of the UK are already locked down. The GP has now changed one of my husband’s medications to weekly, so more stress needing to go to the pharmacy more often. Till now they have been delivering it to us, this service has now stopped. Thousands have been relying on their government food box, or Boris box, this has now stopped. Despite shielding being paused, the virus is still out there and it’s still killing people.
The children are happily in their own little worlds, oblivious to our fears. My nine-year-old will ask to wear his face cover. My seven-year-old, I’ve contemplated buying her some on eBay. The conundrum with the facemasks are do you buy just a cloth face covering? Or do you buy one with a filter insert? Do I buy one for £5.00? or do I spend £25.00? I’m not medically trained, the theories that it does not affect children as much as adults, I’m not sure what to believe. As much as I can, I will continue to protect them.
The featured image was drawn after a lesson with my seven year old daughter on how the earth orbits the sun. A happy home schooling memory.
August plans
Writing commitments for this month include,
- The next part of my Ruby and Freda story.
- Write the Story for Writers Unite
- Blogbattle writing prompt.
- To write a 5000 word story on the Wild West, for the new Writers Unite Anthology.
- To continue with my time tunnel novel
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I also need to entertain the children and support them with their reading and comprehension. My nine year old is skimming text and not taking in what is happening. His excuse of “I don’t like reading” is frustrating. If he doesn’t understand what is going on, then he’s not going to enjoy it. I’ve been reading him the ‘Wizards of Once’ and testing his understanding as I read. He is rarely answering correctly. How do you improve a child’s reading and listening skills? I’m hoping that as we read together, he will improve.
I need to take things a day at a time and stop worrying. I must see more of my dad, (and family) who I’ve hardly seen since March due to shielding, plus keep up with my writing and work on my garden. The weeds have well and truly taken over, but I’ve had no gardening motivation these last few months. Life as always is busy.
Last month I was included in MJ Mallon’s – Life in Lockdown, featuring writers thoughts on this current situation.
August
As we head into August, our world is going to change. One will be getting up at 6.30am to drive daddy to work. Another will be knowing more about my father’s prognosis and talking to the children about him. We all need normality now and the children need school in September. Watching Boris Johnson talking yesterday, I have doubts in my mind about whether school will happen. Yes, I should stop watching the news but day by day the COVID – 19 situation changes.
My head keeps turning to Netflix and Amazon prime. These last few months I have binge watched Dark, The Stranger, Safe and Catastrophe. Offspring and Absentia that both feature Matthew Le Nevez,and now Schitts Creek. Yes, a bit of an escape from life but they don’t help me write.
As I keep writing, we need to continue a day at a time. This is a difficult mindset, especially when bad news is involved, but we need to all try and do it, we also should rest and relax more. To look after ourselves, our mental health and our families. I really hope that next year is easier and better, right now there is so much going on. I’m glad that I haven’t got the temptation of a crystal ball to know the future.
So, how are you getting on right now? have you been shielded? and how do you plan to keep your children / grandchildren busy during the holidays?
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13 Comments
Pea Green
Getting a child inspired to read is super hard. They need something to get them enthusiastic. Whenever my 8 yr old is grumpy about reading we scale it back to something easy and enjoyable. We’ve had full blown tantrums during home learning about comprehension, and dealt with it by finding a much easier task on a topic that interests him. Tears about the Romans? Easier questions about wildlife printed from Twinkl. It really helped to build his confidence, I gave loads of praise when he did the easier questions. Then we did some more difficult questions on the same preferred topic before attempting the original ones again. We spread all that out over three days probably, to give the positivity to sink in a bit. I don’t know if that might help you, hopefully it does.
My 8yo has read mountains of challenging books this summer term, so for the holidays he has free reign to read all the junk he likes. He’s still doing a bit of maths some times because he loves it!
Just muddling through life
I’ve just done some comprehsion with a year 3 comprehsion book. He understood and answered the questions for that. So yes I think you could be right.. We will keep trying.
I’ve always struggled to get him inspired to read, he’s a good reader but lack of interest is not helping with comprehension.
We’ve done alot of reading, writing and maths these last few months, it’s now the battle with computer games… Thank you, I will look again for text that will interest him more.
Pea Green
Oh I’m glad that helped. Twinkl has lots of stuff although not free any more.
I think with reading they have to find their genre and then they get hooked. With my son it was David Walliams. Good luck x
tidalscribe
I know, what a dilemma. My husband s too ill, doesn’t want to go out anyway, but I am as nervous as you to go to the shops. Our tiny pharmacy is attached to the doctors, only one customer at a time so I feel safe collecting his prescriptions, but I have not been near any other shops. C0 Op do local deliveries if you have one near you, I have used ours all along. Free, but limited to 30 items. However they always have plenty of slots.
Just muddling through life
Oh dear, I’m sorry to hear about your husband. We collect prescriptions from Morrison’s which is one place I don’t want to go. We tried an online pharmacy in the past but the items were not delivered that quickly. The pharmacy deliveries over the last few months have been very helpful and a weight of my mind, but now they have stopped. Thanks for the tip about the co-op.
gemmaorton
Life is just full of anxiety right now. With shielding ending at the same time as cases rising I just don’t know what to say or do. We can all individually just do our bit and hope the rest of society does too. I went on my first walk this week since March.
Thoughts are with your husband and those expected to return to work.
Stay as safe as you can.
Just muddling through life
Thankyou Gemma, yes these are scary times. Well done on going for a walk, I need to be braver! Just hope people are sensible, figures continue to rise but also more people are being tested.. the figures don’t help anxiety.
Thanks, he went back to work today, spent his day in PPE, mask and visor.. take care Gemma x
gemmaorton
It’s not a case of being brave, I’ve covered this in my recent post, but I don’t like the thought of people thinking they need to be brave. It’s a case of risk and if that risk is acceptable to you. If it’s not, that’s ok.
The figure are getting scary again and I don’t think my walks will turn into much more.
Take care and stay safe.
Just muddling through life
Thanks, we are still shopping mainly online. However, shops that I have had to visit in person, I have felt angry at the amount of people without masks and the shop workers without masks. Even customer service desk with no screen and no mask.. (or face cover). Yes it is all about risk, just a shame that not everyone is as careful as others. Yes the figures are rising, really not good. You take care and stay safe too!
Dee | Grammy's Grid
Maybe you could take the children out to a park or some outdoor activity where you can social distance. I understand you being afraid, I was too in the beginning but hubby has worked everyday and we just returned from a week long vacation. We were armed with our masks, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant wipes. Everywhere we went adults and children wore masks and seating at restaurants was distanced as was the attractions we went to. We wear 100% cotton masks that are 3 layers with a filter pocket where we insert a paper towel or coffee filter. We’re able to change the filter as well as hand wash the masks or put them in the machine. My friend made some for us and then I bought some on Etsy that have adjustable ear straps. It felt so good to be able to get out and live life again. Hoping you can soon do the same ♥
Just muddling through life
Thankyou Dee! I’ve spent day one, tidying and cleaning. Kids were suppose to tidy their rooms.. this didn’t happen. We donated a mountain of clothes to charity and did a load of washing. So productive but not very exciting. Yes I need to be brave and take the kids to the park.. maybe kick a ball around.
Sounds like you had a good holiday! I need to buy some masks for my 7 year old. Thanks!
Dee | Grammy's Grid
Fresh air would be good for you and the kids, kick a ball, ride their bikes or scooters, just have some fun. It would be easy to social distance in wide open spaces.
Just muddling through life
These last few days we have done alot of gardening. My daughter was helping me with brambles earlier today. I do though need to be braver and go out out, thankyou!