Locking Down
After a couple of weeks of uncertainty and constant changes of plan, it came as quite a relief when they finally decided to start the school holidays early and close all sports facilities.
Dropped the kids off at school on Monday for their last day. I've been watching the numbers dwindle in the morning line-up for Ms4's class. They were down to 7 on Monday. I feel quite bad for Ms4 who is so enthusiastic about starting school but having her Prep year so disrupted. She seems to take things in her stride, but I think she hides a lot of feelings.
Mr8 and his peers were making coronavirus jokes, and quite happy to be finishing school early.
His 8th birthday was on Monday, the party plan was always to just have a few friends over for cake and a pokemon hunt in the backyard. Since they had been playing together at school all day anyway, we went ahead as planned. Probably their last chance to play together for quite some time.
Cake was eaten, pokemon balls handed out, the yard searched in a rather haphazard manner, and pokemon found. They then settled down to watch pokemon videos until parents arrived to collect them, protesting bitterly at having to finish so soon.
Since then, we've started school holiday mode but without the outings. Screen time is rationed (Mr8 is constantly seeking ways to subvert this), but we've managed to keep people mostly content.
Tuesday Mr8 challenged me to a chess game, and I had no excuse not to agree since I no longer have to get anything ready for fencing. On Wednesday he decided he wanted to make his own version of a Harry Potter themed Monopoly. This seems to involve me doing most things, he's more of an ideas person, so it's getting done a bit at a time. Today saw him playing Roborally with dad.
Meanwhile Ms4 has spent a lot of time practicing her writing and drawing. She has conquered sentences, and can write a few words. For others, she asks me to spell them for her.
"Mum, how do you spell 'allowed'?" - soon after, a sticky note on the door of her bedroom announces that no Mr8's are allowed in.
She drew a picture of a castle and a princess. But the castle does not belong to the princess. The princess wants it, so is attacking the castle.
"Mum, how do you spell 'mine'? ... How do you spell 'better'?"
Now there are two castles, and the princess is telling the occupants of the first castle that "mine is better".
And yet, tonight while reading she didn't get a word right (one she hadn't read before), burst out "See! I'm no good at this!" and burst into tears. My poor perfectionist.
For my part, I am enjoying a guilt-free holiday at home. Some gardening, gradually working my way through cleaning and putting away the fencing kit, keeping the kids fed and putting icepacks on their various scrapes. Every now and then I try to log into the Centrelink website because I'll be on zero income once the current invoices are all paid, but so far no luck.
David is our primary earner, we should be able to keep paying our bills on his income alone so I don't have to stress too much as yet. We can all take a moment to enjoy some quiet time at home.
I think it was only on Wednesday that it really sank in for me that they could be home for months. I was putting away the dishes, and realised there was no point keeping the lunch and snack boxes handy, what with no school, fencing or other outings for the foreseeable. For a moment I was looking at a very long stretch of kid-wrangling... now I'm back in denial and acting like this is only for a couple of weeks.
Edit: This morning Ms4 used her screen time to play Phonics Fair, a game Mr8 got me to download when he was in grade 1 I think.
"Look mum! I'm so good at this!"
"Yes, you are. And even if you get one wrong sometimes you would still be very good at it, because that's how we learn."
Ms4 proceeds to correctly answer two more tricky questions and gives me a smug look.
Dropped the kids off at school on Monday for their last day. I've been watching the numbers dwindle in the morning line-up for Ms4's class. They were down to 7 on Monday. I feel quite bad for Ms4 who is so enthusiastic about starting school but having her Prep year so disrupted. She seems to take things in her stride, but I think she hides a lot of feelings.
Mr8 and his peers were making coronavirus jokes, and quite happy to be finishing school early.
His 8th birthday was on Monday, the party plan was always to just have a few friends over for cake and a pokemon hunt in the backyard. Since they had been playing together at school all day anyway, we went ahead as planned. Probably their last chance to play together for quite some time.
Cake was eaten, pokemon balls handed out, the yard searched in a rather haphazard manner, and pokemon found. They then settled down to watch pokemon videos until parents arrived to collect them, protesting bitterly at having to finish so soon.
Since then, we've started school holiday mode but without the outings. Screen time is rationed (Mr8 is constantly seeking ways to subvert this), but we've managed to keep people mostly content.
Tuesday Mr8 challenged me to a chess game, and I had no excuse not to agree since I no longer have to get anything ready for fencing. On Wednesday he decided he wanted to make his own version of a Harry Potter themed Monopoly. This seems to involve me doing most things, he's more of an ideas person, so it's getting done a bit at a time. Today saw him playing Roborally with dad.
Meanwhile Ms4 has spent a lot of time practicing her writing and drawing. She has conquered sentences, and can write a few words. For others, she asks me to spell them for her.
"Mum, how do you spell 'allowed'?" - soon after, a sticky note on the door of her bedroom announces that no Mr8's are allowed in.
She drew a picture of a castle and a princess. But the castle does not belong to the princess. The princess wants it, so is attacking the castle.
"Mum, how do you spell 'mine'? ... How do you spell 'better'?"
Now there are two castles, and the princess is telling the occupants of the first castle that "mine is better".
And yet, tonight while reading she didn't get a word right (one she hadn't read before), burst out "See! I'm no good at this!" and burst into tears. My poor perfectionist.
For my part, I am enjoying a guilt-free holiday at home. Some gardening, gradually working my way through cleaning and putting away the fencing kit, keeping the kids fed and putting icepacks on their various scrapes. Every now and then I try to log into the Centrelink website because I'll be on zero income once the current invoices are all paid, but so far no luck.
David is our primary earner, we should be able to keep paying our bills on his income alone so I don't have to stress too much as yet. We can all take a moment to enjoy some quiet time at home.
I think it was only on Wednesday that it really sank in for me that they could be home for months. I was putting away the dishes, and realised there was no point keeping the lunch and snack boxes handy, what with no school, fencing or other outings for the foreseeable. For a moment I was looking at a very long stretch of kid-wrangling... now I'm back in denial and acting like this is only for a couple of weeks.
Edit: This morning Ms4 used her screen time to play Phonics Fair, a game Mr8 got me to download when he was in grade 1 I think.
"Look mum! I'm so good at this!"
"Yes, you are. And even if you get one wrong sometimes you would still be very good at it, because that's how we learn."
Ms4 proceeds to correctly answer two more tricky questions and gives me a smug look.