As we have reached the end of May and a second month in lockdown, I felt it’s time to write what we have been up to over the past two weeks. Week 9 was our last homeschool week of the first half of Summer Term. We had got to grips with Google Classroom and Tyler studied poetry in English, writing his own poem. He focused on time tables and multiplication/division with large numbers in Maths, as well some doing some Picasso and Cubism in Art. He had also been set a Music class where they’ve been learning about beats through a Jack and a Beanstalk song. Lily had been set a theme of recycling/upcycling and the story of The Messy Magpie through Nursery. They have enjoyed all the learning and worked very hard, so I treated May Half Term as a normal half term – with no school work and some outings.
Saturday 16th May – Week 8
Lily had a ballet/tap class through Zoom and it was lovely so see her teacher. In the evening we braved the KFC drive thru, and after a 45 minute wait, we had the best meal in a long time! We had a roast on Sunday and watched the Dora movie as a family.
Monday 18th May – Week 9
A family walk in the evening at Upton Court Park and the children collected ‘treasures’ to create this piece of art.
Tuesday 19th May – Week 9
The children doing some colour by numbers from The Messy Magpie story. Lily enjoys it when Tyler does Nursery work with her. In the evening we walked in Lascelles Park.
Thursday 21st May – Week 9
Learning about recycling by melting odd bits of crayons into our silicone cake mould. The flat then had a strong burnt crayon smell, so I had to open the windows wide! Worth it though, because they love their crazy new crayons.
Saturday 23rd May – Week 9
I had finished my Cornish Cream Tea Bus book and really felt like a cream tea after that. So G bought scones and clotted cream from Tesco – he is so the best!
Sunday 24th May – Week 9
On Sunday it was Eid, and for my parents we did an online tea party. Normally we would be at my parents’ house eating my mum’s delicious food – if only there was a way to taste it through the screen! We had a good laugh though.
Monday 25th May – Week 10
Bank Holiday Monday and our week of picnics began. I chose Kennedy Park as I knew the destination parks would be busy due to it being a bank holiday. I was right – did you see the photos of Ruislip Lido?! Here, it was dead, we had the park practically to ourselves and it was perfect.
Tuesday 26th May – Week 10
My first outing on my own with the kids in a long time. I was nervous – it was just weird after so long. We went to Gerrards Cross Common and had a picnic, watching the buses. We did a scavenger hunt in the woods and then walked past these pretty flowers on the way back to our car. Then the kids asked for me to drive through the High Street so they could see ‘our’ shops – our Caffe Nero, our charity shop, our Tesco, our Costa, our WHSmith – all closed apart from Tesco. They just wanted to see, and I do wonder what they think in their heads. It is funny how they have formed an attachment to these Gerrards Cross shops rather than the ones in Slough.
Wednesday 27th May – Week 10
It took me all day to get these kids out of the house on this beautiful sunny day, but finally at 4pm we were walking through the Herschel Park Nature Reserve, finding a little hill that looks over the M4 motorway. We had a picnic in the main park and then walked around the trees and flowers.
Thursday 28th May – Week 10
The most beautiful setting for our family picnic. Temple Gardens at Langley Park was full of the bright, colourful rhododendrons, it was like walking through a rainbow. G had annual leave today and on Friday, so it really felt like a normal Half Term family day out. We even had ice creams – Lily’s in a sweet, rainbow cone.
Friday 29th May – Week 10
We visited Stoke Poges Memorial Gardens, a very peaceful and tranquil walk through the most beautiful flowers and white wisteria. I explained to Tyler that this was different to other parks, that the trees and flowers were planted in memory of people’s loved ones who have died. He understood, but Lily didn’t – still singing Trolls Just Want to have Fun at the top of her lungs. Sorry!
Saturday 30th May – Week 10
It was another beautiful sunny day, though a tad windy, and Tyler wanted to stay in and play the Game of Life. We compromised and suggested to play in it the park whilst having a picnic. That was actually quite fun.
And that brings us to today. It’s another sunny day but I have a feeling we are going to relax indoors. There’s an online Greenwich festival that we might tune into.
Lockdown will be slowly easing in June. But sadly people are still dying from coronavirus in the UK. At the start of lockdown, I had really hoped things would be back to normal in June but it is taking much longer than anyone anticipated. I think we will carry on as we are doing, with homeschool and outings in local parks where it is easy to social distance. We’ll just have to see how it goes.
