21 Days into Lockdown

As I write today, we on day 21 of our country’s lockdown. We have been working consistently and have welcomed the public holidays in between to rest and recuperate. As with everyone else we have been isolated and try to go out once a week only to get essentials. I have been using some online stores more now than ever in an attempt to stay home. My kids are continuing with as much extra murals as we can using the Zoom application for face to face guitar lessons as well as Whatsapp videos for karate.
My older son in grade 12 uses Zoom as well for Physics and Maths Lessons. I have been more involved with his work because like any teenager as soon as I take a step back, my son tends to slow down and doesn’t complete his work task for the week. He has started to fall behind with weekly assignments and has even had to work most weekends and public holidays to catch up.
With my other two kids we have had much more free time in the afternoons, so we have been doing a lot of baking and cooking. We have been able to incorporate more arts and crafts as well. We made Easter baskets for their younger cousins, using egg cartons, paint and pipe cleaners. I bought extra Easter eggs and filled the baskets. It was a fun craft and we will be doing many more crafts in the future.

I have enjoyed having more time to research for various topics and make the lessons even more interesting. We have been doing more science experiments and watching interesting you tube videos related to what we are studying. We recently discovered a you tube channel shot in the Kruger Park where we watched a live game drive with the Kruger rangers. It was so interesting and felt like we were on the game drive as well. We have been to Kruger twice and we enjoyed seeing the animals up close in our living room.

 I have discovered new fun ways for my daughter in Grade 4 to learn her timetables using a website called hit the button. I’ve also cut up her Afrikaans Woordeskat in a way that’s different and fun to what she normally does and she’s responded so well to these changes. Interestingly I have changed my red pen colour to purple when marking their daily work, they love it! Small changes to make learning fun helps during this time. We are reading so much more both online and revisited our bookshelf to find some older books as well. Audible had some great offers for online books. My son chose an adventure book and loved it.

We need to remain positive during this time, trust God for his peace in our hearts and minds and try do things you wouldn’t normally have time to do as a family. Engage your kids in quizzes, family board games etc. We also have incorporated homemade pizza nights and each one gets to roll their base and add their own toppings. It was all positive comments once dinner was eaten, apparently, we make the best pizzas ever! There’s talk of even opening our very own pizza place after lockdown ….. My daughter has already written out the menu!