Last Updated on 8 June 2020 by Colette
After 10 weeks at home, Week 11 saw two of our gang return to school. Ben is in Year 6 and Amy in Year 1 which meant they were among the first pupils in England to be invited back to school for the last half term of the year. They were both super excited to be back and got up and ready early on Monday morning, practically counting down the minutes until it was time to leave.
Dropping the kids off at school went really smoothly – everything was well organised with staggered drop off times, a clear one way system and a member of the senior leadership team signing the children in and welcoming them back. Both children went in happily without so much as a backward glance and I walked home from school in the sunshine feeling much lighter. I was confident that sending them back was the right thing for them both.
Distance learning for one made life much easier than trying to do it for three, so Monday was generally a lot less stressful than we have become accustomed to. Chloe got on with her work without too much fuss (fractions aren’t her friend and neither is completing her work online, she’d much rather just write the answers down than add text boxes to a maths worksheet and to be honest I can’t say I blame her!)
After lunch I took Chloe and Poppy to the park for a socially distanced walk with Chloe’s best friend. They obviously haven’t seen each other for weeks and it was lovely to see them running across the park towards each other with their arms open – but then pausing about 3m apart and pretending to hug! Obviously I really wanted them to just have a proper hug and play together but they were really sensible!
The big two came out of school buzzing about their day – ultimately just really happy to be back with their teachers and some of their friends. They didn’t complain about any of the social distancing measures at all and Ben said everything was pretty much as he’d expected thanks to school sending out clear plans to us in the weeks before.
Tuesday was Dave’s day in the office so he was up and out before we got up for school. After realising on Monday that Ben and Amy’s assigned start times clashed (they are on split sites which, under normal circumstances, start 10 minuets apart) and I couldn’t actually get them both to school on time, I let Ben walk to school on his own. This was something we had discussed anyway was, in his last half term of primary school, it makes sense to give him a little more independence! He has been walking home from school a couple of times a week since the middle of Year 5 but there was never any point in letting him walk to school as I always had to drop Chloe off anyway. So since Tuesday, Ben has walked part of the way to school with us, then headed off to the Juniors on his own and he’s walked himself home too which means Amy and I can head straight home when she’s finished rather than having to stand around in the Junior playground.
Ben was on Newsround on Tuesday – they asked him to film a video diary about his return to school which was really cool! His teacher put it on the white board so they could all watch together!
Dave took Wednesday off to start clearing the garden – unfortunately the skip we had booked didn’t arrive till Amy got home from school which was a bit of a shame and felt like a wasted day. Between us we spent the day pottering, tidying up bits of the garage – sorting out duplicates of decorating equipment, throwing out old tins of paint etc (when I say “throwing out” what I really mean is “moving them outside to be dealt with later as they couldn’t go in the skip and the local tip won’t accept that sort of waste at the moment!). I also painted up an old wooden crate that’s been sit in the garage for ages so we could use it to keep the balls and toys that usually end up scattered around the garden all in one place!
On Thursday morning, whilst Dave dug up the back garden and filled the skip at an impressive rate (the skip guy estimated he’d moved 10 tonnes of soil & grass in less than 24 hours), Chloe and I took Poppy up to Heaton Park to see Uncle Will and Cass. I’ve seen Will a couple of times during Lockdown but Chloe hadn’t seen him properly in months, and I honestly don’t think we’d seen Cass since the back end of last summer! We had a lovely couple of hours pottering around the park – Cass & Chloe enjoyed exploring together, Poppy had a bit of a run off lead and Will & I got to catch up – though it’s never as easy to chat properly when there’s kids in the vicinity demanding your attention is it! Chloe has asked that next time we meet up we take a picnic which I thought sounded like a good plan! Amy was a bit gutted when she found out we’d seen Uncle Will & Cass without her but I pointed out that Chloe would be at school given half the chance and they couldn’t expect her to sit at home doing nothing while they were in school with their friends and teachers!
I spent Thursday afternoon proof reading and editing a job application for a friend while Chloe caught up on her school work!
On Friday, Dave continued to work on the garden, levelling out the ground and fitting a weed membrane before shifting tonnes of hardcore into the back garden – the weather wasn’t the greatest which made it even more of a slog for him (though perhaps better than the baking sun of last week?). After lunch Chloe and I settled down with popcorn & sweets to watch Maleficent Mistress of Evil – she’d seen a trailer for it earlier in the week and we’d realised it was realised to Disney+ in the UK on Friday so had agreed to watch it together. She’d been looking forward to our Friday afternoon treat all week and the film didn’t disappoint. We’ve agreed that we’ll make “Film Friday” a weekly treat while she’s off school. (I wish I’d thought of it earlier in Lockdown but to be honest it’s nice to have something that’s just for the two of us!)
Saturday was all about the garden – finishing off moving the hardcore, using the whacker to compact it, levelling it and then shifing tonnes of sand. I write that as if I had anything to do with it – but really I did little more than move the spirit level around and make lunch / drinks! Again the weather wasn’t great – but what Dave said was most frustrating was that it was neither one thing or another. He didn’t mind the rain but would prefer it to keep raining than for it to keep getting warm again and him have stop and take his jumper off only for it to start raining again. Whilst he was doing this, I scrubbed some of the concrete base boards on the fence before running out of cleaning product and deciding a pressure washer might be a good idea to finish it off. I spent most of the afternoon cleaning & tidying the kitchen. After a full day’s hard labour (for Dave!) we ordered a take away from a local Indian that we hadn’t tried before – the food was lovely but the delivery service really poor. We said we’d try them again but would pick up next time!
And so to Sunday! This morning Poppy and I went to the park for our favourite dog walk of the week – we’ve been meting Mich and Edie in the park for quite a few weeks now to give the puppies chance to play together and of course it means Mich & I get chance to have a proper in-person catch up! Most weeks we do OK for weather but today was grey, wet and miserable. Both dogs were quickly soaked from rolling around on the floor together! And whilst we were having a soggy stroll around the park – Dave was losing the will to live as he continued to shift sand, compact the sand and level the sand. By about mid afternoon it was time to start lying the grass itself – which was exciting but pretty nerve-wracking because of how expensive it would be if we made a mistake! (I’m going to write a separate post about our experience of laying artificial grass I think!)
All in we had a really positive week – I think having two of our gang back in school made the biggest difference to all of us. I appreciated having the routine of the school run book ending our days, Ben & Amy were thrilled to be back in school and experiencing some semblance of normality and social interaction and Chloe just appreciated the peace and quiet to get on with her work and the extra time with Mum & Dad!
I did’nt realise he was on Newsround! You should have said 😀 I’ll find it and watch it with the kids 😀