Pandemic Schooling Part 6: Weekends, Holidays & Home school
Weekends, holidays, home school- is there any difference? How can we make them distinct?
So many sympathies to you if you were planning a proper holiday for these few weeks and have ended up with a staycation. Life is so intense right now without having to deal with further disappointments and everything else too. If you’re consequently feeling pressure to ‘make up’ to your kids for a cancelled holiday’ then I’m sorry, that’s a tough spot. Take the pressure off yourself about having a holiday or providing a holiday for your kids. We all enjoy a good change of scene, a chance to refresh and relax. Unfortunately those are not options for us right now so release yourself from the pressure of having to deliver that. So we’re mid Easter Bank holiday weekend and lockdown is still imposed. We’re with each other aaaalll the time and some days it all feels a bit much… Every day is Blursday kinda vibe. The kids have been asking me when Easter holidays are. Holidays for us are that, we pretty much take a break from everything, catch up with school friends and far away friends, stay up late, watch movies and eat treats. This time though albeit official holidays, we’re going to carry on as we were. Surprisingly the kids were quite happy to do so. Granted we haven’t concluded our family conversation around this but here’s my thoughts so far.
Keep the rhythm- change the content and the timings of the day:
I wouldn't usually go down this track during holiday time but having a pattern and a regular rhythm during this time helps to earth some of our out of control feelings as well as providing comfort and predictability. When very little of those are available to us right now keeping a pattern will help keep moods and trigger in check and keep us humming along. Sure, make some changes from your regular rhythm but not at the cost of your sanity or your peace. Maybe start school later, have longer lie ins, stay up later, keep some of the structures but change the content of what you do. Give the essential learning a sabbatical. Substitute maths for board games, english for scrabble or an audible book.
Autonomy:
Let the kids have a say in what they are going to learn and do. In our current rhythm we are doing a lot less formal learning and much more topic based stuff. We still meet for school at 10/10:30 but what we do is alot less structured.
Marginal Gains:
We’ve been reading “You Are Awesome’ by Matthew Sayed. One of the topics in it is a concept called marginal gains. Make little changes in lots of different areas = a big change overall. Applying this to our daily routines could make self isolation feel a little less so and life a little more holiday esque. Little things make a big difference. I would also add, to make it a conscious marginal gain so the kids get the difference between regular rhythm and holiday rhythm.
Save up the holiday:
Look to provide a holiday week when lockdown is going to be lifted! Keep the rhythm the same until we have more definite timescale to work from.
4 Check Points:
Devise your day around these 4 topics. Physical, mental, emotional, social wellbeing. Obviously some are tougher than others to deliver right now. To keep things running along I try to make sure these 4 bases are being covered in some way every day.
Bucket List:
Get creative and write a holiday bucket list of things to do! Pinterest and google have so much stuff!! Tick through the list and have fun! It's nothing complicated but I’m always amazed how much more excitement my kids get from conquering the list and ticking things off!! Some of our favourites are below (watch out for our full list in the next post)
•Movies- work your way through a whole series we watched Toy Story 1-4 this summer.
•Kids in charge day- hand them the reins, including meals
•A photo night. Look back on your old family photos.
•Eat ice cream every day.
•Homemade pizza night
Weekends:
The time in the week where I am not the central point of life. I am not the driving force behind everything that gets done. Essentials only. Food, water and safety.
Our weekends and holidays typically look and feel very different to our regular day to day. Up late, bed late, lazy food, brunches, no one’s dressed, movies, treats, gaming, tv. In short, I don't have to be the centrifugal force to make everything happen. Weekends didn't feel like weekends though until we had a weekday rhythm established, while we (mostly) enjoy our weekdays pattern we all look forward to winding things down at the weekends.
Staycation (in summary):
•Relax the routine - only as much as you can manage though without losing your peace!
•Free time- increase this as long as this brings peace to you and enjoyment!
•Autonomy- let the kids choose what they are going to learn/ do. Not a free range plan though an actual plan.
•Marginal Gains- it’s the little things that count
•Defer the holiday
•4 Checkpoints
•Write a bucket list (watch out for our bucket list on the next post)
Finally, this is a great blog, with 11 ways to beat the monotony of the day
https://simplehomeschool.net/monotony/
