Autumnal Changes
On 3rd September, 167 days after the schools closed their doors at the beginning of lockdown, I sent my children in for the start of a new term. I confess I was not one of the parents crying at the school gates. Six months is a long time to spend every minute of the day with your children, however much you love them. I admit that by last week I had a newfound sympathy for hamster mothers, who frequently eat their young. (This delightful factoid was discovered during my research into Syrian hamsters in preparation for the arrival of Gus, who I am slightly less than ecstatic to announce now resides in Gabbie’s room). I wonder if it is not so much that they want to eat them but that they cannot listen to one more argument about who gets to ‘speak’ which My Little Ponies?
But I did take a moment to let myself feel a tinge of sadness that the time of having them around more had passed. We are extremely fortunate that I do not work, and Martin’s work is very flexible, and so we were able to move into the sphere of home education without a great deal of disruption. My inner teacher made an appearance and I took responsibility for corralling the girls into structured school days while Martin was in charge of Sasha’s home learning and physio. I must admit that even I was astonished by the work that Sasha completed — he used his switch/computer combo to work through the Khan Academy maths programme, which had him adding and subtracting three digit numbers and calculating fractions among other things. He also wrote a number of stories (some more rambling than others), including a particular gem about a monkey called Timmy who lived in our garden and built a mud house like the one that Gabbie had built from Lego. He had certainly not suffered from our lockdown routine, clocking up two hours of schoolwork, an hour of physical therapy, an hour of Harry Potter audiobook, an hour’s walk in the woods, an hour of iPad games and six hours of Mr Tumble a day.
Regardless of my feelings, it was time for them to return to the classroom and, so importantly, to interact with their peers. We tried to arrange as many play dates as possible as soon as some meeting up was permitted, but we could not replace the daily socialising with their classmates. I was not particularly concerned with the health implications and Sasha had in fact returned to school two days a week after May half term (and thoroughly enjoyed his time away from his parents ad sisters). I was concerned, however, about how the COVID-era routines would affect the children who were going into schools which would be very different to how they remembered them.
I am happy to say that these concerns were unfounded. Both Sasha and the girls’ schools have done an excellent job of welcoming the children back into a happy and calm environment. Apart from the teacher standing at the classroom door, wielding a bottle of hand sanitiser, and the one way systems which are the source of much parental complaining every day, the school seems refreshingly normal. As for Sasha, his transport has resumed, so we wave him off every morning into the care of a very lovely driver and escort team, and welcome him home in the evening — he is always grinning from ear to ear so we assume that he has had a good day, although restrictions now prevent us from sending his recordable button to and fro so we do not have any verbal confirmation of this. Sasha is notoriously unreliable when indicating what he has done at school, often lifting his hand (his way of saying yes) to questions which his teachers subsequently answer in the negative. But these are small prices to pay for a return to the ‘new normal’, although I am already a little in mourning for the slower pace of lockdown life as we resume the continual dash from school to clubs to weekend activities which plagues the lives of all parents.
However, a note to Boris and cronies. This IN NO WAY means that another lockdown is an appealing prospect. I have been too scared to get on the scales since about 25th March due to the amount of chocolate, orange gin and homebaked goods I consumed (often all at once). Normal routines need to stay in place. Many thanks.
