A Different Kind of Home School

How are we all? Me? I’ve been at my wits end. And back again. I think we’re back (crosses fingers).

I think that I speak for all of us when I say that being stuck with your kids and husband non stop for roughly five weeks is enough to test anyone’s mental health. No matter how normally functioning are as a family this situation is pretty extreme. Add to that trying to get the kids through school work every day and well that just makes me as Miss 7 would say ‘cookoo crazy’.

It’s not just me that’s crazy in my little family either. Everyone was on edge. The place was getting a bit of a homicidal vibe from all sides so I did something really extreme. I got the fuck out of there.

I don’t care if you all want to judge me but the rules of this utter madness we are in right now, in the state where I am living in, clearly state an adult can visit another household with their kids. They also clearly state you can leave your home at any time for mental health reasons, so I did. I will apologise to no one.

The kids were a bit confused when I quickly packed and told them we were going to my cousin’s place 2.5 hours away. Mr 4 asked me ‘what about the Lola virus?’ I explained the same way I explained to you. They didn’t buy it but came along anyway.

Now you might think I would be out of my mind to take two children in isolation and go to a place where there are 4 children already there. But I am, in fact an accidental genius. Because I wasn’t thinking clearly at all but it worked so bloody well.

The children played so well together. Well they ran an absolute muck but they left my cousin and I alone to talk and that’s all that mattered. And they fell asleep exhausted at night which gave their dad and I time to talk on the phone. Which was so important because we just forget to talk. When you talk you figure stuff out which is how I got to my decision today.

Today we didn’t log on to Google Classroom. We didn’t read. We did no maths or spelling. Instead I insisted my daughter get all her LEGO off the floor. I taught the kids how to Windex the steel fridge and then the glass sliding door. The whole family helped each other. I’d been repeating the mantra ‘team work makes the dream work’ for weeks but today we made it a reality.

I know it’s corny but when will you honestly have this much uninterrupted family time ever? Who will teach your children to ‘keep house’? Not school. Who will show them what a good relationship looks like? How good it feels to contribute? A 7 yr old who struggles with reading can find confidence in such lessons. That is my argument.

My daughter has her first day back at school next Monday. She’s not as excited as I’d hoped because it’s only a quarter of the kids going each day and she’s not sure which friends she will get to see.

Tuesday we will see how we feel. A little bit of the subjects we love and a little of the challenges. Maybe a lesson on how to clean a toilet and mop a floor. It’s a bit shit but we’ll get there.