Siblings, April 2020

At the end of last month’s Siblings post, I said we had lambing preparation and Easter to look forward to and, while lambing has been much the same as other years (apart from visitors), the lives of mine and most other children have been turned upside down in the last month.

No school, no swimming lessons, trips to the library and, most awful of all, not being able to see grandparents and friends.

I really worried about how they would all cope but they really have surprised me. There have been a few moans and some tears about not being able to do things-particularly when McDonald’s closed its doors but, on the whole, they have just accepted the situation and got on with it.

In many ways I feel like they have coped better than me.

While there have been a few squabbles, they have got on so well and played with each other beautifully. The weather has obviously helped and I do realise how lucky we are to have so much space to run about in.

The first week of lockdown we had quite a rigid routine with Joe Wicks PE in the morning, reading, writing and numeracy after and then arts and crafts or farm adventures in the afternoon.

It surprised me how fast the older two ploughed though their school work and, activities which I though would last ages were over in minutes. I also found it difficult to keep the youngest entertained while his older siblings worked.

In the end I had to get on the floor and play with the three years old and the older ones would join me if they needed help with anything.

While the lack of friends and family has been hard, I am actually enjoying out slower pace of life. No rushing, no feeling like I am late for everything and, in the last month, since schools closed, I have not had to shout at them once to put their shoes on. I think we have all enjoyed that bit of it.

The Easter holidays have seen us relax even further. The rigid routine of school work has slackened off a little and we have entered another routine of playing with hens and lambs and doing a lot of gardening.

I am a little worried how they will adjust to us picking up the more classic learning next week but if the last four weeks are anything to go by, I am certain they will not let me down.

We had our annual Easter egg hunt which they were very excited about and we are still in the middle of lambing.

Who knows what the next month will bring. I imagine it will be more of the same. I just hope my iCloud can cope with the amount of photos I have been taking.

Stay safe, stay at home.