I cannot believe it’s almost the end of January already, I’m still at the stage where I have to think before writing 2021 but at the same time it feels like January is turning out to be as long as March felt last year- precisely 468 days long. I think lockdown messes with time anyway as some days I look at the clock and feel like I’ve lost 3 hours! I did have a giggle at the calendar earlier, the sad empty one, except for 2 things which have both been crossed out- an eye test and ‘back to school’.

Obviously I can’t write a post without a little homeschooling update (especially after my slight meltdown in the last post!). To be honest it’s going pretty well all things considered. We definitely have blips where we have to step away from the work and do some playing or Netflix binging but in general we are finding our flow. I’ve definitely found Polly to be a more visual/physical learner, no idea if she’s the same in an actual classroom but at home I’ve had to find some alternative ways to help- especially with phonics! Yesterday for example she wasn’t on board with the ‘sound swap’ in the live lesson (swapping one letter out of a 3 letter word to make another- pig into peg). So, after we logged off I pulled out a little train track, stuck 3 of our phonics pegs to a carriage and had the train go round to the station where it needed to change a letter instead by swapping a peg. It worked a treat and we’ll definitely be using that technique again.

The week days do feel a bit of a blur with zooms, a little daily walk, numberblocks and just general life so I’m trying to be productive at the weekends. This morning I wrote out my to-do list to get done by Monday morning and realised I’d written something at the top which might sit strange with some people.

Some people might find it strange to add ‘call best friend’ to a to-do list as they might think I’m implying it’s a chore- this absolutely isn’t the case. I’ve put it there so I can make time for it, as it was the most important thing I wanted to do this weekend, it was also the first thing I ticked off the list. I know this is a really hard time for a lot of people and things are a bit overwhelming sometimes, and I definitely don’t want to come across like I’m giving anyone a telling off as that’s not why I’m rambling about this- I just wanted to say that we need to make time for each other now more than ever so for me personally this is the best way to ensure I can do that. Incidentally it was a great chat, with a bit of Polly input at times, where we discussed getting matching tattoos, virtual book clubs and dinosaur pjs- best way to start a Saturday!

So Clara-bear seems to have mastered the sitting thing. She’s still at that stage where she occasionally throws herself to the floor though so she can usually be found in the centre of a circle of cushions. She is loving all the foods that we are throwing her way and we’ve finally found a child who loves broccoli!

Seb is doing so well with his speech and the sentences are starting to come- with hilarious moments, such as him tripping over his feet this evening and declaring “oh no I broken”. He was absolutely fine, he seems to be following in the wake of his fairly dramatic big sister. I’m trying to get him involved in bits of the homeschooling where possible especially as he seems to love learning things, although he’s definitely happiest when he’s just playing trains.

That’s probably it from me tonight. I’ve been writing this upstairs while trying to encourage Clara to sleep more than half an hour in her cot without my boob in her mouth and if I’ve only got a 10 minute left I’d like to use that time wisely by stuffing a crunchie in my mouth and blagging a cup of tea out of Henry!