Oh God, Not Again

 We thought we had seen the back of homeschooling, but COVID had better ideas.

The first term of 2020/21 was plagued with small quarantines,v Jack in September, with ?covid that ended up being a vicious chest infection, Alex in October and Jack again in November. Neither of them off at the same time (except for the few days of house-quarantine in September) so it wasn't too bad. But a short-term homeschool period is nothing compared to endless weeks of it.

I took it badly. I cried and a had a panic attack, or seven, and then stared bleakly through time while I adjusted to the horror. But I feel better now. Sometimes, you just have to get on with it. 

This week has been...fraught. Jimmy's school closed in the last lockdown, but there's been significant lobbying to get them to stay open this time. They have closed to many pupils, but Jimmy has a place. A place subject to weekly PCR tests which I am sure he is going to LOVE, but this is a major relief. 

You see, since the last lockdown, I've started a PhD, and yes I KNOW YOU KNOW. But doing a PhD is a weird sort of half-job. I'm not technically or legally employed, and I don't pay tax on my income from it. I don't qualify for furlough, and I'm not teaching so I'm not a key worker...but I still have to work. A lot of this work is reading books, and if you know me, you'll know I read constantly. But there's a difference between reading Jilly Cooper on the sofa, and reading a book and distilling notes into two actual notebooks, a bibliography program and two Word docs simultaneously. My concentration is frequently broken by cries of "MUUUUUUM, I'm BOOOORED, I need a YOGHUUUURT, I want to go to OUTSIDE in a SHORT SLEEVED SHIRT even though it's MINUS TWO!" Homeschool takes up most of the morning. With Jim in the mix as well, it would have taken up the entire day and I would have been found frozen in the garden, dead in a pool of rum.

The work the school have given out is much more structured and focused than last time, which is a blessing. "Remember the book you read four months ago? WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?" was not a helpful work suggestion last time around. But this also means that there's less flexibility. On Wednesday, we had no work for the kids until lunch time, so we did a taste test to learn about the senses and I got Jack to write a choose-your-own-adventure story and put it on Twine, which he thought was AMAZING. But there's no room for that sort of thing now we actually have the school work. I try to make it fun, but as I think I've made clear several time, I fucking hate teaching. 

There are more apps now, a maths app for each of them, a classroom app. As with last time, homeschool is not set up for the technology-less family - I've had to borrow a tablet off my ex to make sure the boys have one each to run the classroom app. 

Alex has come on massively since he's been in year one. He can write:

But this does not mean he WANTS to write. "I HATE doing my work, it's STUPID" he told me this morning, as I valiantly attempted to get him to write an equals sign. "I HATE reading, I don't WANT to read" he stomped, before whispering his way through a Biff, Chip and Kipper tale. 

Jack is still a morose child when made to do anything. He is learning algebra, which he has taken against on principle, despite it being THE EASIEST OF MATHS. I am a halfwit who can't do my seven times table, and I can do algebra. He also doesn't get why he needs to show his working, which SAME MATE.

So, that's where we are. The School of the Mad has reopened, albeit with a reduced cohort and a much busier headteacher.