Five Minute News

This is going to be a much shorter blog post and in my usual five minute style! So school’s are shutting tomorrow here in the UK, the kids are going to be at home next week and beyond…so now what?

I am going to be sharing what I do with the kids at home next week on social media if you want to follow along for ideas. We will roughly stick to the schedule I posted previously. But not religiously. My advice is to do as much as you can / want to. If you do one or two five minute games a day, all good. If you go full on school at home, all good. YOU DO YOU! There is no right or wrong here. We are all just trying to make the best of a difficult situation.

What are the five things I am doing right now to prepare for next week with two children aged 3 and 5?

1. Choosing a theme for the week - I have decided to do an ‘Under the Sea’ theme based on Ewan’s current interest in a shark book we have. Plus we already have Finding Nemo and The Little Mermaid downloaded! Ha!
2. Sorting out my books - I spent five minutes chucking all our books which are scattered around the house in book baskets into piles. One pile of fact/educational books, one pile of reading for fun books, and one pile of book that fit with this week’s theme. Anything to do with sea creatures basically. I am putting away for now the education ones and theme ones.
3. Hide the toys - I then hid away a whole load of toys. Gathered up a decent third of them to pop away. I will bring them out in a couple of weeks when in need of some peace and it’ll be like Christmas Day as they rediscover them. I will then hide a different third away.
4. Save resources - I started chucking boxes, free newspapers and plastic packaging above the fridge out of reach of the kids for junk modelling, painting etc. Start your collection now to pull on when you need it.
5. Create a tat box - if you don’t have one already. Any plastic tat or junk in your toy boxes put them into a separate box of ‘treasure’ to bring out when you’re really stuck for entertainment.
6. Stock up on stuff - Today in the supermarket I bought paper, dry wipe pens, seeds, some activity books, marshmallows (for toasting), baking supplies, food colouring, masking tape. A list of the stuff I regularly have in stock is on my affiliate Amazon Shop.
7. If you’re worried the change in routine might be upsetting or unsettling for your child maybe start to pull together a visual timetable. Draw pictures of the things you are going to do during the days at home and find a place you can build the timetable of each day together to help them feel calmer, knowing what is coming next at any time.

Remember we don’t have to suddenly become TEACHERS. They train for years for this shiz. All we have to do is keep our kids occupied, loved and happy during this time. Whatever that looks like. But we need to stay sane too. That’s why I am doing these tricks above, as I always have, because being at home with the kids is made a hell of a lot easier if you have some things up your sleeve already. My ideas bank is where you can find the activities we will be doing.

It isn’t because I am going to sit and TEACH them every day or recreate school, but I want to keep them active and busy, and still learning through play if at all possible. If you do want to teach though then my advice is to do any literacy or numeracy first thing in the morning and leave the fun more relaxed stuff for later in the day.

Are we ready? NOPE. But then who was ready for parenthood in the first place? Nope me either!!!

p.s. My book is also BACK IN STOCK. Click here for the Waterstones link!