Teamwork over homework and striking a balance amid the chaos
THE email kept on going. Page after page and with every scroll my heart sank deeper. Maths. English Irish. Games. Wordplay. Make and do. The realisation dawned on me that I and the children’s Mam were now responsible for not only the feeding, entertaining, disciplining and emotional support of the Whirlwind Wonder and The Little Fella, but we were also to be their educators!
The emails from their teachers were the most terrifying yokes I’ve seen in a while, and I include the January bank statement in that.
Admittedly we should have gone through them in painstaking detail the Friday afternoon after Paddy’s, but who in their right mind did that?
The following week offered some opportunities, but as we are fortunate enough not to be among the 300,000 to have applied for Social Welfare payments due to the coronavirus temporary shutdown of businesses, we were so busy adapting to working from home that it just didn’t happen.
So it was that the immovable force and the irresistible object sat down together and tried to come up with a workable homework routine for the children in our care.
Once the emails were transcribed onto A4 sheets of paper, we divvied up the homework duties. I got the duty of overseeing their daily diary and the jotting down of all things Spring-like and their Mam got the Maths work, and Irish too.
With backs like bent hangers, we got up from the desk and immediately missed our ergonomic office chairs. Like the rest of the country we are going through the motions, doing what we are told and observing the guidance that has been given.
I have never been as active as the Whirlwind Wonder has decided she wants to become an athlete.
Every day a decathlon is completed, albeit one which includes badminton, basketball, cycling etc.
Wicks’ P.E. Sessions at 9.30 a.m. have kept everyone fit, providing a much needed balance for all the treats being consumed.
‘Coronavirus with the ex’ sounds like a horror comedy. It’s like walking on a high wire razor blade over a pit of apex predators, you’d imagine!
Like people across the country we are suddenly thrust into this new world of proximity at a time of social and physical distancing.
The irony of the term hasn’t been lost on me. Routines have been upended, including for families living between two houses. I cursed the suddenness and timing of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s announcement on Friday. Another layer of chaos in my life was not exactly what I needed.
Everyone is struggling in these days of fluid, wild news cycles and isolation, and more clarity should have been provided, but the Taoiseach is only human and I do hope and believe the measures introduced will help flatten the curve.
It seems ages ago when the children and I were in our local woods picking wild garlic to make pesto. Now the wonders of our town are revealing themselves to us.
As for the next ten days, homework will be done, Body Coach fitness sessions will be completed, runners and small (and big) legs will be worn out on long walks (within a 2km radius), hour long WhatsApp group chats will be had, baking will be done and fun will be had.
Plenty of TV and Netflix movies will be enjoyed too.