Lessons in running Watson Academy
and before I could send her a link to the ‘‘chill out’’ article, her panic buying was already done. No, not rice and toilet paper. Her panic shop was a mad dash to Whitcoulls.
She bought work books, writing books and new reading books, and has also been studying fun and educational PE games. She is awesome. She is also taking this thing really seriously.
I admire her determination, but also fear this new bossy teacher streak. Monday night saw me bombarded with questions about what time I’m available to take Nala the tantruming toddler out each day, if I will be available for PE, what spelling words Alba the 5-year-old should get, what my working hours are going to be...
I try to remind her of the wise academics’ words about relaxing and how an hour of one-on-one time will suffice. She doesn’t hear any of it. She is the field trip leader, head of the PPTA, number one teacher and number one teacher assist. She’s gonna do this her way. I take a step back, she is in her prime.
I ask her if I can be the principal and she be the organised amazing teacher.
She buys it and I go back to watching TV. By 9pm Monday, my wife is more excited about the following home school day than someone finding a 12 pack of three-ply.
Her school diary reads:
9am to 9:30am: Reading and writing. (As the principal I again have the most important role, I need to keep the toddler distracted for the next two hours or so – I got this, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. Honest….)
9:30am: Morning tea.
10am – 11:15am: Reading, drawing, painting.
11:15am: Lunch.
Afternoon: bit of PE.
I get home that morning at 10am – I only lasted an hour of keeping away from the house. Turns out trying to go for a run while pushing a pram is hard. Didn’t matter – they were done. My wife was annoyed and pleased at the same time.
Everything she had tirelessly planned out for the morning was finished in 50 minutes.
PE was brought forward. We played a tag game and there were tears only once.
The kids then got to enjoy my favourite part of school, lunch. Turns out you don’t really need to do too much and a little bit of one-on-one time goes a bloody long way, unless that one-on-one time is pushing an oversized toddler in a pram.
So don’t stress, parents, and remember that you only need to ‘‘teach them a bit’’ for two weeks because the school holidays have been pulled forward. Easy.
I can’t wait to see what’s in my lunch box tomorrow.