Dear Matthew and Toby
Well! Homeschooling took place for about seven weeks during the pandemic. Needless to say, I am so grateful I never trained as a teacher, as it is most certainly not my life's calling!
Matt, being in year one, our focus every day was on sight words, writing simple sentences, reading simple books and doing basic maths together. Your teacher had set up activities to do on an app so we made our way through those and the worksheets that were sent home. While we endured homeschooling, I do not think either of us thrived, but I guess I have to remember that I was also trying to work and entertain Toby at the same time, so it was more crisis-schooling than planned homeschooling.
There were many wonderful moments (see all the photos below of some of our 'maths classes' i.e. endless baking where you helped measure out ingredients) but I'm ashamed to admit I may have sworn at you when I was trying to teach you how to skip-count in twos and nothing I did got the message through. Tears galore from us both. The anxiety our little house was feeling during this time could change in an instant and we were all on edge. We would explain to you that we couldn't do certain things due to 'the germs', and you were so understanding, but the constant stress of infection really got to me and your dad. I'm sorry if we neglected you both during this time. We did our best to hold it all together.
Please know that we gave it a go, and you didn't seem to mind Matt, but I think everyone was relieved when school was reopened!! We did some fun activities and I know if we ever have a second wave and need to homeschool again, we'll be ok!
Love you boys,
Mum xxx
