“The past few months have clearly been very challenging for a lot of people, and I by no means want to belittle anyone’s experiences but I’ve felt that I’ve been especially lucky during this time.”
60:40 Dad
Every week normally I feel like I don’t get to see my children as much as I would like, lockdown has given me substantially more one-on-one time with them than I have had for years. I have been homeschooling my children while their school has been closed, and while it has had its stresses, overall I think the experience has been positive for them, positive for me, and given me a much better understanding of their learning personalities and what makes them tick. Here’s a few shared experiences from our lockdown learning times:
At the start of the school closures we designed our own home school logo and set up our workbooks. Here are the finished articles. I’m not sure why it’s school of “Daddy and Fire”; I think because fire is cool and not because of some pyrotechnic tendencies I’ve shown!
Over the weeks of lockdown, in addition to the school set work we managed to do baking, outside art, grow our own mini terrarium (not a term I knew pre-lockdown!) and our obligatory NHS rainbow.
When we got bored of our own house we slept in the tent in the garden and together we did a virtual running challenge, so all have shiny new medals. I’ve learnt a lot about where my children’s strengths and weaknesses are academically, and been able to offer them more one on one time than any teacher could.
This all sounds very positive, but I’m not trying to say it was all easy or this is better than the norm. Far from it, I think it has been special because it was a brief adventure into a new way of spending our time together. Now they are both back in school it is absolutely a better set of circumstances.
My children now actively look forward to going into school as they have learnt what a great social event it is. I appreciate the role that their teachers do more now, and they have been coming out smiling and energised for it.
In short, we’ve grown closer, but we’ve also learnt to appreciate the basics of our life more.
About the Author
60:40 Dad, has two boys (4 and 5yrs). He has been separated from the Mother of his children for two years now and his children live with him 40% of the time. 60:40 Dad works part time allowing him the flexibility to spend some weekdays with his children, to be there for school drop off and pick ups and try and make things balance. 60:40 Dad is keeping his real name private to avoid shining the internet’s spotlight on his children.
