Day 2 of Social Distancing

Only day 2 and feeling quite positive. It hasn't really sunk in yet that we won't be able to see our friends and visit our favourite places for the foreseeable future. The children have been asking to see their friends and I have to keep explaining that we can't see other people at the moment. They have been asking to go our local country park but I had to explain that it's closed. My 2 year old has asked to go to the library (we usually go once a week for rhyme time) and she doesn't understand why we can't go. 'Why' is her new favourite word and I think her constant questioning is going to drive me slightly crazy soon!

As today is World Poetry Day I decided to focus on poetry. I read the children poems from one of our favourite poetry books. Later, we watched YouTube videos of the poet Michael Rosen performing some of his poems. The children were entranced by these videos. They had no idea a poem could be so exciting to listen to and watch. I am going to try getting them performing poetry soon. I think they will really enjoy the creative process.

After listening to lots of poetry, I asked the children to write a poem of their own about coronavirus. I thought it would be a good way for them to express their thoughts and feelings about this pandemic. Riyad, age 7, wrote the following short poem:

Coronavirus is killing everyone.
It is very bad.
It is very sad.

Wow. That was a shock. He must have some strong feelings about this. I guess he is picking up on the atmosphere and the constant conversation about the pandemic. I need to have a proper chat with the children about what is going on.

We spent a lot of the afternoon in the garden. I am so thankful for our garden at this time. So grateful that we have our own outdoor space where we can spend time playing, gardening and connecting in safety.

The younger ones spent a long time bouncing on the trampoline and I started re-potting some of the seedlings. We only planted the seeds about two weeks ago and a lot have already shot up.

My sister came over to drop the budgie back at our house (my brother had been looking after it for a while). I am not sure if I am allowed to be in close contact with my sister but seeing as we have both been around lots of other people lately (before starting social distancing) I guess we should be distancing from each other too. I thought it would be best if she kept a good distance from the children so I asked her to take the boys to the playing field to play football because social distancing can happen more easily in a big open space.

Later in the day the children watched a few hours of TV. More than I would have liked but I am feeling quite distracted at the moment and I have to let it go while we navigate our new normal. Riyad spent a lot of time making paper aeroplanes and now I have them all over the house.