For the first time since March, I am back at school. The government has allowed exam classes at private schools to go back. It is such a relief. I cannot explain the huge difference between teaching live, chatting, breathing students and names on a Zoom call. I feel much more connected to the girls and they, in turn, seem to enjoy being back at school.
Unfortunately, Sian and Ellie are not back yet and I don't like just leaving them at home. Ellie works very well on her own. She is incredibly organised and sits down by herself without any supervision. She generally works until everything is complete and handed in and then reads her book. Ellie is a model pupil! She has always been like this and, although she is quite an academic child, I think it is also because she has the sort of personality that just gets on with it. If something is not interesting, it is harder to engage her, but in general she just sees the work as something she has to do and gets it out of the way as soon as possible.
Sian is more like me in that we have to give ourselves lots of breaks, but we do get everything done. I'm not sure how I would have coped with online learning at this age.
I sometimes feel guilty when I hear other parents complaining how their children can't sit still for five minutes or how they have to fight every day to get them to do work. When the girls were younger and we used to travel down to Bulawayo from where we were in Zambia, they would spend about 14 hours in the car on one day (the trip generally took two days). We never gave them anything except books and activity books with which to occupy themselves. I honestly feel that this played a big part in making them both able to occupy themselves and live without technology. When I see parents give two year olds phones to play with to keep them occupied, my heart sinks. You are only doing yourself a disfavour in the end.
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