London is back to a full lockdown which means home-schooling is back! I'm not going to write too much about this as quite frankly, it's tough, rough, and beyond! I'm currently re-living kindergarten, year 4, and year 5 again..... I'm learning all about the dinosaurs, "Le Tour de Gaule d'Asterix" and the life of Queen Elizabeth the 1st.....
I've learned how to navigate around Zoom. And by this, I mean how to keep my voice nice and low in the background, how to maneuver around the camera lens so as not to be seen (my kids have a crazy notion that I may attempt some hip-hop dance moves in the background) and to look semi-decent in my loungewear - just in case! (wearing this lilac tracksuit set from Zara).... In between homework, I'm also the technician, the cook, the cleaner, the nurse, the entertainer, the mediator, and the one who swears like a drunken sailor.
Normally this time of year I start preparing my trip to Paris for fashion week and decide which runway shows I will cover....and now I mostly feel like the shadow of that person..... but as my mom tells me daily 'just be patient querida!'.....
I pray covid will be over soon, and I also pray that all parents who are homeschooling keep their sanity! Will we manage to raise "an educated" generation that can add, subtract, multiply and divide, know what a seismometer is, can write in cursive, and know all about conjugated verbs...in French....? Goodness knows.
BUT, I do have to admit that as hard as this has been, I have also loved having my babies at home with me. We are far from idyllic, but we have managed to play, to laugh, to cry, to create tik-tok videos, and to share conversations and dreams that may have otherwise been pushed back. We've gone through old family photo albums where my kids got to see what I looked like when I was their age, we indulged in many Disney classic movies, and I personally discovered many new hiding places in our home (as I'm sure many mums out there understand what I mean by this - a spot to cry or indulge in food you don't want to share with your kids, or simply 'time alone')
Alas, we are all doing our best. I want to raise a glass to all those homeschooling, we definitely deserve it! AND I want to clap for all the children stuck at home, you too are all heroes! (I can just see some fellow mums rolling their eyes at me here). Our children have had a year of their childhood routine completely interrupted, no school, time robbed away from their grandparents, travel plans all canceled, limited to no playdates with friends. Our children have had to accept and adapt to something they can't quite grasp.
I'm grateful to Netflix and Prime, to an occasional glass of Pinot Noir, to my big sister Debbie and our daily WhatsApp video conversations, even if we have nothing to say. to 'google search' and to my beloved calculator for helping me solve year 4 maths!
