Here we are again. Things are much the same here – our new home learning plan that we brought in last week is still working reasonably well so we’re sticking with it for now. We all enjoyed a relaxed three day weekend this weekend though with the bank holiday so I think we’ll be keeping that every week too!

We did do something new last week that I’d managed to avoid for the whole of lock down so far – we got the paint out! To be honest I don’t know why I avoid it so much – I used to hate mess when the boys were little and they did plenty of painting and things at nursery so we didn’t do it at home much. Now though they’re actually both really clean and tidy when they’re painting so I should probably stop worrying about it!

Anyway, last week Toby decided he wanted to make a model ‘Hidra’ (a three headed dragon he’d seen on some Minecraft video he’d been watching). I was actually really impressed because without any input from me he drew a picture and the wrote a list of things he needed and instructions on how to make his model. He then made it pretty much all by himself – I only had to help with a couple of little bits.

And here’s the finished model!

While Toby was making his model Gabe was doing some painting (wearing my old Canvas Holidays uniform to keep his clothes clean!)

Gabe is still struggling emotionally with being at the home all the time – there’s nothing in particular bothering him but he has gone back to crying whenever he doesn’t get his own way or he does something wrong. He’s always been like this but being at school was really helping him improve his resilience – he’s definitely regressed since being at home.

Having said that, and as much as I think going back to school will be great for him, there’s no way I’m going to be sending Gabe back to school in a few weeks and keeping Toby at home if what Boris had to say last night really does happen. They’ll both be staying at home until we think it’s actually safe for them both to go back together.

That’s all from me for this week anyway, I hope you’re keeping safe and staying sane, and I’ll be back next week with another Living Arrows post.

This is my ninth year taking part in this linky celebrating childhood, based on a poem by Kahlil Gibran, “You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth” .

If you’d like to see the rest of my Living Arrows posts you can find them all here.