Day 255 – School reports

I allow myself one of these posts each year. I don’t think of it as showing off: MMIRIM, and these are the sort of posts that will make me smile when I’d old(er) and grey(er).

2020 has been the weirdest and most difficult school year I’ve ever known.

Instantly, I’m reminded of this classic Simpsons moment:

Ok, so maybe 2020 has been the weirdest and most difficult school year I’ve ever known… so far.

Ugh.

And yet, despite the adversity and the challenges, our kids have shone through – lockdown learning and all – and I’m just amazed at all the things they’ve achieved: both at school and in their extracurricular pursuits.

In no particular order:

We’ve had A* grades in Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography and ICT.
We’ve had a distinction in Music.
There was a Gold Merit Award.
There were Scroll Awards for Cultural and Academic achievement.
She flew through her Grade 3 Vocal exam – submitted to London by video – with a score of 86%.
He captained his Scout team to winning the Upton Shield for his Troop – only the second time they’ve won it in 112 years.

They’ve had some wonderful support from their school, their teachers, their Scout leaders, and their peers. And from their parents, of course. (Of course…) But they’ve adapted so well to this weird, new world and they have actually thrived.

I allow myself one of these posts each year.
But given the situation this time around, I feel especially proud.

Day 173 – Back to it

The boy starts Dodgeball Academy training again this evening for the first time in 6+ months.

We’ve already noted that for kids – despite our best plans and their best adaptability – returning to things that were routine and normal before isn’t always straightforward in this con-Covid world.

Going back to something you did before after a long period of time away is always a bit weird. But when you underpin your foundations for dealing with that weirdness on your experiences BTV and everything is now suddenly completely different – well, it takes some getting used to.

Add to that, the fact that it will affect everyone in different ways and everyone will have different ways of dealing with it, and there’s no simple answer, limited preparation you can offer as a parent (save to say that you know it’s going to be a bit odd) and no “one size fits all” solution.

I’m hoping that things do go well this evening, that parents and students support one another and that the group leader treats them all with kid gloves on this first time back. A bit of empathy and understanding goes a long way to making these things so much easier.

Kids, though…

Every Monday morning for the past ten weeks, I have had to drag my teenage son from his bed at 6:30am to get ready in time for school.

This Monday morning, with no need to get out of bed at all, he was in our room crashing the code into the burglar alarm panel at 6:25.

Sometimes, I just don’t understand.

In other news: no lie-in for me today.

It’s happened again

Now. Let me get this straight.

The week is for working, the weekend is for chilling and relaxing.
If I remember correctly, the above statement paraphrases Henry Ford.

Yes, the car guy.

It isn’t working for me right now, Henry. I mean, I’m getting the first bit ok – that’s going really well.
But by the end of my weekends… I need… a weekend.

It’s been fun, it’s been busy.

I’m exhausted.
I’m going to bed.

Last times…

Last time we were on the Isle of Man, it rained. It rained a lot.
It very rarely stopped raining. And then we went to Sheffield in it rained some more.

Now I know that the UK (of which the Isle of Man isn’t part), has a bit of a reputation for this kind of thing, but the summer of 2012 was unprecedented in its raininess. There were literally a couple of nice days during our entire three week stay. The Flickr collection I made is testament to this.

We deserve better this time.

Of course, I not forgetting that we did get better back in 2009. The holiday where I regularly ended up taking our toddler son out (not in an assassination kind of way) at 6am before he woke up the whole household because he’d forgotten how to sleep:

This one was taken at the Calf Sound, where there was only us, some rabbits, some seals and a small yacht.

He’s twelve now, and does sleep occasionally. I’m hoping that this holiday is one of those times.