Skip to main content

Desperately seeking purpose...

I have discovered first hand this week the importance of purpose. Of course I know that I feel better when I know why I'm doing something, but watching the kids with their school work brings it home so acutely it's heart-breaking. There is a very clear difference between those lessons where they know what they are being asked to do and why, and those where with all the best will in the world, they don't. I'm also making notes for when it comes to choosing their GCSE options. Unless things change I will fight tooth and nail for Abi to have as much opportunity to take science as possible and for her not to have to do French - it just isn't worth the tears and the hassle, not least she is very unlikely to either retain any of it or use it at a later stage. Poor Izzy will have to do maths regardless, but hopefully by then they will have moved away from rote learning of algebra for the sake of it - what normal person has ever used such things since school anyway?!

If it wasn't so disheartening watching, it would pose some very interesting questions as to why they are taught some of what the curriculum covers. This morning both girls had their PSHE class at the same time, and both had to sit through an hour of dental hygiene theory at the most basic level - what?!?!? As they said, at their age they should know better and is this really the best use of their time? Some of their lessons are really good but in others it's just like forcing them to sit through hour after hour of dull conference calls - hopeless.

 This morning Izzy had a problem with her PC and went into complete meltdown before she'd even logged onto her first lesson. It was relatively simple to fix but she was really upset - it shows that beneath all of this they are finding the whole school experience (if not lockdown) quite difficult. 

Today's win was that we had a power cut and so Abi got to miss RPE (which is RE with a P in it - not sure what that stands for as Abi says its all about Jesus) and Izzy got to miss French. In reality Glenn had the generator plugged in and the whole house powered within minutes, but I decided that after the tears this morning for Abi's French lesson, they could have a break. Abiu joined me in the garden and had a very relaxing and purposeful hour of planting up some pots (we managed to get a click & collect slot at the local garden centre!!). As she finished she said how much she'd enjoyed it and was so pleased with her efforts. It totally changed her mood and just shows that maybe a less structured but more purposeful study programme for a few weeks would be beneficial. If only I had the time to sort it out - I took a day off today, hence the gardening.

We are entering into week 8 ad yesterday was the day we've been waiting for - the big reveal on how the lockdown might be eased. We knew from the media that nothing much was changing but even so we dutifully sat down to watch BoJo tells us we should stay at home but go to work (but don't use public transport) and be alert but be safe. We can meet someone not from our own households, but only one at a time and only in a public space (in case they need to use the loo in the event they come to the house!). It's nowhere near as confusing as the media would have us believe but it demonstrates just how much harder it is to bring the country out of lockdown than it was to put us into it. Worryingly there is a growing admission that a vaccine may be a much longer way off than first suggested and so we may well be living with this for a long time yet. This means we are going to have to learn to live with it and get on with whatever changes that brings us - good and bad. The worst thing? Very unlikely to have the girls back in school before September.... ugh.

Mow off with Larry!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Busy, busy, busy

Full English brunch for these two! Life is VERY busy and I don't feel like we have stopped for weeks (or is that months?) It seems like the 'to-do' list is endless and while I know we don't have to do it all at once, I have taken on the unenviable task of trying to get the Muppet to finish all the work he promised / we have paid for and that has been like pushing a mountain of water up a very steep hill. We've got to the point where I think we have got all of what we are likely to get and the rest we'd rather finish ourselves anyway. The electric gates are clearly a work of his imagination based on the gates / the electric cables he spec'd and the cheapo motor mechanism - there is no way they'll work so we have decided to not bother and source proper gates that do the job and look better as well. Knowing that we are almost at a point where we sever the ties feels very liberating. Looking back this last 6 months has been incredibly stressful and just didn...
Post a Comment
Read more

Bank Holiday sunshine

Off to meet FiFi and Grumps for a walk  (and yes, she is on the seat) Finally after weeks of rain and cold weather, the tide has turned and we have glorious sunshine for the bank holiday weekend and half term - hooray, it's about time.  Also just in time is half term as the kids were definitely ready for a break. They have both done brilliantly settling into the school, making new friends and finding their feet in an unfamiliar environment. Izzy has just had her exam week and felt it went OK given she hadn't covered all of the syllabus, and Abi's exams start as soon as she is back next week. I hope she's done some revision as she left for Devon with Claire, Adam and Mia today and isn't back until Saturday. There is talk of looking at some of her notes but who knows. My view is that a bit of R&R will probably be at least as beneficial if not more so than cramming all week so she should take the time to relax and have some fun - she deserves it. So we packed Abi o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Half term

Whatever happened to half term?? It seems to have disappeared in a flash, do doubt partly as I was working having had 3 days off the previous week for Kerrie and Ryan's wedding. The plan was to not have a plan - both girls have exam week coming up and so our major intent was for them to spend at least half an hour a day or so doing a bit of revision. This has sort of worked - we only had one day where I got an irate message from Glenn that Izzy knows 'absolutely nothing' about her maths... we'll see. With half term comes effort grades and if they genuinely know nothing, it's not for a lack of effort. Abi did really well, keeping up her average and getting a 6 (top grade) in French again. Izzy, who we always worry is apt to cruise if allowed, got the first 5.0 average grade we've seen from either of them and 3 6's in French, English and DT - well done Izzy! I tend to assume all the kids work hard but it seems not - according to Abi "all the boys always...
Post a Comment
Read more