The Week That Was…
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I hope you are all well! As my first week in self isolation draws to a close, a vital delivery arrived just before the weekend:
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Quaran-TEA!
And you thought I got all of my jokes from the internet…
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Speaking of…
Joke of the week:
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What I’ve been reading:
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A new series for the blog!
I have been working behind the scenes with publishers on a new series for the blog called ‘Author Talks’. These are guest spots offered to authors who have newly releasing books that have had book launches and tours cancelled. It gives them an opportunity to give an author talk at my blog, in the way they might have done at a library or book shop launch. The first one of these went up yesterday with Natasha Lester talking about her upcoming release, The Paris Secret. If you missed it, you can catch up here.
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I wrote this up mid-week and posted it to Facebook, but I thought I might just pop it up here as well. It may help some of you out there who have children like mine…that is, children who are not begging their parents over breakfast for ‘more school work’ or staging productions of musicals they have written throughout the day in total harmony with each other, because yeah, siblings really like each other so much more now that they have to see each other non stop instead of the friends they actually like. Neither of my sons are up and coming Baz Luhrmanns, so, this is more my life…
So many of my friends are posting these awesome homeschooling timetables they’ve made for their kids.
In consultation with my two teenage sons, in the event of school closure here in Qld, our days are looking like this:
Morning: sleep
Noon: eat
Afternoon: xbox + eat
Late afternoon: netflix + eat
Evening: dinner
Night: eat more + netflix more + xbox more then sleep
I post this in utter seriousness. Teenagers are so much easier than younger kids on many fronts, but on others, they are much harder to get to do things that you want which they don’t. Plus, they are looking at their own newsfeeds and taking in the world situation just as you are. I work in education and understand its value. I would love to sit with my teens and work with them on the things they may need to do if their schools close. But I’m also a realist and have been a mum for 18 years now. I am fortunate in that neither of my boys are in year 12 this year. That’s different and a whole lot more stressful. Your child is probably more inclined to work with you in this situation.
I am writing this post as a way of reaching out to those parents who might be quietly freaking out about what they’ll do if they have to homeschool their teen at some point.
Just take it day by day. The Easter holidays are soon. You have time to figure this out. The above timetable will probably get boring at some point, and then you can get to work, meeting in the middle instead of butting heads and creating conflict.
Also, very important! Teenagers work better at night. Fact! Use that to your advantage.
Also, try not to feel inferior in the face of other people’s organisation. We are all different. You know your teenager best. Do what feels right.
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I have dug Scrabble out of the cupboard (literacy) and bought The Walking Dead version of Monopoly (numeracy). We’ll get there…
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Until next week… 
