Focusing on a new simple homelife with a lurking pandemia outside

Today I will be sharing how we have been dealing with covid19 pandemia and our forced lockdown, but also some activities that I have been having with the kids. This is not only for their enjoyment, but also for my self care. My anxiety has been reaching new levels, and focusing on my family, the kids entertainment has helping me cope a little with it. Everything is quite different, and our plans for Easter have changed dramatically. 

This week would be the first day of our Easter break. This will definitely be a very different Easter. My parents already cancelled their journey, as travelling is still very much prohibited. The kids are more aware that 'germs' and 'virus' are  changing our way of living and our future plans. We most probably wont be going anywhere this Summer. Well, its a wait and see what the Future stores.

Skype and video calls are even more frequent. And we are finding calling everyone that we use to see on a daily base... as we are now we are even video calling little friends from school! This was really nice for the big kid to still be in touch with his best friend. Our school has been quite brilliant with online tools, and making sure that big kid would be connected with work, teachers and friends. We start our morning signing into Dojo and reading what were the teachers work suggestions. We would also see the messages from all staff at school! And every time we posted what we were doing there were always nice and encouraging comments from all the teachers. It was different, and many times big kid asked why  simply not going to school? And then I had to re-explain again about the very dangerous germ that is still outside... And that all the children were now learning at home.

This is quite different, I find myself leaving different scenarios at the same time. The news are simple disastrous, and I often find myself despairing at the lack of preparedness of UK government. And yes, this is so very unhelpful for my mental well being. Don't even get me starting talking about twitter. That's another new level of despair - and I am forcing myself to stay away from there. However, visiting my go-to blogs has been quite relaxing. Its a new found serenity, where everyone is living and showing how they are easily coping with this lock down... Almost feels that this lock down is normal... These are never ending sources for ideas to play with the kids, and enjoy a new found family centred life.

Coping with this weird scenarios is the most difficult thing I had to face until today. Its not only about me, but also about my family. Its about balancing my anxiety, and how I have reached a new heightened stress level, but still having to manage this so that my kids don't get so affected by it. That they don't see it. 

Lets once again refocus. What can I control? What can I manage? 

A basic and simple answer: Our home life... and entertaining and playing with both kidos. We have been  doing a lot of activities in the garden whilst British weather allows it. And... some activities that we have been enjoying:

....Bubbles is a must in the sunshine!

 In these last couple of days playing with bubbles is a favourite pass time for the kids in the garden. And is so helpful as they just run after the bubbles burning a bit of their never ending energy!

Chasing bubbles and blasting bubbles. I would never guess that they would never grow tired of this!

So simple, soap water and this leads to hours of chasing and laughs and screams in the gardens.

Shadow drawing 

This was a play suggestion I got from a local Facebook group. I will be quite honest though, I was enjoying it more than the kids. After a couple of dinosaurs and elephants and the kids grow tired of it.

 ....And birthday parties!
No, we don't have to leave the house, nor have guests. Our little friend the pinguin is turning 1 and we definitely had to celebrate! This is not an outdoor activity, but kept us busy for the whole day. We made decorations, we baked.
We had fun!

I hope I inspired you for some activities!

...How are you coping?

xx

My Sunday Photo || {The Ordinary Moments}

Our Saturday: 400 inch sketch

Hello there!

I am attempting to resume with my regular blogging... And for that, I will try to resume the structure of my blog which I defined a long time ago... Since its Saturday... what did we actually do today? How did we enjoy the arrival of Spring? 

Very luckily, not only did we enjoy the colourful blooms popping in the parks, as today there was an event happening at the City Art Gallery in Southampton...:

I am so very lucky that there are so many artistic events child friendly. The 400 inch sketch was one of those. This event had as main goal gather as many people possible o draw together in a 400 inch paper roll. It started in the morning, about at 10am where a workshop was prepared so that anyone that had no experience in sketching could learn a few basic pointers. Since it was morning, me and my littlest guy arrived unsurprisingly late, so we did miss the workshop....

However, the arts material was still readily available for us to ease in into sketching, so we both had some fun drawing together!

I felt a little bit intimidated, my hand is really rusty. I have been trying to draw and sketch more, but there's something that always seems to skip through my hands: time. There are more demanding things to do before sketching and drawing.... There is so much to do every single day for the kids, with the kids, that my hobbies, drawing, watercoloring, sketching is always postponed. 

Both myself and my youngest contributed to this sketching! He does not shy away from crayons, charcoal, pens... He has so much confidence, it always amazes me how this 2 year old little guy is so assertive in what he wants to do, when he wants to do. I do believe that in the end I was only truly able to join in because he lead the way! He just wanted to go towards the big table and dive in with all his passion for drawing! Yes, he is really passionate about drawing.... Everywhere! And so, after some exquisite test drawing, and after I gave up trying to move him away form the table, we did join in with rest of the artists the huge sketch:

It was lovely to see people of all ages contributing to this sketch. The event had a great turnout, and proved how important it is to organise these crafting and arts events. I hope similar events are being planned! Art and the aptitude to express yourself is so very important to young children. It really doesn't matter the 'art piece' produced and crafted, but the fact that you draw, you sketched and you were able to see that you contributed to a final piece validates the hard work that you put on. Overall, it validates your contribution ad improves your confidence.

I also felt that this event also contributed to a sense of belonging to a community. This sketch was a community effort, that only was possible because so many different people contributed to do it. And again I was amazed at all the different people that arrived and joined in. Children, grownups, parents, grandparents! Different ages, different drawing aptitudes...  Yes, there were amazing sketches, but also the most timid ones, such as mine. Also the most bravest and not shy colourful as my toddler's. And all these sketches will forever be merged in a major  a 400 inch sketch! Overall, it was lovely to be there and to be part of this project. 

Unfortunately I was not there until the very end of the sketch, it was running until 14h in the afternoon and there are limits that having a boastful toddler to just do one activity... After a while the amazement that the different oils pastel had ended and he became unrestful. So, after contributing a little bit to the major sketch it was time to go... And we used the fact that we were in the city centre to ramble through the Watts Park and enjoying the colourful spring blooms! He was fascinated by the different colourful blooms. We took our time to enjoy the flowers and learn more about the different colours.

Hello and welcome Spring! It is lovely to see you!

And how was your Saturday? I hope you had some fun too!

xx