How, you ask?
Well, we have a 'rule' in our household
of no devices before 3pm. Mornings, without the discipline of homeschooling,
became long voids of time. Gertie met a friend to walk around with for an hour
each day. Gilby managed a socially-distanced morning of fishing with a
schoolfriend, and Eddie, too young to meet up with a friend independently, read
quite a lot of Beano. (A subscription has been his lockdown treat.)
What we really needed was structure and purpose.
So I resorted to bribery - always a
parenting win - and came up with a series of half-term 'challenges' with a
heirarchy of financial reward. (And before I am judged too harshly, they don't
yet get pocket money.)
The list included poetry and Shakespeare by heart,
cooking, DIY, writing, music and sport.
Gertie learned the prologue to
Romeo and Juliet. Eddie learned the first part of Hamlet's 'To Be
Or Not To Be' soliloquy - though it sounds funny coming from the mouth of a
9-year-old. We had two three-course-meals cooked for the entire family, and the
boys collaborated on writing and recording a song about the foibles of various
family members. Several 5km runs were completed in increasingly competitive
times, and I got a new birdtable. (To be fair, that birdtable required some
intervention from Hearth Father as it was a little more complex than I
originally envisioned, but still.)
The littler people have decided that challenges are an easier
way to earn money than chores. It's a crying shame that they require the
extrinsic motivation of a financial incentive to do this sort of stuff. I seem
to have created some sort of monster. Easter is only three weeks away. Let's
hope we have a few more freedoms. It would be cheaper to go to a theme park or
eat out every day. And it might have been cheaper to buy a handcrafted birdtable
from an artisan online shop, but never mind.
Currently reading:
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders
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