Prepping for a Pandemic - Thread 16

[Sprayitall]

I don’t know why another thread hasn’t been created yet , so here you go. Now as we prep ourselves to the peak of this pandemic, let’s all face it together and appreciate how fragile our lives are and how we need each other to survive and flourish.

I always wash clothes beforehand. Someone could have tried and returned them.

Of course they shouldn't be setting work that wastes food, that's completely irresponsible!
Get your kids to draw their family and scan it back to school - no good or printer ink waste tgat way

@ReadyMe have you had email from Tesco yet? They’re bringing in an 80 item limit on online orders. Unclear if this is 80 items total or 80 different products. I’m guessing the former. Appalling decision.

“Reminds me of Enid blyton’s famous five picnics.” Haha yea bit like that! “Lashings of ginger beer” would certainly fit with it.

The macaroon I mean is a chocolate bar, it’s made from mashed potato (yes honestly), icing sugar, chocolate and toasted coconut.

One gran made fabulous macaroon the other the most amazing tablet! (A sort of hard, VERY sweet, crumbly fudge like sweet)

Reading your posts op make me hungry!

I’m past stage of small children mines up and out now (which doesn’t make me worry any less!) but I agree setting tasks that

A require a load of printing

B require use of essential items like food

Is impractical at best and irresponsible at worst.

I raised dd as a single parent, I’ve been on benefits of some kind since I split from her dad even when I was working and money was always tight. Schools/teachers were always pretty crap at understanding the realities for children from poor families, assumptions about the amount of time, energy, money and/or equipment poorer families have were astounding.

I had one head teacher who really couldn’t get her head around us not having a computer of any description at home and that was maybe 15 years ago? I didn’t even have a smart phone until maybe 8 years ago?

I always wash new clothes before they're worn. I'm so, so glad I read these threads and put my order in a few weeks ago. My parcel arrived last week so DS will have clothes to wear. Can't buy any in the supermarkets here as they're no longer allowed to sell clothes!

millions of people who are keeping the country going with essential work right now and who are very often the lowest paid and least respected.
This. Needs to change!

@WhatALearningCurve I would just wipe the cover and wear it after a week. I usually don’t wash new clothes or should we? I feel they lose the colour if we do it. Esp white ones never come out bright after a wash even if I add the laundry detergent for whites

I always wash new clothes, they will be full of loose fibres, dust, diesel fumes and goodness knows what else. I understand kids want to wear new stuff right away but it's only a day to wash and dry

Grateful for the threads though as got Dcs summer stuff last month, I expect it is all on sale now but have no time to shop online whilst supervising schooling so glad it is one less thing to do now

All this because I steam iron them before wearing. If it’s not possible I would certainly wash it.

@Graphista when I was little I never knew what ginger beer was.. I always thought it was ginger + beer.. beer or any alcohol for that matter was something that was used by people who were despised by the society where I grew up. Lol .. I thought Enid blyton was bluffing and it was appalling for kids to drink any beer for that matter .. just thinking how innocent we were when growing up and now a days kids know everything. I didn’t have internet of any sorts when I grew up and had my first dial up connection when I was 16+ The schooling here is very different to what I had and I feel people here waste lot of food saying it’s learning. Still can’t get around my head for the lady who gave away 3 bags of 10kg rice for preschool - schools are now anyway closed and using 30kgs of rice for messy play is atrocious I think

@Weedsnseeds1 They have these activity pack for each week. The first one for this week has atleast 15 activities (that includes sticking family pics, making collage, drawing family tree, discussions, drawing family members faces with eye colour and hair colour, make a birthday card for everyone for their next birthday, create home made dough figurines of family members, have family picnic, do a costume show with props, do a puppet show with props, lay family dinner table, play family board games, write about jobs your parents do, write down fav song of everyone in family and try singing it, make a junk model of your house, Lego model of rooms etc. All this excludes daily early learning activities. It’s all getting too much and making her do all this is a challenge by itself., though my business is closed for now I have to design and do all the background work. Dh has to look for work and has multiple consultant calls and other works like modifying resumes for roles and phone interviews. We also have to cook, eat, do the laundry and sort out other things.

Dd has this little bouts of cough today. Morning she had 4 bouts and now couple of them. I am so worried but we have been very careful. Should we self isolate? We are not leaving home anyways but the local group have asked to put up a “self isolation” notice up the door so people can be careful and also offer help if needed.

I have given up homeschooling for the day and opened a bottle of wine.
@preponderings This just seems like the most relatable thing I’ve seen all day. And I don’t even have kids.

@Readyme I’m so pleased for you! Congrats! Fresh veg slots for all!

@Sprayitall Completely agree about wasting food. That is the most ridiculous thing in the current circumstances.

That schoolwork--honestly? I would pick and choose the bits that were practical, bin the rest and maybe pick a few things of my own choice like cooking ( maths and chemistry), wildlife documentaries, practical stuff like painting, sewing, crochet
Your kids won't be at a disadvantage compared to others by the end of this. I assume they are quite young if that is the set work?

Op don’t worry, I’ve met loads of people my age (47) and younger who didn’t/don’t know what ginger beer is. It’s very popular among Scots so I’d had it as a kid, Scots also like it with —cheap— whisky - not the good stuff 😂

Mum once made us a famous five picnic (possibly more than once but I remember this particular one) which included potted meat sandwiches, ginger beer, home made lemonade (we couldn’t get our heads around non fizzy lemonade), scones and damson jam. All things a lot of people now won’t have heard of let alone tried! It was delicious!

I don’t think school will be expecting you to do all that. They’re perhaps just trying to make sure parents have plenty of options?

Op, it really isn’t possible for anyone to do all the school work and work from home as well. I would say just do what you can. I’m guessing your dd is in year R, like mine - I’ve concentrated on phonics, writing, adding up and subtracting and reading. I’m not doing any of the added extra stuff like treasure hunts etc

Wheredowego I have a year two my school have had a problem setting up their on line resource for this class. But the teacher did suggest something I will be doing. She got her sons toy cars and then measured how far they all traveled. I am planning on taking this idea and adding in different tarains. We also listened to the david walliams free stories on my phone then written our own disgusting story. Yesterday we made a cake (measuring) and talked about how to divide it fairly. We them wrote instructions on how to make it and designed our perfect cakes.
I would also like more ideas.

I'm a teacher (off work on maternity). Do not attempt to do all the work sent home if it doesn't you all. Pick and choose. We just have to cover ourselves as many parents will complain there's not enough. Some children will fly through it others will struggle. Just do what suits you. Don't aim for 6 hours a day. Don't make children wear uniform (yes honestly some are).

For reception children the absolute priority in my opinion is verbal skills, discussion, opinions, confidence in talking, eye contact, enjoying stories, make believe games. After that counting to ten forwards and backwards. Simple addition within ten. I would read read read to your children as this is the best way to learn to read. Trace your finger over the words as you read them.

I'll post later with more for reception and some for year two children. But my priority for year two is enjoying books and being read to by a parent. Also counting in 2's, 5's and 10's. Don't teach them 1x2=2, 2x2=4 etc etc just do the number sequence 2,4,6,8 etc etc as that's how we teach it in school.

Happy to help and answer any questions

We have been finishing the school activities as much as we can but we are also doing activities that interests her more. Dance and music classes are all happening online in zoom now. So I’m manically tidying up the living room where she can do the dancing lessons 😅
With activities, Before all this set in I had prepped a little by purchasing a decent number of little items from hobby craft using all the dd’s Christmas and new year gift monies on after-Christmas sales. I usually buy few and put them in the garage until we find time to do it together as a family as I’m normally not the person who spends full price on things like this. This time I had bought few pocket money kits, make your cardboard house kind of kits, lot of little sun catchers and piggy banks to paint thingies. We have also been gardening and doing few activities around whatever we do at home. (Have a bug chart printed out and give them to spot while you do gardening, print out colouring pages by numbers, addition and subtraction, do some activities that’s shared from home Ed groups in Facebook, learn to write in mother tongue etc) How long will the lockdown last.. any guesses?

How about these?
www.google.com/amp/s/www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/274227064785288182I just remembered that when my sister and I were little, we got some of these from the costume museum in Bath. Mine was Elisabethan and hers was Georgian. We played with them for hours, drawing round the original costumes that came with them and designing new ones

Oh, that link isn't working.
Paper dolls, the kind you cut out the clothes and colour them in then dress the doll by folding around tabs. Anyone else remember them?

www.google.com/amp/s/www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/507217976779413992/

What’s wrong with people here.. I don’t understand. Local groups say there are these teens going around at night licking their hands and putting them on car handles of parked cars. Everyone is advised to carry wipes to be safe. I’m just super annoyed

Just popping up to say frozen mango is vile, tastes fishy, what a waste of freezer space. We don't usually have much from the freezer so learning as we go. Raspberries and blueberries big hit.

Sprayitall I can believe it given other fb posts I am seeing. Wtf though.

frozen peppers though - surprisingly nice when cooked.

@lexloofah Tinned mango/dried mango tastes better than frozen ones. (It’s because buying mangoes needs special skills. There are atleast 280 varieties of mangoes in India (which is the major producer) and each one has different season/smell/taste difference and quality. I always find most of the mangoes we get here in supermarkets is not from India but from peru or Brazil where the taste is not mango ish at all..freezing them I can’t even imagine. For frozen fruits only the berries are good and grapes to a certain extent.

@OhYouBadBadKitten True that. Also I found frozen coconut and Indian vegetables like moringa, okra, ashgourd, squashes, pumpkins freeze well. Surprisingly yesterday when I logged in, I got a supermarket slot so I booked it for today right away as I don’t want to risk fresh produces after this week. There were substitutions but I got their own brand loo rolls atleast and few other stuffs. Few things were not available like tinned chickpeas, cake mix, chapati flour, 10 kg rice bag etc but that’s alright I have some. I just wanted to replace the stock as i have now opened the bags in stock.