Kia ora whānau. It certainly has been an interesting start to the new term, and I have really enjoyed talking with students and their whānau (using Google Meet) about what they have been up to over the lockdown period.

What students have been up to in lockdown

Here are some of the things people in Mōhua have been up to:

• making raised planters out of old drawers

• baking chocolate brownies

• annoying their younger brothers

• annoying their younger sisters

• annoying their … well, you get the idea

• helping cook the family dinner

• embarrassing themselves on tik tok

• making a tent on the trampoline and sleeping overnight on it

• writing a book

• helping redecorate the lounge

• enjoying playing with their pets

• embarrassing themselves even more on tik tok

• entering the “Hornby’s Got Talent” challenge

• reading a book for the first time since 2016

• convincing their mums to embarrass themselves on tik tok

• writing their first blog post for 2020 (you know who you are!)

• building a fort with the 2,424 rolls of toilet paper Dad bought before lockdown.

As lockdown has been extended a bit, please encourage your children to blog about their experiences - perhaps in an entertaining way. In a few years time they will want to look back on the things they have been doing during lockdown, and it would be great if those memories are fond memories.

Routines

A common theme from psychologists and experts is to set up routines and create your new normal while in lockdown. I found this advice really helpful when dealing with a bored 10 year old in my bubble over the past four weeks. Each day before dinner we sat down and set a new timetable of activities for the following day. Over time the timetables have settled into a regular pattern and this has been really helpful in managing screen time, allocating a variety of activities (including doing chores), and has set him up well for when we return to the routines of school timetables in due course.

This link takes you to a website that might give you some more ideas about setting routines as well as a handy template you can print off: https://liveuptoyou.org/new-blog/2020/3/27/routines-create-your-new-normal

Keep yourselves safe and well, and remember: there is light at the end of the tunnel, it’s just that the tunnel is a bit longer than we thought it might be!

Ngā mihi

Terry Mitchell

Mōhua Kāhui Dean