This is a guest post from Oli Harris. Oli Harris is a slave to a 4 year old boy and a 4 year old dog, in his spare time he likes to write about what they have taught him and what he tries to teach them!
So, its been a bit of weird time for everyone. The covid-19 pandemic has touched everyone one way or another, whether you have had it, or a loved one has had it, or someone you know is particularly vulnerable to illness, it has got to all of us.
Perhaps more than anyone, children have been adversely affected by the coronoavirus crisis, and funnily enough, not in terms of the actual illness itself. Schools and nurseries were closed, and all of a sudden we had lots of little people at home all the time, much to their delight at the beginning I’m sure!
We at home tried to put a positive spin on it however, to help shield the boy from the magnitude of it all, but also as we had no choice. There was no short term solution and the little fella was going to be at home an awful lot more than normal. FYI dear reader, he is 4 and a half, due to start school in September and coming to the end of his nursery career.
At first we had timetables and lesson plans and all of that jazz, but as most of you reading probably know, that went right out of the window after a few weeks! We did pick up on a few things from him though which I thought I would share.
Nature lessons = Happy child
This was more of a chance to get out and about and stay active rather than learn about nature itself, but we discovered his absolute obsession with anything that creeps, crawls, flies or swims.
This is something I’m super happy about, there can be no better life lesson than learning about and appreciating nature. I think the time together has allowed me to explain more about nature and how things work. Today we even discussed the importance of the sun to all forms of nature as we walked the dog in the forest. He now gets excited about going to the woods and looking for bugs, and then comes home and wants to watch videos about them, which is preferable over Ryan and his ghastly world!
Sport is not going to be his thing
So its undeniable, I am probably in the category of pushy parent without meaning to be. I dearly want our Son to get the benefits of playing and being involved in sport, but I just don’t think its his thing.
I may be proved wrong in the long run, and he has started football lessons but it just doesn’t get him excited like other kids. Some young girls and boys constantly run around with a football or a racket in hand, but he is more interested in dinosaurs and insects, which is absolutely fine, don’t get me wrong.
Sport has given me so much, and it has helped me maintain an active lifestyle and help promote that to others. I have also made such good friends and been all over the world with sport, but I am sure whatever he gets into will serve him just as well, I just want him to find a passion at some point.
He is a fast learner (when he wants to be)
He is definitely a bright kid, and picks things up quickly, including my use of bad language! What I have figured out though is that everything he does is largely at his own pace. He doesn’t like to be pushed to hard on something unless he is really keen. He starts to shut down and then everyone gets frustrated, so it will be very interesting to see how he copes when he starts school and a little more is expected of him.
We have created a lot of games out of things like sums and wordplay, and he really likes getting things right and receiving praise. So I know how to motivate him a little more than I did before, which is also a positive.
At the end of the day…
We’ve all been pushed into this brave new world by the pandemic, and the kids have had to adjust to new routines and a different way of life just as much, and perhaps more, than we adults have. It has shown me, however, things about my son that I may not have picked up on quite so clearly if we had not had the extra time together, so amongst a sea of negatives, there was one positive ship that has come home safely.
Thank you for sharing Oli, we’ve all had to adapt to the new way of life and I’ve enjoyed spending time together as a family. I certainly won’t dread the summer holidays anymore!
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