Now that the third period has ended, in what will certainly have been the most atypical end of the school year for a long time, it is time to take stock, even though the end of the domestic school year means, in many homes, children to continue… around the house.
School time, vacation, everything will remain for too many families mixed and borderless. In many places in our country, taking children to an ATL is a risk that is not worth taking, even with the level of saturation and stress that this may entail. For adults and children.
In short: they were (and are!) delicate, difficult and demanding times, as parents, children and teachers say.
Many fathers and mothers have found themselves, in recent months, in the role of inexperienced teachers, trying to find their method and pace of teaching, so different from what children were used to at school and where the level of commitment on the part of their students/ children was hard to find.
After the initial period of adaptation, certain children managed to find their way between screens, manuals, synchronous or recorded lessons, and knowledge was consolidated.
Others, however, were unable to adapt, leaving fathers and mothers frustrated with the blocks of homework that grew, day after day, month after month.
Away from friends, with daily or occasional virtual contact with their teachers, our children/students were “big winners and big losers” of this improvised teaching, where many school tasks were simply impossible to complete.
Some students still remain at exam time with the usual “suffering” characteristic of this phase transferred from real to virtual, but even so, no less intense.
The positive side for children and teachers of all this unexpected school dimension (if we can even talk about a “positive side”) was perhaps the possibility of testing new ways of teaching and putting the little ones in more frequent contact with the “new technologies”.
And here, more barriers emerged and became accentuated, as not everyone managed to access something “apparently so simple”, such as a computer or Internet connection at home.
The great lesson of this very irregular period was the opportunity for our children (and us) to realize in practice that they have the capacity to adapt to unexpected situations; that knowledge can be transmitted in different ways, but that nothing replaces the presence and touch of the Other. When we are forced, and we have no alternative, we realize that the virtual world cannot replace the real world. They can and must complement each other.
Also the teachers tested their limits (including patience…) and learned to organize their time and share their knowledge differently.
I don't share the opinion “Ah! Now parents have learned to value teachers!”, because this value here at home has always been present.
I believe, however, that these months of confinement helped many families to realize how far away they were from their children's school environment, how perhaps they didn't care much about the size of their children.
Some for lack of time, others for believing that this responsibility did not belong to them. The education of our children is not, and must never be, compartmentalized, everyone contributes to the whole that will be the child of today, the adult of tomorrow.
As a farewell, I share with you three more activities to escape the screen, one of them that will certainly make you relive fun moments from your childhood.
3 ACTIVITIES TO ESCAPE THE screens
1. Phone game broken
One of the games that brings me the funniest memories is without a doubt the broken phone game.
Do you remember playing it?
Basically it consists of a circle of children, where one of them says a phrase or a secret word to the one next to them and the next one and so on until they reach the last child and in the end, it's laughing nonstop at the nonsense that comes at the end of the telephone line.
2. Treasure Hunt
The scavenger hunt game is an amazing opportunity for family fun. We may have several options: children hide and adults discover the treasure; adults hide and children discover the treasure; mixed teams of adults and children hiding and discovering the treasure.
Before starting it is important:
• Decide the treasure;
• Choose where to hide the treasure;
• Make the map (we can laminate the map so that we can reuse it on several occasions);
• Make the teams of who hides and who discovers.
Then it's to give free rein to your imagination and get into the magic of treasure hunting.
3. Plasticine
With this activity you will have the opportunity to explore, mold and develop fine motor skills. Modeling clay is a homemade alternative to plasticine. Very simple to prepare:
INGREDIENTS
2 cups (tea) of wheat flour
1⁄2 cups (tea) of salt
1 cups (tea) of water
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Edible dye of various colors (alternatively you can use gouache paint, as long as the children do not put the dough in their mouths)
PREPARATION
Mix the ingredients in sequence and, finally, add the coloring of the color you prefer. Shape the dough with the children, create shapes, explore and have fun as a family. Alternatively, they can also model plasticine or clay.
LITERARY SUGGESTION FOR YOU
What I just read: At Amiga Genial, by Elena Ferrante, Relógio D'Água.
Literary prescription: this is the story of an encounter between two children from a popular neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples and their friendship throughout their lives. A book that provokes contradictory feelings and the desire to better understand the mystery behind the writer herself. A Amiga Genial has the rhythm of a great popular narrative, dense, at times fast and disconcerting, simultaneously light and profound, which shows us the family and love conflicts in a succession of episodes that the reader wishes never to end.
I'm also reading, late, by Julio Cortázar, an unavoidable reference for anyone wishing to venture into the world of writing breathtaking stories.
What I am reading: You can't live in a cat's eyes, by Ana Margarida de Carvalho, Theorem
Literary prescription: A powerful novel about the needs of others and their changes. A portrait of the human being devoid of vanities or social labels.
What I'm going to read next: Mother Language, Unpublished Tales by Portuguese Language Authors, The Book Company
Literary prescription: Twelve authors who have the Portuguese language in common, came together in this collection of short stories where the voice of each writer stands out and delights us with their short narratives. David Capalenguela (Angola), João Tordo (Portugal), Luís Cardoso (Timor-Leste), Luís Carlos Patraquim (Mozambique), Milton Hatoum (Brazil), Ngonguita Diogo (Angola), Olinda Beja (São Tomé and Príncipe), Patrícia Reis (Portugal), Teolinda Gersão (Portugal), Vera Duarte (Cape Verde), Waldir Araújo (Guinea-Bissau) are the writers to discover or rediscover, in this genre, sometimes forgotten, but so rich and breathtaking that the tale is.
I will soon return but no longer as the “Mother who works from home with two small children who require a lot of attention”, because I am part of the group of families who live in an area of Portugal where the children's return to occupation activities free is (for now) possible.
I'll make the most of it to work without children at home, as long as possible…
Until then. Be alright. Stay safe!
Note:
The “Activities to escape the screens” are suggested by Liliana Marques, the Mother Educator, mother of a 4-year-old girl and a kindergarten teacher who has been working for 15 years.
Photography by Victor He @ Unsplash
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