Motivation

How was your long weekend Class 4?

 On Anzac Day, I walked with my whanau bubble into the Port Hills. We're so lucky to live so close by. We walked up Rapaki track and from then on went onto Witches Hill. On the top of Witches Hill there is a stone bench which is dedicated to some of the young men from St Martin's who died in the First World War.
There were already a few paper poppies there when we arrived.

Don't worry, Mackenzie actually does have legs, it's just the panorama shot that cut them off..

While we were enjoying the view and the silence of the city up there, an old man scrambled up from the other side. He was 77 years old. He said it had taken him all day to get up there, but he does it every year. He didn't have many teeth left, but was full of good stories which we swapped for some of our Anzac biscuits. His Dad had been in the First World War and while he was in Flanders, they would receive those biscuits from New Zealand. They were a very welcome treat after weeks of Bully Beef.
I have never eaten Bully Beef before. Listening to this old man, I decided to keep it that way.
We walked back through the Gorge track. It was a magnificent beautiful day and there was so much bird song. In the evening we watched the movie Gallipoli. It was a very old movie but still really good.
I thought a lot about the lives of soldiers going into battle today and I realised that although I'm totally over lock down, it is nowhere as bad as having to go into battle.

 In your journal, describe how your Anzac weekend was. You might not have done anything anzacy, or maybe you did a whole lot more than we did, but you must have done something. Write it down in an interesting way. It's always good to finish your writing off with how it made you feel, what you took from that day. Much more interesting reading for your reader!

I would love to say every day is as good as that day was, but I would be lying. It's a strange thing this lock down, one day I am full of energy cleaning out cupboards, dancing to music, reading, knitting, walking, video chatting, the next day all I can do is stare out of the window thinking what I could eat next

There are not a lot of in between moods. Our oldest daughter Zoe is at University and she has to do all her study online. That's not much fun, because she was just learning how to perform surgeries and you can't really do that online, so she'll have to wait for Uni to open later in the year to do that. She is a good student, all the information she needs is there for her, but she finds it super hard to stay motivated to keep working.

I bet you have similar days when your motivation is really low, so here are some Motivators.

1. Keep Your Eyes On The Horizon

One day, this COVID19 will all be over. Think how you want to feel when you get back to school. Zoe might not be terribly motivated to study all the theory which is involved for operating on an animal, but she really does want to learn how to do surgeries when this is all over. Keeping that in mind, it is much exciting to get on with her online study. You probably look most forward to seeing your friends and lunch time play when school is fully open, but you also don't want to be totally rusty in your writing or your maths. We don't want to write with coloured pencils forever, we want those fountain pens- so keep writing a little bit every day. Same with maths, we want to move on and learn every year more interesting things, not go back to stuff we have already done before because we have forgotten it all. Every day a little bit!

2 Chunk It

Some days, you can't even think of the future. You can't even think of the next hour without being overwhelmed by the boredom and the loneliness of the situation. Make a list of little 'chunks' of time. This Class 4 blog is full of ideas what to do- go back over it and make a list of activities

Make a family tree
Paint
Form Drawing
Write a Letter
Exercise any way you like
Have a foot bath/ give someone else a footbath
Visit and draw your favourite tree
Handwriting a Poem
Make a Lantern
Connect with One Classmate other than a good friend
Make recycling Art
Keep Your Reading Log Updated
Learn a new song
Decorate your driveway
Write in your journal
Decorate your journal
Dragon maths
Measurement in kitchen and bathroom
Spelling practice

You don't have to do them all, in fact, I would recommend to just choose 3-5. Now decide how long you are going to do this. Say, spelling practice 10 minutes, writing in journal 20 minutes.

Now, think of rewards. Fun things you like to do, like jumping on the trampoline, practicing a few basket ball hoops, read a book or day dream on your bed. Alternate the first activities with your reward ones, so it looks something like this:

Spelling 10 minutes
Trampoline 15 minutes
Journaling 30 minutes
Basket ball hoops 45 minutes
Have a break with Mum and make her a footbath (ask her to plan her work break at the same time as you beforehand) 20 minutes.

It's a lot easier to get motivated for those chunks than trying to think of a whole day.

International Form Drawing

My friend Ilonka lives in the Netherlands. She has a son called Yves who is in Class 4 of the Steiner School there. Yves is just like you learning from home at the moment- look at the picture he send me:

Can you do this Form Drawing in your journal? And when you have the hang of it, spread the love and Be Like Yves, draw it as a little present on the footpath so someone can see it from their window.