Reasons to be cheerful: birthdays, Wii and more #r2bc

I do believe it is Friday which means I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! It is a good job this is one of the most laid back linkies on the Internet... Preparing for being back in a real job and a return to some pre-lockdown activities has caused me to get behind! Lots of these have been reasons to be cheerful though. I hope that you have some reasons of your own to share?

What do you have to do? Easy: 

1. Link up a post about something that is making you happy or grateful. It can be a list, photos or any way you fancy. 

2. Add the #R2BC badge (at the end of this post) onto your post or blog so that people can easily find the linky and join in too if they want to 

3. Share the love. This is the really important bit. Please don't just link and run, comment on at least a couple of posts and why not share with #R2BC too? 

I'll stop by all linked up posts to comment and I'll share on social media too. 

Meanwhile here are my reasons to be cheerful for this week:

1) Belated birthday celebrations

As my dad had to be quarantined after a holiday to Holland we only celebrated his birthday (and my daughter's boyfriend's) with a takeaway curry and a cake made by my daughter:

2) Wii fun

We are having so much fun on the old Wii. It does get temperamental sometimes as its an original so pretty ancient! I am finally getting the hang of Mario Kart - typically there was a disc read failure after I managed my first ever 2nd place:

3) Days out

Now I am mobile again we have had a couple of days out into the Lakes. One trip to catch up with a family friend staying in Langdale and one visiting Grizedale Forest. The sheep seemed please to see us:

Tutoring

 

Lockdown had a big impact on my tutoring business. First of all I lost my GCSE English student as he was no longer going to be sitting any exams! Secondly all my remaining clients moved to video lessons via Zoom. This was a good way to keep up their momentum whilst learning at home. However, it is not as good as face to face lessons. 

One good thing about having all lessons online was a reduction in the amount of paper I was printing off as everything was electronic. Now that schools are back and I am going back to visiting my students all the papers are making a reappearance. I have spent a few days sorting through my papers from last year and planning for the lessons this half term:

Affiliate links Some of my teaching aids were a bit tatty so I have also been shopping for new place value cards and discs. I also supersized my white board to give more room for work. My trusty Usborne Junior Illustrated Maths dictionary will be accompanying me alongside CGP Maths books for my students to work with. Of course I now have the addition of a face mask and hand sanitiser to keep us all safe:

Things won't be quite the same as my students can no longer give me the occasional hug I used to get! Even so I am looking forward to helping them as they keep on with their learning.