Keeping schools open is stupid

[NoraB]

He has his own website. I can't list it due to his age, but he writes articles related to Roblox game development to help other people.

It's my son's dream to do stuff like this. Gaming is his world. It's how he copes with life, bless him.

If schools do ever shut down, there are ways to teach kids in a different way. I've had to learn and figure out how he learns best and apply it to what he enjoys; which is game development and programming.

Problem is that I'm autistic too and when my son goes into meltdown I have to work very hard to keep my own anxiety from shutting me down - because I go the opposite way to him when I'm overloaded. When they had to shut the school earlier this year (because of staff levels) I found myself in a situation where I was out of my depth because I have a learning disability (Dyscalculia) so can you imagine me trying to help my son with maths? Nightmare!

Homework is a massive trigger for my son, and most every child at the school - which is why they only have reading to do.

However, despite this being an autism specialist school (and generally they get things right) that first week a fifty page file was sent home and most of the kids had meltdowns just looking at it!

It was a learning curve for the school as well, and I accept that, but as far as I'm concerned, if shutdown happens again it will be independence lessons I'll be teaching my son.

Hubs can do the maths etc but, even then, he suffers from neurotypicalism and he forgets the effect tone of voice can have on an autistic individual - especially when they are anxious.

My son will engage if it involves his obsessions, but we have to make it not school-like, if you get me? So the school sending work they would have been doing at school was never going to work.

Maybe I'm caught up in the "emergency" hysteria spread by the media. People keep telling me I've been caught in the fear trap. Whatever that means.

I operate on a 'need to know' basis. My anxiety can't handle people's Covid hysteria and the drama of the BBC on a daily basis. I listen to Uncle Boris when I have to, do as I'm instructed, and accept that this will pass as everything does.

In all honesty, this lockdown is bothering me more than the first because I have fibro and I always get flare-ups this time of year due to cold and damp. I can't get out for walks, and that has a direct effect on my mental health. In spring I was wandering about in the woods taking pics of the masses of bluebells. Very different this time around.

I try and improvise by taking myself for a virtual walk on Youtube. There is a lovely coastal one that I use a lot. That, some essential oil, and nature sounds, and I can trick my mind into thinking I'm really there.