This blog post is part of our new series “COVID-19: A day in the life of…” where different families will give us a glimpse into their new lives during the Coronavirus crisis. In this series we will hear from parents who are keyworkers; who find themselves unemployed and unexpectedly homeschooling; who are juggling working remotely from home and providing childcare; from foreign missionaries and international families to learn about how this global pandemic is having a huge impact on families around the world.
As we see into their lives, we’ll get a chance to hear how to gospel is good news for them in the midst of this crisis.
The Smyth Family
1) Describe your family and what your average day looks like now under lockdown.
We have 3 energetic little boys, aged 4, 3 and 10 months! In a normal week, the two older boys have a couple of sessions at preschool and the rest of the time we spend a fair few hours in parks, in the garden, doing other activities at home, or catching up with friends. My husband, Matt, is a secondary school maths teacher and can be extremely busy during term time, especially in the evenings. We also all love our busy church family life.
Well of course, this week, with a huge portion of the nation, we have found ourselves being forced to “slow down.” We can’t even venture out to the shops, as our middle boy has decided that this is the week to inherit a cough, which puts us in the “symptomatic” category! But what does slowing down look like with 3 cute crazies?!
It certainly doesn’t mean less nappies or runny noses, or fewer meals to cook and dishes to wash. And it definitely doesn’t mean lie-ins til 10 (or even 7 for that matter!) or a couple of good nights’ sleep!
But…where we lack normally in time to spend with God and with each other, we have gained this week.
We have been able to slowly have breakfast together, without the worry of having to rush to preschool and work. We’ve had time to involve our boys in “meaningful tasks”, such as sweeping the kitchen floor after breakfast, washing up and putting on the laundry. And we’ve been able to read the Bible together in the morning, and not just last thing at night, when the boys are all tired and ready for bed. That’s not to say that we’ve suddenly become the perfect little home schooling family (very far from it, I can assure you) but we’ve just had “time” to give to our children.
Matt has worked from home for a few hours every morning this week, and in this time I have tried to keep the boys as productive as possible. So after the morning jobs and all the nappies and tedious toileting (toilet training is still a difficult one in our house…but now we have “time” to crack it, right?!), we’ve had a couple of hours to do some Easter craft, colouring, writing (their choice) and painting. I always find that the boys can focus on tasks so much more in the morning. We are also currently doing a project on “Around the World”, which we have been enjoying for a couple of months. The kids have a giant world map on their bedroom wall, and we use the Open Doors prayer guide to pray for persecuted Christians around the world in countries that are hostile to the Christian faith. This has as two-fold purpose; to learn a little about other countries around the world and their location, and to engage with and pray for fellow Christians sacrificing everything to live for Jesus. But we’ve never managed to get much further in our world study until now! This week, we looked at, France and Israel. We watched some you tube videos on the two countries and their customs, (e.g. traditional Israeli dancing and music) and learnt to say “bonjour” and “shalom”! We also made some flags to go around their map. The boys have enjoyed getting into the topic a bit more!
By the afternoon, Matt is around to do lots of running around with the kids in the garden (thank the Lord for a sunny week!) and even some fun maths games with the boys. We’ve done assault courses in the garden, a beach theme (with the beach tent, pretend picnic and sandpit) and even a bit of water play! And we break the time up with lots of reading. Our boys just love looking at books and reading stories. It’s been an incredible blessing to me to have another adult at home to help out so much; to give me little moments playing with the baby, or just having a cup of tea in the sun!
We like to keep bedtime routine pretty early to make sure we get an evening. In a normal week, that ensures that Matt gets all his work done for the following day and that I can get all the clearing up done and packed lunches made etc. But this week, that has meant WE get to have evenings together. Bedtime routine with the boys includes reading their Bible (The Jesus Story book Bible*, or The Big Picture Story Bible * or a devotional of sorts (right now we are reading Thoughts to make your heart sing * , which I’d highly recommend). We also pray together and often sing a song or two.
Other “meaningful tasks” we’ve had time for this week, include, cleaning the car, making scones and hoovering. Generally, my default is to get stuff done quickly on my own, but it’s been good to have more time to involve the boys. It also adds in extra activities to help avoid the boredom!
2) What challenges have you encountered?
I guess for me, the biggest challenge has been trying to keep the boys occupied. If our eldest gets bored, he can often be a little hard to manage, so I’ve wanted to keep things as engaging as possible, with as much variety as I can, without the ability to break things up with a walk to the park or a visit to the shops to get some gingerbread men!! This has meant me having to give my full attention, and also planning ahead, whereas I am generally used to a few hours in the week of head space, with just the baby. (So my patience is indeed being stretched and tested in all sorts of ways!!) Of course, having both of us around, has been a total blessing to ease these pressure moments!
3) What encouragements have you seen?
I think the fact that we are all having the same experiences at the moment is really helping to unify our family.
We’re also so grateful for our Community group for helping us out with bits of shopping as we “self-isolate” due to the cough!
And we are massively encouraged by our church and especially by our leaders, who are finding ways to use this situation to reach out to people and to try to bring more people into the Kingdom and into a relationship with Jesus.
4) Why is the gospel good news for your family at this time?
We love the fact that God is sovereign and good! We love that he knows just where that virus has come from and just where it’s going, and that for those who love God, he works all things for good. We take comfort in knowing that nothing can separate us from His love and that he works all things according to the counsel of this will. He is Lord in this situation and for that we praise his name!
We can’t pretend to know all that He is doing through this situation, but we do know that he is giving us an opportunity of real unity in our family that we otherwise would not have. So we’re thankful for that!
Keep up the good work everyone. Whatever your “home school” looks like right now, it’s blessing your whole family to be spending this time together. Seize the opportunity if you’re able.
A huge thank you to the Smyth family for taking part in this series!
Why don’t you take a few moments to pray for tbe Smyth family right now? Pray that God would sustain them as they care for their three boys. Pray for energy and enthusiasm as they seek to use this opportunity of spending so much time together to grow in their devotional life together.
Could you take part in this series?
We would love to feature as many families as possible in this series.
If you would like to take part, then please send you answers in an email or DM, to the following questions (it should only take 10 mins or so to answer them):
1) Describe your family and what your average day looks like now under lockdown. (Some parents are key workers, some parents are juggling working from home while providing childcare, others find themselves unexpectedly homeschooling – what is your situation?)
2) What challenges have you encountered?
3) What encouragements have you seen?
4) Why is the gospel good news for your family at this time?