Hey parents, teachers, and little learners! 🌟 Are you ready to sprinkle some educational magic into this year’s back-to-school routine? 🚀✨ Look no further than Twinkl – your ultimate partner in making learning a joyous adventure! 🌈🎒
1️⃣ Whiz-Bang Resources: Twinkl’s got a backpack full of resources for every grade, subject, and learning style. From vibrant worksheets to interactive games, they’ve got the golden ticket to engage young minds!
2️⃣ Teachers’ Pet (Literally!): Calling all teachers – Twinkl is your classroom companion! With lesson plans, activity packs, and vibrant displays, you’ll be the superhero of the school year.
3️⃣ Parent Power-Up: Mums and Dads, get ready to be your child’s learning hero! Twinkl offers at-home activities, printables, and fun games – making homework a breeze and bonding time a blast.
4️⃣ A+ Variety: Whether your little one is a math whiz, a budding artist, or a future scientist, Twinkl caters to all interests. Learning has never been this diverse and delightful!
Navigate the Hub like a Pro! 🧭
📖 Storyland Corner: Dive into the magical world of storytelling with Twinkl’s enchanting tales. Perfect for bedtime or an afternoon escape!
🧠 Brainy Buddies: Meet the Brainy Buddies – your child’s animated study companions! They make learning fun and keep boredom at bay.
🎨 Arty Avenue: Unleash your child’s creativity on Arty Avenue! From crafts to colouring, this is the perfect spot for little Picassos.
🎤 Show and Tell Square: Time to showcase those new skills! Share your child’s accomplishments in the Show and Tell Square and watch the applause roll in.
Grab everything you need at the Twinkl Back to School Hub
📢 Extra! Extra! Read All About It! 📰
Twinkl is not just a platform; it’s a community! Share your back-to-school adventures, discoveries, and triumphs on social media using #TwinklBackToSchool. Let’s create a buzz of positivity, inspiration, and support as we embark on this exciting academic journey together! 🌈🚀
So, what are you waiting for? Dive into the back-to-school extravaganza with Twinkl and let the learning festivities begin! 🎊👩🏫📏 #TwinklMagic #BackToSchoolJoy
Perfect resources for parents and teachers – all at the Twinkl back to school hub
Ready to sprinkle some educational pixie dust into your teaching and parenting routines?
Our recent blog post, ‘5 Reasons Why You Need Twinkl Membership,’ is your golden ticket to a world of delightful learning adventures! Picture this: a hub filled with vibrant lesson plans, engaging activities, and a community of fellow learners and educators cheering you on. With a Twinkl membership, say goodbye to educational woes and hello to an enchanting journey where teaching and learning become a joyous collaboration. Dive into the post, grab your popcorn, and discover why Twinkl is the secret ingredient for turning ordinary moments into extraordinary milestones in your academic adventure! 🚀📚
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I love learning new things, and being able to learn from the best in the world is a great opportunity.
How about being able to pay a subscription and do any course from the best and most famous experts in their field and all from the comfort of your own home… in fact, you can learn with MasterClass anywhere, on a train, in a plane, on a bus or in your bedroom.
It is up to you where you login to start your MasterClass journey. The one thing that I love is that it is up to you and you can be in comfort while you are learning from the world’s best.
MasterClass is a subscription-based streaming service that offers online classes taught by renowned experts in various fields, including cooking, writing, music, business, and more. Each class is created and taught by a master in their respective field, such as Gordon Ramsay, Serena Williams, Neil Gaiman, and Martin Scorsese.
3 Reasons Why MasterClass Makes A Great Gift Idea
First, it provides access to high-quality instruction from the world’s most successful and influential people.
Second, it allows people to learn new skills and expand their knowledge from the comfort of their own home.
Third, it’s a gift that keeps on giving, as subscribers can access all classes for a full year and learn at their own pace.
The classes are unique and offer a mix of practical instruction and inspirational guidance. They not only teach the technical aspects of a craft but also provide insights into the creative process and the mindset of successful individuals. I for one love to learn how
Classes are well-organised, with lesson plans and course materials that are easy to follow. Additionally, the platform offers the ability to interact with other students and to ask questions of the instructors.
I believe that it’s an investment in personal and professional growth that allows you to learn and to invest in yourself.
Learning is fun with MasterClass. First, the classes are designed to be engaging and entertaining, featuring high-quality video production and a mix of practical instruction and inspirational guidance. This helps keep learners interested and motivated throughout the course.
Second, the instructors themselves are often famous and accomplished individuals in their field, making their classes both educational and entertaining. For example, a cooking class taught by Gordon Ramsay will not only teach you how to make delicious meals but also provide insights into the world of professional cooking.
Third, MasterClass provides learners with the ability to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule. This flexibility allows learners to enjoy the learning experience without the pressure of deadlines or the need to attend classes at specific times.
My favourite classes so far have been
Margaret Atwood Teaches Creative Writing – I loved hearing about Margaret’s background, how she started writing and learning about the Handmaid’s Tail. The course was a highlight as Margret’s dark sense of humour kept me watching and wanting to learn more.
Steve Martin Teaches Comedy – I love Steve Martin and am a HUGE fan of all his work. I think he is super clever with his writing and comedy and wanted to learn from the best. Steve was very giving and caring when he gave advice to new comic writers and it was interesting to learn from his insight on what works and how to make things better.
Dan Brown Teaches Writing Thrillers – I am a huge fan of Dan Brown and his book The Da Vinci Code. I am keen to learn more about writing a book and Dan’s course is informative and fun. You will learn lots about writing while having a good time too.
James Patterson Teaches Writing – James Patterson was fun, down to earth, and a great teacher about writing books. How to get inspired, what to do to create a book outline and so much more.
Shonda Rhimes Teaches Writing For Television – I love Grey’s Anatomy and all that Shonda has done in television. Shonda not only has been a showrunner for Grey’s she has also created many more shows that are very successful. I would love to write for TV and there is no one better to learn from than Shonda Rhimes.
Learning from experts in the comfort of your own home is also a great advantage of MasterClass. It allows learners to avoid inconvenience. This can be especially helpful for people who have busy schedules or who live in remote areas without access to traditional classroom learning.
Moreover, learning from experts in the comfort of your own home provides a more personalized and individualized learning experience. You can watch the classes as many times as you need to fully grasp the concepts being taught, and you can also ask questions of the instructors and interact with other learners in the online community.
Overall, MasterClass is a great way to make learning fun and enjoyable and to gain new skills and insights from experts in the comfort of your own home.
You can access the classes from anywhere and at any time, making it easy to fit learning into your schedule. Additionally, you have the ability to learn at your own pace and revisit classes as needed.
MasterClass is a great gift for friends and family, if you’re interested in learning from experts in various fields and enjoy the convenience and flexibility of online learning, MasterClass may be a great investment for you.
Grab a MasterClass Pass for a loved one today, perfect for Easter, Birthdays, just because gifts, Christmas, and more!
Note: I am an affiliate for MasterClass as I love the platform so much. I hope you do too. All links are affiliate links.
I know it was needed, I know that we are being safe staying at home, BUT it is very sad that this lockdown has happened at the start of the school holidays and will be for the whole duration as well!
We didn’t have grand plans but did think that we might be able to take the kids to the movies, mini-golf, go to a cafe or restaurant with the family and maybe visit some friends. However this never happened, we stayed at home and watched movies, played games and watched the youngest learn to ride his bike without training wheels.
I even have a new car (well secondhand but low km and hardly driven) that I was keen to take the kids out in, however, it has sat in the driveway other than trips to the supermarket to get food for the family. I suppose the lack of outings has saved us money but it would have been nice to have had the experiences, but these will have to wait for later.
As I write this it is the Sunday before school is meant to start again, yes Tuesday is the start of term 3 here in New South Wales and as lockdown has been extended all kids that in the lockdown zones will be learning online.
Hours after theNSW Department of Educationannounced that schools will be preparing for home learning, they were hit with a cyber attack. Yes, talk about horrible. All the teachers need to access the Google Classroom portal for their school to plan the content for the kids that will be learning from home.
Google Classroom unavailable – Now fixed and ready for term 3
“The timing of this creates considerable challenges for staff as we prepare for the start of Term 3,” she said in a statement. An education department source familiar with the attack said that, in line with security advice, the outage was initially reported as scheduled maintenance. “Thankfully, our teams have been able to isolate the issues and we are working to reactivate services as soon as possible.” https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-education-department-hit-by-cyber-attack-hours-after-remote-learning-announcement-20210708-p587z7.html)
I just checked with my girls and they are now able to access their Google Classroom. Hopefully, this continues and is all good for the start of term 3. It would have made it so much worse to not be able to access their online learning portal.
Overnight we have had 77 cases, 55 known sources and 22 from unknown sources. We are lucky that where we are there are no infections, however, due to be grouped as Greater Sydney we are still in lockdown too.
I was meant to be at the Fresh Content Awards Night on the 21st of July, however, this has now been postponed till the 8th of September. I’m now worried that if the numbers don’t go down, the event in September might be postponed yet again or may be cancelled. I do hope that the event happens as I am so excited about being nominated and going to the awards night.
We were also set to see a short film the twins were involved in but the screening has been postponed until the lockdown is over. Currently, the organisers don’t want to set a date to cancel it again and are waiting until the lockdown is over. I was very keen to see the finished film and celebrate with everyone, but we will have to wait.
You would have thought that employers would be more compassionate due to lockdowns and also having kids at home. Bayside Council, in Sydney’s south-east, made employees fill out forms stating that they would not be looking after children under the age of 7 years while they are working from home.
Geez, how about really penalising families for having children?
Make it even tougher due to the sanctioned lockdown orders that are out of our control that dictates that everyone needs to stay home and kids are only able to go to school if their parents are essential workers. I would say that being a council worker is not considered essential, and therefore many would indeed have kids at home.
Working from home during the lockdown
The juggle is hard and stressful, but as we are in crisis with the new delta strain I would have thought that Bayside Council would more compassionate to their employee’s needs and help them more.
“A staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity described the council’s approach as “messy, unfair and unclear”. “It clearly shows an absolute disregard … for the health and wellbeing of employees, their families and the community,” the employee said. (https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/a-work-space-is-a-work-space-council-banned-staff-supervising-kids-while-working-from-home-20210708-p587vo.html)
Bayside Council said that staff can take annual leave to accommodate this time with kids learning from home. Personally, I think this is a shit offer and a horrible way to support their staff. Some people might not want to take leave or might not have available leave to take. Also what if the extra week lockdown extends for another 2 or more weeks? At this point with the number of infections are increasing, so a longer lockdown is a real possibility.
Lockdown could possibly extend to August and if that happens how much leave will you have to take from your job to accommodate homeschooling? Also how many staff would have to take leave? Will this be focused on the female staff members as they seem to shoulder most of the childcare?
Many are working remotely or not working at all due to being stuck at home while we wait for the numbers to go down. All companies and businesses need to be more supportive of their staff during these times and asking them to sign stupid forms getting them to agree that they will not be the sole caretaker of a child under 7 is bullshit in my book.
Currently, we have been given no choice to have kids at home while we work there too, It is not the employee’s fault for being put in this position and therefore should not have to sign paperwork to prove that they will not be a parent to their child in a time of need.
they lost more jobs than men – almost 8 per cent at the peak of the crisis, compared to 4 per cent for men;
they shouldered more of the increase in unpaid work – including supervising children learning remotely – taking on an extra hour each day more than men, on top of their existing heavier load; and
they were less likely to get government support – JobKeeper excluded short-term casuals, who in the hardest-hit industries are mostly women.”
As homeschooling is set to commence on Tuesday I am not really looking forward to it. In 2020 we had about 4 months of homeschooling and it was rather painful as kids were not doing the work they were supposed to, and on top of that, the 4-year-old at the time thought it was playtime and would not let the older kids do their work. Flash forward to 2021, the 4-year-old is now a 5-year-old and in Kindergarten and the twins are now high school kids. It will be so interesting to see what a Kindy kid gets for school work. I do hope that all work well at home to get all their school work done and the arguments are kept to a minimum.
I am also amazed that many are breaching the lockdown orders. There has been a group that celebrated an 18th birthday party, a group of 15 men meeting to have a card game and many that are out in big groups and not following the restrictions.
I feel sad that many are doing the right thing and a small group is ignoring the rules. If we all stay home and the numbers go down, and the lockdown ends!
If you are in the lockdown too, what have you been doing to keep kids and yourself entertained? I spent the day yesterday cleaning the twin’s room, the outcome was good but the time doing it was painful.
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Stay current with all the things that are happening on Mummy to Twins Plus One. Don’t miss a thing by signing up for my newsletter. This newsletter will list all giveaways and fabulous things that are happening.
