With life for most people very different than it was three months ago, I asked Young Reporters, studying from home, what they were doing to fill their time. Here are some of their replies:
“Yoga is actually quite fun, fills the time well and makes you feel great. Other than that, just a few things like drawing, reading, working out, etc.” Sophia Hayward, Gumley House School FCJ
“Over the weekend I watched Stranger Things, then watched more Stranger Things, then FaceTimed with my whole family, then watched more Stranger Things.” Ivy Stephens, Langley Park School for Girls
“I’ve decided to use my time in isolation in a productive way and learn an instrument. More specifically I’m learning how to play the piano and I hope I improve before we have to return to school for sixth form.” Rohan Ahmed, Oaks Park High School
“I have ordered a load of new bedroom furniture including a new bed to revamp my room whilst I have all of this spare time and hopefully, once it’s all up, I’ll feel less bored of my space and more motivated to get on with college work!” Izzy Hudson, Reigate College
“I'm taking this time to organise myself for the sake of my sanity. On Mondays I practice origami, on Thursday I learn Italian (a language I've wanted to learn for months) and Saturday is movie night with my family.” Sian Clarke, Langley Park School for Girls
“I am using this time to get those 'odd jobs' around the house that we so often put off, done such as tidying and organising the many things I horde. Above this, I have also gotten round to watching some television programmes and films that I've been wanting to watch for some time. Whilst I do not have any subscription service, there are many programmes on Freeview Television channels and available for free on theatre and catch up services due to the generosity of certain organisations. I sincerely advise people to have a research online and not neglect the more spurious channels such as Talking Pictures TV (Freeview 81).” Alexander Chopra, Wilson's School
“Other than being busy with school work I have taken my free time to work on a project I have put aside since summer, my dream has always been to create my own magazine, I have created a few issues online using Microsoft pages within the last week and continuing to make more as the weeks go on.” Maleehah Laher, Tolworth Girls' School & 6th Form
“During self isolation I have gotten to spend more time with my younger siblings, watching BBC shows, and have come to the conclusion that they're not always annoying.” Maryam Ahmed, Kingsley Academy
“I am spending my free time drawing and watching anime. Drawing is something that I have been doing since I was a toddler and it makes me feel relaxed whenever I'm in a difficult or stressful situation, in other words, it helps me move on and calm my nerves. I’ve also watched Demon Slayer, which I recommend watching, it’s about a boy whose family has been killed by a hungry demon and his younger sister has been turned in one of them. The story is amazing, and the art skills, as well as the animation and the frames, are so well done that I fell deeply in love with this anime. This allowed me to improve on the eye shape and body with my drawing.” Jesifa Islam Simol, Sir George Monoux College
“During this time we are forgetting the little things that matter. First and foremost, spending quality time with your family. Corona virus has without much effort brought families all together in one place and forced them to spend time with each other. Now there is no excuses for family members not to spend time with each other. They can spend time playing board games such as Monopoly, Connect 4 etc. These are some of the games I played, which really help build a relationship with your family as there is friendly competition within it. Games are a great way to connect with people and using this it helps you become closer with people that you play with. Also exercising with your family is a great way to utilise your time rather than sitting down on your phone. Not only will you have fun it is a great way to keep the whole family active. Although we use our phone as the main source of connecting with our friends and families, there should be a limit to how much you use it. The phone can distract you from many things such as doing efficient work or successful revision or any form of work that needs completion. The phone should be switched off so you can have better concentration in your work and it will help you do it to the best of your ability. Mubashar Khan, Sir George Monoux College
“After my lessons are completed, I tend to follow a timetable of what I will do for the rest of the day and that could be from reading or watching or completing even more work that needs to be completed. Since I had started my lockdown routine, I had indeed noticed significant changes in the usage of my time as being more productive and effective. My work had been done in a more flexible manner, which could allow me to free up more of my time and designate what needed to be done and when making me more organised, which was beneficial to someone who’s often all over the place with his work and notes! I had also decided to keep myself active and healthy rather than slobbering around and eating all of the quarantine snacks I had in the house. So therefore, I had decided to do some healthy kick-ups with a toilet roll, as this is the trend currently. It has kept me occupied and gave me challenges to fulfil and stopped me from being inactive for too long during this lockdown.” Khalil Raheem, Sir George Monoux College
It was impressive that Sofia is doing Yoga, so conscious of keeping fit, Izzy is re-doing her bedroom and Maleehah is working on her own magazine. Well done also to Rohan who is learning an instrument and Sian who is learning a language. These are great skills to have and will be an excellent memento of life in isolation. Mubashar has the right idea of bonding with the family by playing games and Khalil has taken up kickboxing so lots of ideas for other students to adopt.
Television is a great diversion and easy to get hooked into. For those of you sitting in front of the TV, try and watch a programme that you would never watch and that may give you ideas for the final article of the competition.
Thank you so much to the Young Reporters above who have told me about their days and hopefully they might have inspired you to take up something new.
Comments