lockdown – Just because

Author’s note: Back in Lockdown when the children had to do Home Learning, one of them had to write a story and kept saying they didn’t want to. So Mummy challenged them that she could write (a not very good story) quicker than they could and to see if they could win the story race! Well it worked, they wrote a story, but it’s not this one. This one is the one Mummy wrote to get them to do theirs.

In a remote forest lived a very noisy elephant called Freddie. If he didn’t get everything how he wanted it, as well as more food than he could eat, he would stomp about trumpeting and upsetting all the other animals.

It was a lovely quiet day and Naughty the Monkey was enjoying resting on his favourite branch. But then, oh no, Freddie started rampaging…again!!! The other animals were getting very distressed and fed up with Freddie and his behaviour and Naughty Monkey thought enough is enough! Naughty Monkey hatched a cunning plan. It was soon going to be Freddie’s birthday and he was being very demanding about wanting a mahoosively giant cake. Naughty Monkey was determined it would be a cake Freddie would never forget. Having volunteered to make it, Naughty Monkey teamed up with all the other animals to get all the ingredients he needed – including some surprise ones.

When everyone was asleep Naughty Monkey started work. He baked and baked and iced and iced. Finally, it was complete and it was a wonderful sight to behold. Naughty Monkey spread the word to the other animals to make sure they knew not to share the cake, despite some saying it looked “just too good not to eat”.

It was not long before everyone was gathered and Freddie, in podium position, looked grandly on as the other animals were obliged to wish him “Happy Birthday”. Freddie closed his eyes to make a wish, which is why he didn’t see the other animals moving discreetly away, took a deep breath and blew…

{BANG} went the cake and Freddie the noisy elephant became Freddie the cake. He was so surprised but before he could so much as stomp Naughty Monkey said “Maybe now you’ll learn your lesson!”

And now every time Freddie starts to stomp the animals look him in the eye and say “cake!” Will he be a quieter elephant from now on? Only time will tell.

The End.

Red and yellow and pink and green
Homeschool till you feel mean.
Spellings, Tables, “You must know!”
Are their brains turned into snow?
Things they should have learnt by now
Seem to all have moved to Slough.
Having to reteach it all
Sometimes makes us want to bawl.

Feels like we’re wasting time,
Slowly going out our minds,
As we patiently explain
4+1 again and again!
This is stuff that they all knew
Just a few short months ago.

But still we try and teach them things,
Like all the Tudor Kings and Queens,
And Minibeasts and The Three Bears,
And how to be more Space Aware!
And what a rainbow really is
And how to do the picture quiz.

We strive to teach, with no reward,
And stop them all from being bored.
One day we hope, they’ll grateful be
That we do know our ABC
And numbers and our history.
And stopped them falling far behind
And helped them to improve their
minds.

“Thank God” they’ll say
“That Mummy has
More books than the local library has.
It meant”, they’ll say, “that we could learn
And, despite Lockdown, we could roam.
Throughout the pages we could, you see,
Sail far across the sea,
And have adventures far and wide,
Whilst still sat down on our backsides!”

Tag: lockdown

The Exploding Birthday Cake

Red and Yellow and Pink and Green…