The themes that our journalists have explored for Journal 2 include health and wellbeing, in particular talking about sleep, food, being active and feelings and emotions. The children also write about things they are good at and about how lockdown affects relationships at home. Finally our journalists identify some worries and think about what adults can do to support children in these times.
Our journalists are twelve Members of Children’s Parliament (MCPs), aged between 8 and 14 years old. There are 5 girls and 7 boys. In this journal, our MCPs use pseudonyms.
We have left the comments open, please do leave positive feedback for the children (all comments are moderated).
Our journalists are doing well, across their journals there are reports about spending a wee bit more time outdoors, helped by better weather. However, as their other journal entries show later, how they feel can be a bit up and down.
While some journalists have maintained a routine, most report that sleep patterns and routines have changed, mostly in terms of staying up later and getting up later.
Journalists report big changes when it comes to how active they are now, compared to before the lockdown. Whether playing with friends or going to school, there were more opportunities to be active some weeks ago. Now, most contact with others is online. Journalists also report that families are doing some walking and getting out and about together, this might be different from the norm and something families might want to sustain after lockdown.
Our journalists report on a shift in mood from before the lockdown to life now. While children are enjoying time with their family they miss friends. Journalists report that the current restrictions can leave them feeling a range of emotions including sadness, loneliness, boredom, anger and frustration.
Our journalists report little difference in changes around what they eat, although they do not have school dinners now and so are eating more at home. While ‘take-aways’ are available there is more cooking at home, this sometimes involves the children.
Journalists are proud of supporting others and there are a lot of new baking skills being learned. For some journalists learning at home, supported by a parent, means there are opportunities to focus on something like maths and make progress.
With so much time at home our journalists have written about family relationships and getting on with each other. Journalists talk about positive family relationships that were there before lockdown that help everyone cope now. Children also write about the stresses and strains of spending so much time together. For children who live between mum and dad the lockdown has posed particular stresses on maintaining relationships and seeing those you love. One of our journalists reports that younger brothers or sisters might be too young to use technology, and so they are really missing their friends.
To end this edition our journalists talked about any current worries, and what actions adults could take to help children during these times. An important worry for children is how the virus might affect elderly relatives who they cannot connect with so easily during current restrictions. While our journalists look forward to the end of lockdown, they only want this to happen when it is safe to do so.
Do you have something you would like our journalists to consider? Or any feedback for the children? Get in touch info@www.childrensparliament.org.uk with the subject line The Corona Times Journal.
