With the emergence of the new coronavirus in December last year, it has been a global pandemic. Ever since the virus infected Sri Lanka the government has taken steps to shut down all public places and impose islandwide curfew to minimize the spread of the virus. So, schools been a place where hundreds of kids hang out together, have been closed since Friday, the 13th of March. While our school has a special distance learning programme to keep us busy during, I have felt surprisingly bored at times. Most of the first week of the curfew was spent on Netflix and books. Studying in DP1 in an IB school can be pretty hard because of all the work to be completed. Assignments are due each week and you have tests to study and grades to keep up to… With all that work, I didn’t spend as much time as I used to on movies. So, during this week I’ve had about 3 movie marathons with my sister and watched about 20 films altogether. I have to say it was really good to distance yourself from all the school books and be free. I also read about 5 novels during the 2 weeks.
The books I read at home.
After I was tired of all the movies, I decided to do some creative work which I have never been able to come up to. So, I was able to discover myself trapped in a new interest in art. During my stay at home, I’ve created sketch drawings, watercolour paintings and crayon paintings.
Some of the drawings I did at home.
I have also created a wall hanging made from old newspapers. Even though I have completed the basic structure I couldn’t actually paint it as I couldn’t get paint from any stores. I hope to get some paint as soon as possible to complete this.
The basic structure of my wall hanging.
Apart from these I also got a few guitar lessons from my dad at home. I have got a couple of guitar lessons a few years back but couldn’t really continue it. So I realized this was the best time to learn something more and make use of time. I learned the basic notes; since I couldn’t remember any of it and now I’m working on a song. I hope it goes well.
Art is one of the few things I spend the least of my time on other days. But now I feel that doing any kind of art provides you with relaxation and I have started to enjoy myself despite been not good in these things. I also found this really helpful to keep my mind out of all the stress created from excess school work. I also believe that is really good way to stay away from the computer screen for sometime during the day.
Moreover, I decided to try out some cooking at home. All this time I’ve baked cakes and made all kinds of desserts like cookies and milkshakes but never tried to make something different. So since I was at home with nothing to do I thought of preparing something spicy. During the first week of curfew, I prepared cutlets with my mom. It was pretty easy than it looks. All you have to do is prepare your filling, dip it in eggs and then fry it. Even though we usually eat pre-cooked cutlets and I’ve never made it before, it turned out pretty well and tasted good. I also prepared vegetable buns, pancakes, cinnamon rolls and chocolate chip cookies. Apart from this, I helped my mom to cook lunch and dinner. So I guess we could say that I have spent more time in the kitchen during these three weeks than I have been during the past year. I think that cooking is a really fun activity to do, especially with your family, and it’s also nice to treat yourself, especially during times like these.
Some food items I prepared because I was bored.
Some food items I prepared because I was bored.
Some food items I prepared because I was bored.
Chocolate chip cookies I made at home.
Learning outcomes:
1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.
2. Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.
With the extra time and boredom that Covid-19 brings I have been able to deploy myself to discover some different skills and activities expanding my experience and learning something new in a time of stress and uncertainty.
