A day in the life of a CALA Practice Manager during lockdown

Today is ‘International take your child to work day’. This annual event on the 4th Thursday in April is an educational program in the United States and Canada where parents take their children to work with them for one day. The day is designed to help children explore the workforce. With children out of school and many of us working from home at the moment, don’t forget to consider the positive ‘learning and insights to the world of work’ your children will be getting from watching you work (they will be learning even when you think they are not watching!).

To celebrate,  our CALA Practice Manager, Donna Sinclair has shared insight to her ‘lockdown’ working day with us along with some photos of her working alongside her children and just to cheer us all up – a few of her super cute furry friends!

From Donna:

“I hope everyone is keeping safe and well.  Like many of you I’m finding life at home is very busy and most of the day is juggling home schooling for my two children in Primary 4 and Primary 7 and trying to convince my nearly 16 year old to get up to do some work.  I’m working from home and have the extra challenge of studying – I’m in my 3rd year of BA Childhood Practice so with everything else going on, it can be hard to concentrate and find the time needed to complete my assignments.

My day starts with a 4 mile walk with our Collie at about 6.30 and then we begin work and school.  We go outside during breaks and lunches to bounce on the trampoline, play in their den or generally run about and play games.  I am trying to keep a routine going which is definitely helping to keep us all motivated.  We are very lucky as we live on a wee farm with a few sheep and highland cows.  

I thought you’d like to see some pictures of our animals. The sheep in the picture is Nibbles who was a pet lamb 3 years ago, she always comes for a cuddle. She’s expecting twins so we can’t wait to see the lambs!  We have just recently had 3 highland calves born who are called Bailey, Daisy (original name for a cow ?) and Poppy and they are very fluffy and cute bouncing around the field.  Our lambing is about to start so it will be nice for the kids to be able to help through the day around school work.

Every evening and more often if needed, we go to check on the animals and walk through our burn and fields. I know we are so lucky to have all this space and the weather has been kind too.  Nobody is sure how long this will last but staying connected and reaching out helps to keep our spirits up.

We will be doing our weekly clap and drumming of pans on Thursday (I broke my spoon last week ?) as a massive Thank You to all the key workers and NHS staff working hard to save lives.

Stay Safe everyone”