I am honestly loving the home learning with the children, but there are some challenging moments. Simeon and Toby are very good at doing their School work from home, but today was one of those days when Toby just did not want to do anything. I understand, I have those days every now and then (who doesn’t), but being an adult I have to deal with it and motivate myself.
Being only seven, and with the person trying to motivate him being his is mum, unfortunately Toby dealt with his feelings towards his work by complaining, ignoring me and there were even slight tears. If he was at School this would never happen, because doing all these things in a class full of children would not be cool and being shouted at by a Teacher is not something Toby has experienced or wants to experience.
I am trying to approach the home working as more of a helper rather than a Teacher and I explained this to Toby today. The Teachers have been working hard every day setting work for them to do, and if they were in School they would be doing double the workload. I am there to help him to plan his work, structure his work and to guide him and help him when needed. Giving me such a hard time isn’t going to make the work go away, only take longer to complete.
I decided to change the mood completely… I told Toby “right, run around the garden for an energy boost – I will time you.” Before he coud respond I said “1… 2… 3… go!” and Toby chuckled, but then realised I was serious and ran like the wind (being a seven-year-old Superhero he loves a physical challenge). He came back laughing and then asked if he could do it again to beat his time, so he did.
Toby ended up doing some fantastic School work today after the drama. Simeon helped as much as he could too, he is good like that. If he can hear us struggling and he is on task with his work, he will try to encourage Toby or he will help Toby with some answers. They are such wonderful brothers and always look out for each other.
So, after an extra-tough hour or so, my morning was spent working through 3D shapes, arithmetic, spellings, poetry and learning about World War 2, we were all ready for a break. About half an hour before lunch, the boys were complaining of rumbling tummies… trying to get them to concentrate was becoming increasingly difficult and I was fighting a losing battle. I decided to stop with the difficult work and set them some fun art challenges while I whipped up some lunch.

I needed to make lunch fast and I wanted to make something that I knew the boys loved so it would feel like a reward for working so hard, so I decided to make a noodle soup. It is super quick to make and you can throw in whatever you like.
I had some carrots, mushrooms and onions in the fridge so I diced these with some garlic and ginger, fried for a few minutes then added broth, miso paste and gluten free soy sauce. After a few minutes, add the dried noodles and frozen peas and then once the noodles had softened it was ready.

I also had some tofu that needed to be used, so I made some crispy chilli tofu to scatter into the soup while the soup was cooking.
FOR CRISPY CHILLI TOFU
I coated the chopped tofu in cornflour and a pinch of salt, and shallow fried on all sides for around 3 minutes. About 3 minutes before the end of frying I added diced red chillies, spring onions and diced ginger / garlic to the pan and stir-fried everything together.
Within 15 minutes, Simeon and Toby were sat enjoying their noodles and I could relax. Phew! I wouldn’t be surprised if Teacher’s have a sneaky stash of wine in their desks!
Miso Noodle Soup
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium carrot diced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 5 chestnut mushrooms sliced
- 1 inch piece ginger diced
- 3 cloves chopped
- 2 litres stock using 2 x vegan stock cubes we use Kallo
- 2 tsp miso paste
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 4 nests dried vermicelli rice noodles
- handful frozen peas
- optional: top with crispy tofu
- chopped red chillies / diced spring onions / coriander for garnish
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large pan over a medium heat.
- Fry the onion, carrot, mushrooms, ginger and garlic for 3 minutes.
- Add the stock to the pan and stir in the miso paste, soy sauce and thyme and simmer for 7 minutes.
- Add the noodles and peas and simmer over a low heat for a further 5 minutes.
- If you wish to add crispy tofu, add this now along with the garnish.

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