Ten-year-old Tahuna Intermediate pupil Brooke Reddington said it had been difficult adjusting to working from home.
‘‘I miss my friends. Because of Covid-19 we can’t really hang out and see each other. But we can talk to each other online.
‘‘On the first day of online school, I didn’t really want to do much. I was a bit stuck because I wasn’t used to it and there was no teacher there to tell us what to do.
‘‘We didn’t do the roll call or anything.
‘‘But today I’ve been working on some activities and my main focus is my country brochure.’’
She said her teacher had asked the class to create a brochure advertising a place that they really wanted to visit.
‘‘Mine is about Rarotonga. I’ve always wanted to go to a tropical island.’’
Initially, Brooke’s mum Jade was a little confused by her daughter’s enthusiasm for the project, but the motive has now become quite clear.
Part of the reason was because it was fun.
However, the main purpose of Brooke’s brochure was to convince her parents they should go on a family holiday to Rarotonga once the lockdown was over.
There seems to be competition from within the household as to who can provide the best marketing ploy.
Brooke’s 6-year-old sister Charlotte, a Tainui School pupil, has created a similar brochure advertising Hawaii.
Mrs Reddington gave a typical mother’s response to her children’s pleas.
‘‘We’ll see. Maybe after some serious saving’’.
Both girls said now that they had started doing the school work, it was addictive and they wanted to do more.
Mrs Reddington, who is a teacher at Tahuna Intermediate, said she was structuring the girls’ days quite casually.
‘‘We have a bit of leisure time in the morning and then we sit down and the girls have to do some work.
‘‘We’ll continue to do some work over the holidays [which start on Monday] but it won’t be as structured.
‘‘It’s purely voluntary and it will stop them from getting bored.
‘‘It’s still a novelty for them at the moment.’’
