Before I begin I have to say the school my girls go to has been brilliant so far. Lots of communication and organised work. The students get shout outs in assemblies and their work shared anonymously on Instagram and Facebook to give them an extra boost. There are optional competitions and quizzes galore and for the most part they are kept busy and as engaged as possible in the circumstances. All good.

However I need to put it out there that Food Technology is not my favourite homeschooling topic. My eldest is not gifted with much cooking confidence so being asked to make potato wedges during her timetabled lesson, on a day when both Paul and I were both working making supervision impossible, was a bit of a challenge. I mean the wedges were very nice – if a little odd to eat as a snack at 11am on a Wednesday morning so I guess she’s learning something. Unfortunately we ate them so fast she only managed to take a photograph of four of them to prove she’d done it. I don’t imagine that particular picture went on Instagram.

The week before she was supposed to make pizza which was interesting in the absence of flour but she made do with a tortilla base and only very nearly set the smoke alarm off.

My youngest has had to cut up an apple in the shape of a swan or a crab. I actually get it – it’s for knife skill practice and at least it was a more appropriate thing to eat at 11am. Except she actually did it just before dinner because she forgot and then wouldn’t eat it because she didn’t want to miss out on pudding.

The most bonkers so far however has been the cream experiment. Firstly we had to buy double cream (which was an essential trip out to the Co-op of course). She put it in a jam jar and then had to shake it, the idea being it would separate into buttermilk and butter. She shook the jar. Paul shook the jar. I shook the jar. No-one told me that I needed to put my sports bra on to do food tech homework. She said I was embarrassing.

We opened the jar and the cream had understandably whipped to such an extent there was no more room in the jar. She spooned out half the cream and carried on shaking which remarkably did eventually produce the two components. Now she was supposed to make two items – one with each part.  All during a period of my work where I was trying to finish a particularly tricky spreadsheet.

It was ok though because as I was looking particularly concerned that my figures would be late she announced she was tired now and so wouldn’t be doing the cooking bit at the moment. I’m not sure that’s the output from a food technology lesson that you’d hope for. I didn’t even get anything to eat at 11am. Instagram is full of pictures of gorgeous pancakes. So unfair.

So now we have a tiny amount of buttermilk and butter in the fridge (along with half a pot of whipped cream) and the promise of making very tiny scones after work today. I can’t wait.

Oh and I keep accidentally calling it Home Economics which makes both of them roll their eyes, as does the reminiscence of buying a wicker basket with wipe clean cover before starting secondary school. They think I’m ancient.

I wonder what delicacy next week will bring? Thank goodness one lesson falls on a bank holiday when I can just do some baking with them instead.