January 2017 Catchup | Cross-phase

Hello hello everyone, how are you all doing? I can’t believe it’s already the 4th of February and I’m only just now getting around to typing up this post (but I’ll probably edit the date back in a few days and it’ll go under the January section of this year anyway haha).

Oh my goodness, January has been a TOTAL whirlwind! I started off the year at my new school for cross-phase and I went from teaching in year six (10-11 year olds), to teaching year 1 (5-6 year olds). Such a huge constrast and I was super nervous about it because they are just a lot younger, SMALLER and they obviously learn differently. I also had to learn all about phonics and then all about HOW to actually teach it, which was a challenge. However to my absolute surprise, I could not have enjoyed the cross-phase experience more. I have had so much fun teaching younger children and it’s actually taught me to not be so apprehensive about new challenges. Their enthusiasm for learning, their laughter when you should them Geraldine the giraffe (a great phonics resource btw! 😝) and their sweet curiosity about everything. It has been an amazing experience, I have just one week left and whilst I doubt I’ll be doing my NQT year in year 1, I know I’m not adverse to it completely.

What I have found really tough though, is the amount of time spent on creating resources, and the fact that a one hour lesson plan has taken me 4-5 hours to complete, which is not my cup of tea at all. It has taken over my whole life honestly, I am in school till around 6:30-8pm every night and I am beyond exhausted. Thats another reason why I have really been slacking with my blog, not because I have no content to post or because I don’t want to, but because I really just do not get the time.

Lets just say, half term will be a very welcome break haha.

Lately I’ve really enjoyed connecting with my readers through the new I.G live feature. Its essentially a live stream, which at first I was a bit nervous about, but now the more I go on the easier it becomes. I’ve also really enjoyed doing a GRWM here and there because I don’t make youtube videos and really have no plans of starting, but it is I feel a lot more helpful to people who want to know about makeup to be able to see it done on video. SC is a good tool which I used to use a lot, but you can’t go in as much detail when you only have a 10 second time slot haha. So yeah I.G live is what I’ve been using in those spare moments that I DO have any time!

Can I even say I’ve been surprised that my skin has been pretty bad lately? No. Of course not. I’ve been really quite stressed, surviving on 3-4 hours of sleep a day and not having time to really look after myself. I do understand that teacher training year IS intense, but 👆🏽 right here is the reason why I’ve chosen the photo for this post to be ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’. And I really cannot agree more. You can’t be the best version of yourself if you’re not taking time out for YOU. The amount of times I have fallen asleep half sitting up, with makeup still on my face is ridiculous this month and I am going to ensure that February will be different. Even if that means coming home and going through my skincare routine right away, then so be it. We just have to take care of ourselves ladies and we have to realise that its not being selfish in the slightest. I’m gonna make time for a relaxing bath this month at least twice and also turn off my phone and laptop and just relax PROPERLY. Cause I deserve it, and so do all you busy ladies too😅.

I had my first proper break out this month, which was hard to deal with. VERY first world, I’m aware, but when you’ve had pretty great skin your whole life its hard to even know what to do. Right now I’m dealing with skin thats healing and I have the new problem of multiple scars – usually I just have the odd one here or there. So I’ve actually invested in some new skincare, not that my old stuff wasn’t working but I want to introduce some steps into my routine which I didn’t previous have. The first being fading of scars and the second being anti-ageing, cause in four months I’m turning 22 and prevention is better than cure right? I am totally going to embrace ageing when the time comes and if my skin and genes are anything like my beautiful grandmothers’, I think I’ll be okay anyways ;D but still. So expect another haul coming your way, talking about a couple of new bits and bobs.

How was your January?