Pen Green Centre for children and their families

Life before lockdown was very active. It was actually really good. I got to see my girlfriend a lot! We played outside lots. We went to school every day and played with our friends, my bestest friend. We were learning at school and our friends came to play with us, we played Roblox, and we walked the dogs. We had swimming lessons and diving lessons… I remember how we used to go to Italy, that makes me sad. Now we can’t see our Italian family. We had fun there because I had my cousins, went to the beach more or less everyday. At the beach we played ‘la bomba’ with Papa’. That’s where Papa’ throws up into the air, at the beach, and we land in the water with a big splash! It’s fun! I loved seafood! I miss Italian food, it’s delicious, especially pasta and pizza! Now we are stuck at home.

Life in lockdown is like, if you take away the celebrity part of ‘I’m a celebrity, get me out of here!’ – just get me out of here! I just want to have some space. And go outside. It’s boring to do work at home… I prefer doing work in a class…. Yeah, because there’s more people, to keep you company. It’s not lonely there. We could work together… But we’ve got different work and we’re in different years. I find the work a little bit difficult, but I’m still doing it. Perhaps we could help each other.

To do my school work I use the computer and also I draw. I use a PC, but I don’t get to see my school friends on the computer. I only get to see my girlfriend and my good friend, they’re the only two people. I call my best friend when I’m playing with him after I’ve done my school work. The school work is very different because there’s lots of people and I really miss my best friend. I sometimes struggle to concentrate at home, in the classroom it’s easier to concentrate. That’s because we have two dogs, running in and out! They distract me and also we get called down for lunch, at school we normally go into a big dinner hall. In my school normally there’s half an hour for lunch in between the third and fourth lesson… We are starting to get prepared for secondary school, because we now have a dinner hall in my school, instead of eating in the classrooms. I don’t know if that will still happen in September.

I’ve missed going to school, and hugging my family. I know I can hug Daddy and Papa’, but I mean the other parts of the family. I’ve missed seeing my friends, playing with my friends and also playing with my Italian family, my cousins. I miss being in a class. I struggle not to give my Aunty a big hug when we see her, I give big hugs! I miss giving hugs, I’m a hugger!

I prefer to type on the laptop. I also love to draw now, since Covid-19 started. I wish I had a laptop in school, someone in my class has a laptop to use. I would like that too. I prefer using a laptop as well, for writing. I’ve had more time to practice drawing. He does it every day. I’ve got an awful lot of drawings now, I‘ve been saving them. I’ve got a lot of drawings, but some favourites.

These are my drawings: the first one is a negative space drawing, the second is one where you don’t lift your pen/pencil off the paper and the third one is where you do controlled scribbles. I learnt about the different types of drawing from Oak National Academy.

The first one is ‘Shadow-Buns’, ‘spring trap’, and ‘withered rock star bunny’. ‘Free mangle’ and ‘dead spring bunny’, they’re just my creative animatronics. He’s based them on the characters from a game and he likes to make up stories about them.

This is actually very sad, that no one gets to see their friends and family, just the people that they are living with. We miss going to sleepovers with our Aunties too. I don’t expect anyone to have the answer, but I wonder when we are going to get out of lockdown?