Learner Dad: Is there any point in teaching kids how to write with a pencil and paper?

'Put it this way: when was the last time you had to write more than two sentences with a pen?'

Picture: iStock 

THE 5km rule means we’re seeing a lot of ponds. In Cork, that means the Atlantic Pond and The Lough are on rotation if we want to get out and stretch our legs. They’re nice enough but you’d miss Gougane Barra and Kinsale. Anyway, I had the kids in the car when I called into the butcher near the Lough recently, at dusk. 

We hadn’t planned to do a walk until we noticed a crowd - socially distanced - along the east side of the pond. The Lough had frozen over. Five minutes later, I was pulling chunks of ice out so the kids could skim them across the lake. Everyone else was doing it too. It was like that scene from the end of a 1940's Hollywood movie when the whole town realises that life isn’t that bad after all. We went home with puce hands, delighted with ourselves.