Weekly Wrap-Up: Vats of Tea Required

I'm a tad late writing my Wrap-Up for this past week. Yesterday was too crazy-busy, and this morning we were bike shopping for the girls. They'd outgrown their other bikes quite some time ago. Now they are happily tooling about the neighborhood with their friends.

We had an odd week, but in a mostly welcome way. Due to weather two days this week, our regularly scheduled activities were cancelled. Another day, we spent the morning doing chores, since we were overdue for a cleaning and straightening up detail, and we did our lessons in the afternoon. On one of the rainy days, I awoke with a headache, took some medicine, and went back to sleep until almost 10 AM! Our Wednesday evening church activities were cancelled for the Ash Wednesday service, which I blogged about here, and last night was our church's Big Event for fourth and fifth graders: capture the flag, pizza, and ice cream sundaes with 53 nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds.

When we were at home, the girls stayed in their pajamas and we all drank copious amounts of hot tea all week long. Miss Priss favored a chai mate/white tea mixture we bought recently at Teavana; Tiny Girl opted for peppermint most days; and I sipped (on different occasions) both PG Tips and another Teavana blend, Lemon Lime Kampai and Blueberry Bliss rooibos.

Despite the unusual aspects of the week, our lessons clicked along smoothly. Here are some highlights:

- To add another element to our study of Emily Dickinson, we watched Act One of The Belle of Amherst, a one-act play starring Julie Christie from 1976. Tiny Girl was diasppointed that it was not a real movie; but both girls enjoyed it when they recognized lines from poems we've read.

- Both girls began practicing their two new piano recital pieces. These are typically longer and wee bit more challenging than their weekly pieces; but we are all pleased with the selections.

- I stood over their shoulders a couple of times while they did their Rosetta Stone French. Since this is independent work, I wanted to check their progress. Tiny Girl still needs my help with the writing portions, but other than that I am amazed at how well they are doing.

- They spent about an hour one day with their card-making kits from American Girl, which I found for 40 percent off at Michaels. Tiny Girl wrote thank-you cards for her recent birthday gifts...

... and Miss Priss made a birthday card for an upcoming party.

As you can see, this was on a pajama day. Note the blue Fiesta teacup on the table. In Tiny Girl's photo above, you may be able to catch sight of her orange Fiesta teacup behind one of the cards.

- We did a lot of bird-watching. I attempt many photos during the week, but only a few do I deem worthy of sharing. Here's a brown thrasher I caught on "film":

Brown thrashers are very shy and don't typically visit feeders; however, this one feeds from our tray feeder, suet feeder, and on the ground. I suppose s/he feels safe in our yard! The goldfinches are still prolific, and the males are beginning to show their brighter yellow coloring. I can't wait til they are all decked out, black facemask included. We often see pine siskins in amongst the goldfinches.

Other birds that escaped my camera lens but not our study this week: dark-eyed juncos, cardinals, Carolina wrens, Carolina chickadees, downy woodpeckers, titmice, white-throated sparrows, a song sparrow, and robins. On two occasions, we also watched with our binoculars a red-tailed hawk.
 
That wraps up our week! To read more, swing by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Thanks for stopping by!