Saturday, March 12, 2011

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!

9 comments:

  1. Pajamas, crafts, bird-watching and tea! You, too, had a week in which the vision was bit of the reality. Yea!

    So it's "titmice"? We've wondered...

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  2. Jeff just loves to leave comments on your blog. He won't be able to once he returns to work.

    I didn't even know his fondness for all those things you did this week. If I catch him doing cross-stitch in his bathrobe this week while sipping some Raspberry Zinger, I won't be surprised now.

    Sorry, I'll try to keep him off your blog.

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  3. Jeff is always welcome to read and comment on my blog! However, if you catch him doing any cross-stitch, please know he has surpassed me in handicrafts. And make sure to tell him that, yes, it is titmice.

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  4. You..have..green...grass! I will not be envious, I will not be envious! ;)
    Our snow is barely melted- no green grass lol

    Pajamas are absolutely wonderful creations. My dd loves to do school in hers.

    I really like the brown thrasher. At first I didn't catch it but I clicked on it and like the contrast of brown and green.

    Have a great weekend :) Your book is wrapped and was going to be mailed today (uh, oops forgot the PO closed at noon) but will go out Monday instead :) Hope you gals like it :)

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  5. Stopping by from the linky.....
    Love your blog! I also have two daughters, 8 1/2 and 10 1/2. I am looking forward to reading your older posts!

    ~Jessica

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  6. Oh, that looks like a lovely week! I smiled when I saw the fiesta cups: I recently began collecting fiesta. I don't have a lot yet, but the cobalt is one of my colors too. I love that deep blue. I'll bet it makes a very pretty table with the orange.

    We also have some of the same birds on our feeders: goldfinches, juncos, and downy woodpeckers all like to visit us. We get the black-capped chickadees, rather than carolina, and it's too early for robins this far north. We did the GBBC, and since then Monkey's been all about the bird-watching! It's so fun to see him learning their names.

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  7. Of course I believe that copious amounts of tea are a necessity EVERY week! ;)

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  8. I love all this pj-wearing, tea-drinking, bird-watching, book-reading and card-making fun! What a lovely week.

    I'm still going to get me some PJ Tips :) I've promised myself.

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  9. We have PJ days here...most every morning! LOL The kids usually just get dressed for the day AFTER school is completed. Stopping by from Weekly Wrap-up!

    Jessy

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I love reading comments! And I appreciate the time you take to leave them. Thanks!