Week in Review 2015: #39

Life

We had a good week! It started off with staying up extremely late on Sunday night to watch the lunar eclipse. The kids were so excited about it, but they couldn't make it to see the blood moon. I am glad that they were able to see anything at all because Sunday had been a very cloudy and gloomy day. Right about the time it got dark, the skies began to clear and we had an amazing view of the super moon right from our front yard. I was able to get some pictures of the lunar eclipse and you can view those a bit further down in this post.

Wednesday was the big special day of our week. Bridget turned 6 years old! Wednesdays are busy for us, as Bridget doesn't get out of dance class until 6 p.m., so we only had a birthday dinner with my parents (who live just down the road) and opened a few presents, but no cake. She did get a few things she has wanted for a long time: a jewelry box, a wallet, and the movie Cinderella. I also threw in a few other items, such as the game Connect4, a new hairbrush and hairbands.

All three children on Bridget's 6th birthday

Bridget and her new ballerina jewelry box.

On Saturday, we finished celebrating Bridget's birthday. My husband's parents drove in from out of town, took us out for a birthday lunch, and we came home and had birthday cake. My parents came over for that as well. Bridget also got another birthday present that she had been wanting for a long time: an old fashioned baby doll. The doll itself is estimated to be about 59 years old and Bridget has committed herself to taking very good care of it. I think I will be helping her a lot with that, especially when it comes to keeping it away from her brothers.

Bridget and her antique baby doll

 

Bridget had first requested a pink cake (pink layers, pink frosting), but then changed her mind and wanted a sunflower cake.  I like to make the kids birthday cakes myself because I think it makes it that much more special (and a part of me enjoys it too). I didn't know what I was going to do for a sunflower cake but we did decide it was going to be chocolate on the inside. I woke up bright and early this morning to make the frosting and decorate it. I think it turned out alright, considering I had no real plan until about 8 o'clock this morning.

Bridget's "sunflower cake"

I guess I did good again, as Bridget said it was the best cake ever. That is what I was going for. I am so glad my birthday girl had an amazing birthday week.

Singing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday girl

Blowing out her 6 candles, plus one more for good luck

 

Homeschool 

Grammar

I had gotten a bit behind in our grammar studies, as my focus had been a lot on reading, writing, and math. However, our everyday reading has helped Bridget so much that we were able to breeze through the lessons in her book, as she was already familiar with the concepts. I am happy to say that we did at least 3 lessons per day and we're almost back on track.

 

Reading

Bridget surprised me this week when she asked to read her BOB Books. I think we were working on writing at the time, and so we put that down and she read for about 30 minutes when it was time for me to begin preparing lunch.

 

I've been working with George on letter recognition. He has not been too interested with learning to read and at 3 years old, he does not know how to read all of his capital letters. I took some time this week to work on that with him and even purchased an app (my very first app purchase) on my kindle to practice his letters. It's his special thing now, and when he is being a bit too wild and noisy I just give him the kindle and open the app. Sometimes technology is a good thing (although I still stand firmly against it being my children's primary learning tool/toy).

 

Science

As posted above, we got to watch the lunar eclipse last Sunday. Even though we're supposed to be studying mammals right now, I took a break from that this week and we talked more about the moon, how the earth spins, the sun, etc. It's hard to not be in such awe when we look up at the sky and see the universe at work.

 

"Super moon" lunar eclipse, September 27, 2015 at 8:39 p.m.

Lunar eclipse, September 27, 2015 at 9:51 p.m.

Lunar eclipse, September 27, 2015 at 10:13 p.m.

My teeny astronomers, up way past  their bedtime.

My love holding my teeniest astronomer.

 

Family Movie Night

We were supposed to watch African Cats this week, but we decided at the last minute to watch Cinderella. We got it for Bridget for her birthday and we all had enjoyed seeing it at the movie theater. I need to remind myself of the message often: "Have courage, and be kind".

 

Next Week's Movie: African Cats 

 

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