What we have been up to

It has been a while since I blogged here, and I haven’t written since November of last year. We had decided to take a small break from homeschooling during the dark winter season. Winter was dreary, mostly because we were again in Lockdown, this time Lockdown 3. It’s April now and we are easing out of Lockdown and are just starting to see some bursts of Spring in the air: some warm days, yellow daffodils in various street corners and roundabouts, and bluebells in the woods. But it has been temperamental. It seems we go back and forth with the winter and spring weather until at last, Spring will finally arrive. It hasn’t arrived yet, I can tell you that. Just the other day, we had snow again!

I thought I might post some pics of the highlights of the past couple of months as a quick review of what we’ve been up to:

We had a lovely Christmas day lunch at home, all prepared by my husband, Vaughn.

We were in Lockdown again and with it being Winter, the boys had to find ways to keep themselves active at home. They went through a “climbing doors and walls” phase (that drove me nuts! And yes, my kids love being shirtless at home).

First experience of proper snow in Chessington. We walked to our local park and made a snowman and had snowball fights. It was surreal watching the snowflakes fall from the sky and experiencing it for the first time. The flakes were soft and delicate, it took some good few hours for enough flakes to settle on the ground but when it did, the whole landscape turned into a Winter Wonderland.

The woods in February: still very cold and icy. Timothy went for a walk with daddy and slipped on the ice/mud, so they had to come home.

I had a craving for Sri Lankan tuna cutlets!

Spring is in the air finally! Beautiful daffodils in our neighbourhood.

We did “water marbling” art at home, called Suminagashi which is a Japanese art technique for decorating paper with ink. It was a lot of fun, the clean up not so much though! I used this product from Amazon. I’m thinking about getting back into Art again because the kids love it so much, especially Timothy who is very creative.

Finally, Multisports restarted as the Government allowed the opening of outdoor sports. The kids were thrilled especially because they got to see their homeschool friends again.  

Talitha and the nape of her little-4-year-old-neck when I tie her hair up…adorable! Climbing trees with boots and jackets and digging in the woods – The Marles brothers.

Another fantastic roast, this time Easter lunch made by chef Vaughn: succulent lamb shoulder that was out-of-this-world, mint sauce, roast vegetables and Yorkshire pudding.  

We are still plodding through Classical Conversations Cycle 3 and are currently in week 19. New grammar weeks are quite intense especially when I add the other curriculum, and I am looking forward to a break when CC ends in May. But oh, we have learnt so much! I’m hoping to keep reviewing the Cycle 3 material even during the break until Cycle 1 starts in September.

I am still the director of the Chessington community and presently in the process of renewing it for next year.