MIH Update: May 2021

Hi! It’s been a minute since I’ve written. Too many irons in the fire, priorities – you name it. Life just happens and well, some things take precedence. Every so often, I’ve reflected on where this blog fits in. I’ve enjoyed writing it – sharing my ideas and thoughts – but it started to become a little tedious. And you know how it goes when you plan a bunch of things and then some or all doesn’t happen? Well, perhaps for now, I’ll just update you on what we have been up to. A retrospective journal as opposed to looking forward all the time.

I’ll start with April.

We baked a bunch (entered and won 3rd prize for a Spring Focaccia Art Contest) and we’ve also cooked up a storm in our kitchen. Online ballet classes have continued (and we recently started going in person to those.) We love taking walks in our neighborhood playing Pokémon and checking out how far the new fire station construction site is coming along.

As the weather has warmed, we’ve also gone on more local hikes. So far this spring we’ve been to Mercer Slough Nature Park, Wallace Swamp Creek, Saint Edward State Park and Redmond Watershed Preserve.

We’ve been going through third grade level math and reading The Trumpet of the Swan with Bravewriter. We like our Kiwi Boxes for science activities but have also exploring science in a bunch of other ways: virtual field trips to recycling centers and aquariums, workshops on invertebrates, bees, gardening, community science, octopuses, trees and craft classes to make “stained glass” for Earth Day. Other fun craft workshops: Mother’s Day cards, origami craft club, a cooking class on making gluten-free and vegan eclairs – just typing all that out, sure seems like a lot.

We’ve kept up with our weekly family traditions: family night on Fridays and date night on Saturdays. We don’t watch a ton of TV but when we do, we’ve been going through seasons of The Great British Baking Show. We started eating dinner on our porch again (thank you, warm weather) and recently checked out the mini golf course nearby.

This month, I’m keeping the homeschool fun going with another round of parkour, hip hop and beginning karate (all virtual through Seattle Parks and Rec). I’ve signed us up for a bunch of virtual workshops through King County Library System- they’ve been a huge resource of learning and fun for us while we’ve been at home the last fourteen months or so.

So that’s my update for now.