It’s been another week of enjoying summer activities, but one thing that we didn’t have on our list was seeing the solar eclipse which was a bonus activity this week!
Thankfully I had ordered eclipse glasses a couple of weeks ago (and my husband also ordered some as he didn’t realise I’d done it so we had spares which we were able to share with others). Thomas and I also had fun making a pinhole camera. We really enjoyed having some family time at the park on Wednesday evening and there was such a lovely atmosphere there with various other families and groups gathered together there too. Sophie and Thomas loved getting to see the partial eclipse for the first time. It didn’t get that much darker but the light at the peak had that eerie quality which I vividly remembered from the 1999 eclipse. Such a brilliant experience to be able to share together.
Sophie’s had a fun week this week taking part in Wild Teens at Iver Environment Centre and getting to have a sleepover there on the last night. She’s taken part in lots of activities, including pyrography, tie-dying, cyanotype printing and pond dipping, and has thoroughly enjoyed herself.
Thomas had a swimming intensive course this week and has had a week of one-to-one lessons. Having one-to-one lessons has made such a difference – the teacher has really been able to engage him and keep his focus, whereas in the small group lessons, every time the teacher had to focus on another child, Thomas would lose focus and it was an effort to try and re-engage him with the lesson and he’s really struggled to make progress in recent weeks. This week, he’s finally managed to complete Duckling 4 and move into the ‘Learn to Swim’ stages. He’s finished the week with being able to swim a width on his back and has loved the mix of focused practice with some fun activities to help with his swimming skills. We’ve now moved him to one-to-one lessons from September and hopefully it will continue to work well for him.
What I’ve been grateful for this week:
- Day 219 – I am grateful for some fun building a blanket fort in the living room.
- Day 220 – I am grateful that Sophie and Thomas had fun at the Thames Valley Adventure Playground Family Fun Day.
- Day 221 – I am grateful that Thomas had fun at HALO play café
- Day 222 – I am grateful for making a start on the summer scrapbooks.
- Day 223 – I am grateful for a morning at Denham Country Park.
- Day 224 – I am grateful for eclipse glasses and pinhole cameras.
- Day 225 – I am grateful that Thomas is enjoying his week of one-to-one swimming lessons and is making progress.
Other things that have made me smile this week:
- My husband bumping into a friend from his university days who had gone to see Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and had booked one of Sophie’s performances by chance.
- A lovely message out of the blue from Jessica’s best friend E’s mum. We gave E Jessica’s toy bunny after Jessica died. Her family moved away about a year later and we’ve not seen them since. Her mum messaged me to let me know that they’d been on holiday and E had taken Jessica’s bunny with her and shared a photo of the bunny on the ship. It meant a lot to know that Jessica is still remembered and her bunny is still treasured.
Joining in with Raisie Bay for Word of the Week.
Also joining in with #Project365:
So glad you managed to share the experience of the Eclipse with Sophie and Thomas. I remember doing the same with my older children in 1999. Well done Thomas on his swimming. I want to get my son 1-2-1 lessons as he never learnt much in classes.
Glad the eclipse went well for your children. Mine was not excited at all apart from seeing if 7 sunglasses would help. It did go a bit darker here and definitely colder, then the birds started singing again after stopping.
Sounds like the environment centre activities were a really good mix. And Yay to the swimming lessons helping Thomas so much
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I didn’t even think about ordering the eclipse glasses until the day before and then it was too late. Oops. How wonderful to experience it.
It sounds like Sophie had a great week with all the activities and well done to Thomas with the swimming!
Fab photos! Aww! How sweet to get a message from Jessica’s best friends mum.
I love that Jessica’s bunny is getting so much love and is travelling and that the joy is being shared with you, what a precious thing to be doing for you. Love the eclipse phot. Glad to hear Thomas’s swimming lessons on a 1:1 are going so well.