Our 2020

So 2020 has finally left the room (hope the door smacked it on the way out!) and I am here to do our usual summery of the year. I have hardly blogged in 2020, I mean I really didn't see the point. Home learning with 4 children and riding the rollercoaster of emotions meant I also didn't really feel very much in the mood or have the energy to write really anything at all. 

I haven't had some meaningful blog break, I did consider jacking it in, I even went and set up a new blog but it didn't feel right in the end. This year Cupcake Mumma would be 10. Ten!? I cant give that up just yet. So I am going to carry on with my traditional yearly post, see if by some miracle I managed any of my 2020 goals and set some new ones for 2021 because well, it gives me something to do! 

Here is our (hopefully not too long) post about what the Cupcake Kitneys got up to in 2020.

Blind Taste Testing for Science Home Learning!

I was initially going to write up the weeks we were doing home learning and share what it is we're looking at school wise during lock down but surprise, surprise, it's all been rather busy and with 4 children at home doing such a variety of learning I thought I might just write up some of the things we do on and off instead of doing a boring old round up.

We love a good science experiment in this house. We've enjoyed making and exploding volcanoes, making bottles fly like rockets and mixing random things to make all sorts of mess fun. One experiment we always enjoy but haven't done for a long time is a blind taste tasting!

What we used

A variety of foods and sauces (I'll list ours below but this is totally up to you)

A chopping board to hold all our items on

Spoons and/or forks for holding and dipping

A bowl each for any 'emergency 'spit outs' as we called it!

Tissue for cleaning up faces

Paper to record our likes and dislikes.

Book Review: Rebel with a Cupcake

I have been sent this book for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own.

About the Book

Jesobel Jones is bold and beautiful. The daughter of a hand model and a washed-up rock star, she sees no need to apologise for her rambling house, her imperfect family, her single status ... or her weight. Jess makes her own cupcakes and she eats them, too. That is, until Own Clothes Day when a wardrobe malfunction leaves Jess exposed, and a mean girl calling her the one thing that’s never bothered her before: fat.

What I Thought:

Easter Reasons to be Cheerful

I'm joining in again with Reasons to be cheerful. It's so nice to reflect on things in general but even more so in this difficult time. 

This week is the start of the Easter holidays here. We have kept some home ed for routine but mostly we have been having fun. A and Midge have had a water fight this week and finally managed to get me to drag out the paddling pool.

Lock Down Home Ed 2020 Weeks 1 & 2!

I can't believe we are in week 3 of lock down already! This week is the beginning of the Easter holidays so although we are taking a step back from the past 2 weeks home ed routine, we are still doing our 'core subjects' and some fun educational based activities in between. Mr K has a good post on home learning in this current crisis if you'd like to check out how we're going about things here

I thought I would record a little round up 2 weeks at a time of how things are going in home ed, what we've been up to etc. As most people know we already home educate 1 of our children, my step son Will. He was gearing up for starting school this year but seems that's all been pushed back!

All the children have had some experience of home education in their time so this isn't a huge shock to their system. They're missing their friends and some teachers but not much else, a relief! Here's what we got up to for our first 2 weeks:

Reasons To Be Cheerful:

Its pretty tough to find things to be happy about some days at the moment. So I'm putting together my cheerful list which is also kind of a thankful list too. Enjoy.

New Books

Thanks to The Reading Residence I have had 3 books bought for me on my Amazon wishlist. As part of her Bring Back Paper group we wanted to find ways of still enjoying our love of stationery and books and this was a lovely way to still do that.

I've also recieved a book to review which I will share on a blog tour in April!

Finding a New Normal...

My last post Strange Times was a bit of a mind dump. I think I need this blog more than ever right now. It's been so neglected the past year with not wanting to write too much about what went on in our lives in 2019 for privacy, then wanting to give the children more privacy (they tell me they're fine with being on here but I prefer to scale it back a lot now because I'm sure they won't always be!) 

Since I last wrote things have happened so fast with this virus that has spread globally. We're in a kind of lock down in the UK, joining many countries around the world. It was so, so strange watching Boris Johnson announce that we would not be allowed out of our homes unless we had to go to work, or exercise once a day. No more gatherings or meeting loved ones. This had been in effect as advice for several weeks but after thousands all across the country decided to ignore it it has all become a 'must do.'