2013 Summer Fun Bucket List

There have been a few times that our family has sat around and thought we should go do something.  The problem is we do not always find something.  For this summer we decided to make a list of things we would all like to do.  Some of them will take planning.  I like that most of them we can just get up and go do.  How do you plan to make this summer memorable for your family?

Yummy dessert on Pizza night

We learned about making a s'more pizza from Papa Murphey's Take-N-Bake.  Basically take pizza dough, spread melted butter, top with graham cracker crumbs, mini-marshmellows and chocolate chips.  Bake like you would a pizza.  This post also commemorates my first post via my phone and uploading pictures this way.

Take 10 minutes

I have a lot on my list to do today.  Finish the laundry, do the dishes, sweep and  mop, tidy the living room, vacuum, feed children lunch.  Run to our Where in Washington class, cook dinner.  A lot of the same old, same old. 

All the kids woke up on their own early, ate breakfast and have begun getting ready for the day. In the process though my littlest sat down next to me and decided to cuddle while waiting her turn to brush teeth.  She fell fast asleep.  Which means I have a little cutie snuggled half on my lap while I type this (since I was checking my stuff on line this morning before getting to work).  This leaves me with two choices.  Get up and do my chores or snuggle with her.  I think I shall choose the latter. 

The dryer can wait 10 minutes and so can the dishes.  I may not get to sit with her resting on my lap very soon.  So for now I can give her another 10 minutes with me before I gently slide out and start my day.  They are only little for a while so take those 10 minutes folks.

Racing to the finish line

Every family that home educates has to decide what types of breaks work for them.  For us we enjoy taking summer mostly off.  My kids will beg to play math games on sites like www.coolmathgames.com and www.khanacademy.com almost daily.  Plus we are usually busy exploring local history and learning about the great places near by.  So we do not see a learning gap typically when we start our school year in September.

Our family also does not take much time off during our school year; which runs from Labor Day to Memorial Day approximately.  We take off days from our curriculum to do field trips and take off days to have fun with Dad when he is not working.  But over all we school for those 9 months.

So here we sit, two children are done for the year.  My oldest is steadily plugging away at her last lessons of the years.  A daunting task in 6th grade but not overwhelming.  We both the feel want to just be done and yet we both know that we have to be a team and just plug away.  The finish line to ending her curriculum is with in reach and we are striving to get there.

One thing we did to make the end all about her needs or wants is let her do subjects in any order.  This meant that since the beginning of May if she wanted to she could work on one subject at a time until each reached 100%.  I only do this at the end of the school year with my kids.  The rest of the school year we break their subjects into monthly goals to obtain in each area, keeps them well rounded, I think.

21 history lessons, 8 Literature lessons and a handful of math lessons.  Feels like a lot but we know she is super close and more importantly capable.  And truth be known as hard as we will try to finish by this weeks end, if we go over a smidgen it will not hurt our summer of fun either.

Summer time here we come

Summer time is almost here.  We already have many fun things on our calendar and we are looking to fill it up with some more family fun.  I would like to say it is a slow down season for us, and in some ways it is.  We do slow down and stick around the house some.  It just means I can hack away at bushes and shrubs (read this as I am not a gardener), play with chalk, bubbles and read in the sunshine.  My kids can ride bikes and play catch to their hearts delight.  And every few nights it will be time to make s'mores in our backyard fire pit.

But it is also a time for near by adventures.  New hiking trails to find (Mt. St. Helens is looking good), a new fort to explore (maybe Fort Clatsop this year), finding new parks to play at.  All the while making sure we hit up all of our old favorites like Fort Vancouver, Astoria, Or., Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge and too many more to list.  On top of that we have all our local community fun like Planter's Days and impromptu BBQ's and s'mores with our neighbors.

I do not know every place we will make it to this summer.  What I do know is that we are going to have a lot of fun.  We always do.  I will try to remember to hop on and blog about it so you can join in on our adventures through the summer.

Always learning

I am wrapping up our 5th year of schooling at home and using the K12 curriculum. All that to say I still learn and adjust from this program. For one I am teaching 3 children who are all very much different. Different interests, likes and dislikes. Some lessons I learn only apply to one child like, what time of the day to do certain subjects. Other lessons work for all three and I cannot believe it took me so long to figure out. 

I have tried what feels like everything from following the daily plan to block schedules and any combination in between. Some how finishing vocab, GUM (Grammar Usage and Mechanics) and composition always gives us a challenge. I decided this last school year to work on one unit of vocab then switch to GUM then do a unit of comp and keep circling around like that because the daily plan did not work for us.  Well it seems we still need some tweaking as this still does not feel easy yet.

 In our 6th year I will be rearranging those three again. This time we plan to do all the vocab, then all the GUM and last all comp (unless we come across something in another subject). Will this work? I do not know, but it seems to be the fresh idea my family needs for next year. Please feel free to ask me in November how our change up is working.  What are some things you have learned or plan to change for next year?  Whether you school from your home or not changing things can be the key to your child's successes. Please share.

Funny how time flies

Funny how one day can pass and then two, next thing you know it has been a month or even a year.  Life sure does get busy.  What have I been up to since October of 2011?  Well mostly every day stuff but let's see if I can recap and catch everyone up.

The kids new school program LRA (Lewis River Academy) has been a huge success.  It is the perfect blending for our family of schooling at home and schooling with teachers.  Since starting the school has built a science program that many of our families take part in and love.  Science was never my thing anyway and this gives a great time for team work for my kids (I know they have other opportunities but this, one works for us).  Our school has moved buildings a few times and was luck enough to procure a classroom space for this current school year (2012-2013).  But alas we were really too big and have outgrown it already so we are shopping for new ideas.  I cannot wait to find out the final details on those plans.  As with any school we have had growing pains.  We had a very rough go at getting curriculum handed out in the Fall so we put our heads together and have a much better plan for returning it this June and then handing it out in the Fall.  I am quite excited.

In the Spring of 2012 our children all entered their first ever sport, Little League!!!  We are in our second year and having a great time.  The kids have been blessed with good coaches, new friends and lots of fun.  Watching them build their skills from year to year has been amazing and fun as well.  It has become a bit of a family affair with us all finding reasons to go play catch or hit a ball around.

The kids have all been busy with scouts too.  Alexis bridged to Cadette in June of 2012 and while at Day Camp that summer took part in a special ceremony.  I do not want to spoil the details for future girls but it made her feel very welcomed in our new scout community and she is enjoying all of it.  Sarah has bridged up to Brownie this May of 2013.  She is so excited to be getting a new vest and try-it book soon.  JD has moved along and will be Crossing Over to Webelos this summer.  He is very excited to one day soon become a Boy Scout.  All kids are signed up and ready for scout camps in July.

Last year we discovered that our local play house offers drama camp in the summer.  Our girls took part in the production of Alice in Wonderland .  This year they will all be participating in the drama camp production of  Dr. Doolittle.  They are all looking forward to this fun experience.

We are still using and enjoying the K12 curriculum for our studies.  Some favorite things learned this year are: Alexis learned about Watergate and the 1960's  She found both quite fascinating.  JD loved learning about the amazing first Explorers of the seas.  Prince Henry, Vasco De Gama and Ferdinand.  Sarah loved learning about Ancient Greece this year.  They all showed they have great writing skills.  And Alexis loved that she got to help the younger kids in Science class one day.  They are growing up to be such wonderful small people.

We have now lived in our house for over two years and have enjoyed our little town so much.  The people are truly amazing and have welcomed us into the community.  I can truly say that no where before has ever felt like home.  Not the same as not enjoying our time in the many places we have been.  The Navy has blessed us with many adventures and many friends.  But we finally get to say we have probably (95% sure) found our forever home, the place we want to retire and be a part of.

That really is a very tiny nutshell of our last almost two years.  But it is certainly the important parts.  Hopefully I will remember to get on and post much sooner then almost 2 years from now.