School on the beach

Clearly life is pretty rough over here ;)

Why do school on the beach?  I'm glad you asked.  There are many reasons.

First, it's good for my soul.  

If you haven't read Sarah Mackenzie's book, 'Teaching from Rest', do it now.  I can't think of a better, more relaxing way to teach, than by the ocean.

Second, I loved the idea of doing a little work, then taking breaks to find sea glass or look for crabs or jump in the waves. 

Third, I want to break the box in my kids' minds of what learning looks like.  I want them to know that learning can happen ANYWHERE not just at a desk at a certain time.  I also want to give them tools to figure out what works for them...I often encourage them to pair learning with something they love, like listening to music or ,just to keep it real, munching on gummy bears.

Third, we're studying sea life in science this year and I am A-okay with spending lots of time by the sea to get a hands on experience of what we are learning.

Fourth, I wanted to carve out time to make a dent in this book. It's an extremely fascinating read.

Finally, because we live in California!  And this is what my homeschool dreams are made of!

Field Trip to the Getty Villa

 The Getty Villa

When I asked if I wanted to go on this field trip, my first answer was "NO".  I had zero desire to drive into LA by myself.  Then Ben reminded me that I might be missing a great opportunity simply because I didn't want to drive there.  Point taken.  When near LA, I should probably do some LA things.  The drive was stressful, but once we actually got there, it was worth it.

Our homeschool group was divided up and I went with the younger boys.  Alison loves art and was excited to go, but I had to prepare the boys that even though this wasn't the most thrilling thing to them, they still had to participate.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much they actually loved this experience.

I did not take enough pictures to do this place justice, but I felt rude having my camera out during the tour.

This is walking into the main house:

This was a replica of Julius Caesar's father-in-law's house.

Our tour guide was a little old lady and it was clear that English was not her first language...but props to her, because she presented all of the history to the kids at their level and they got so much out of our time with her.  

After our official tour, I took the kids (plus Lily) back to the gardens, because it was just too beautiful not walk around in.

If you stood in the center of this circle and talked toward the seating, it amplified your voice and was a shocking experience.

I am so glad we went.  It sparked a lot interest in Roman history and we had some great conversations in the days following our trip. 

First day of Spanish class

This is a big year for Alison!  She will be taking Spanish 1 and Jr. High Language Arts through CASA (Christian Academy Support Association), the homeschool group that we have joined.

It is a support group for homeschoolers and they organize things like field trips, park days and make yearbooks/student IDs.  The also offer things for parents like help planning the jr. high and high school years to get ready for college and help you make transcripts.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, they rent out space in a local church and offer classes.  What I love about the classes is, it's a not a co-op and it's not a school, it's simply the parents getting together and hiring a professional tutor for a specific subject.  Options like this will be vital as we enter the higher grades and we get into subjects that are out of my expertise.  Point in case: Spanish.  We have tried 3 online Spanish courses, all fine and well, but Alison wasn't learning anything beyond simple words.  I thought for sure living in Yuma would make Spanish really stick, but that proved wrong.  She requested to take this Spanish class and I am SO glad we agreed.  One class in and she has already gotten WAY more than any online program could offer.  There are 3 other girls around her age in her class and I'm praying and hoping some great friendships come from this adventure.

While Alison was in class, the boys and I camped out at a picnic table. #perkoflivinginCA.  This is a pretty good real-life picture of school...Eli pretty much always snacks on nuts and dried fruit while he works on math. 

 

I was sitting here thinking how amazing it was that we could do math out here every Tuesday and Thursday.  And then my bubble was burst.  Out of no where, Eli started screaming and threw off his shoe.  Tears started streaming down his face and it took me way too long to figure out that a bee stung his foot!  Stupid thing, crawled into his Croc while he was calmly sitting there and stung him!  I knew then that he will never want to go to that spot again.

First Day of School

Because I couldn't pick just one favorite, you get two :)

I told the kids to put on whatever they wanted for pictures and to pose wherever they wanted.  What's the point of homeschool if you can't have pictures however you want...because I don't know a single person who loves school pictures and actually likes the result.

It's going to be a big year!  I'm already taking some deep breaths.

 

Colin was the only one who got a printed page before our printer decided not to connect to the internet.  Some day I really need to upgrade that little white board.

San Diego, day 2

We stayed over night in San Diego, which was a smart decision because we all crashed after a day at Sea World.

The next morning, Ben and I ran together.  We may live close to the ocean, but I don't get to run by it often and when I do, it's my favorite!

Before we checked out of the hotel, we spent some time in the pool. Colin thought it was hilarious that he could carry my legs.

 

 Then we went to the beach to look for sea glass.  Alison has really been into collecting it and we read online that the Del Mar beach was a prime place...we didn't find any, but it was a fun adventure.

 

On the way home, we stopped in Santa Monica.  We've never been, so it was fun to check it off our list.  

 

First stop was dinner in downtown.

Then we went to the pier.  Colin didn't want what everyone else had...I can't remember what it was called, but it was basically giant sushi, so he got a hot dog on the pier.

It was pretty busy, and that was on a regular Tuesday night, so I can only imagine what this place is like during peak summer days.  I'm glad we went, but wasn't overly wowed by it.

I think Ben was the most wowed by all the super fancy cars EVERYWHERE.  It's definitely a different experience living in an area where celebrities live.

Sea World

The kids chose Sea World as their big end of school year celebration.  I wrote about this some on the other blog, but we had a big goal of reading as many books as we could this year and the kids went above and beyond to meet our goal.  We told them that we would do something big to celebrate all of their work and Sea World sounded just right to them.

It's still about 3 hours away for us, but LA traffic is always a gamble.  Thankfully we didn't have to sit for too long this day and made it there about lunch time.  We fueled up with Burger Lounge (still my favorite burgers, but I forgot how pricey they are) and then hit Sea World.  

We timed it just right, as schools just started back up and that meant no crowds for us!  Unfortunately it also meant all of the food stands were closed too, but we're not big on that stuff anyway, so it was okay.

I can see the beauty of repeating adventures.  I feel like we were able to relax more and enjoy it because we were already familiar with what was there and knew what we wanted to do and see.

 I know there's a lot of haters of Sea World, but I LOVE it.  It's so amazing to see these animals up close.  Plus, we're studying sea life in science this year, so it was the perfect way to kick off our new year.

 

 Ben convinced us all to go on the virtual simulation ride of a helicopter crash.  No one barfed, so it was a win.

 I was going to say the penguins were a favorite, but I think everything was a favorite.

 

 

There also weren't as many shows playing, but we still got to see the dolphin show.  This was for sure my favorite...I was way more excited than the kids.  Eli was the most excited about the cotton candy we found for a "snack".

 

Alison got a slushy...we could find a lid and Californians are against straws, so her paper straw was melting with the slushy...but she said it was yummy.

I don't think they do much with the Orcas anymore, but it's still pretty cook to be this close to a killer whale.

 

 

 

We ended at the play place

and picked out souvenirs.

As I'm writing this post, we start our new year tomorrow and I'm realizing that I should probably have a new goal....maybe we'll do that every other year ;)