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 ;)

Trip to the Moxi

 The Wolf Museum of Exploration and Innovation.

The Moxi is in Santa Barbara and has been on our list to get to for several months.  I told the kids that when we finished our science curriculum, we would go...and we finished in July.  Better late than never, I suppose.

 First of all, I love that day trips to Santa Barbara are an option in life.  Without traffic, it was about 45 minutes and a beautiful drive. 

On the first floor:

The giant guitar was Colin's favorite.  Ben has shown him how the capo works before, but the life size model really made it click for him.

 Eli's favorite was this giant ball.  You put your hand in front of the screen and it projected it onto the ball and you could add effects.

 

Inside the hands on room, Alison did a little animation.

 Eli did a little programming

And they all made light creations.

There was also a sound booth where they could experiment with different sound effects.

 

The second floor had a huge race track and you built your own car to enter into a race.

There was a mind game...whoever was the most relaxed won.

 

On the roof, they explored different sources of energy.

 

 

After all that learning and exploring, we were ready for some ice cream!  McConnell's was right across the street and did not disappoint.

August flew by

We took a longer than normal break this summer and it FLEW by.  It was full of all good stuff, but busier than I anticipated.  We continued piano lessons, had dentist appointments, went to the beach every Wednesday with the church group and had lots of friends over to play. 

Alison completed the library's summer reading program in record time and earned lots of free food.  Mr. Softee's was a favorite.

 We also went to a Lego building event at the library.  After an unnecessary presentation, they gave the kids instructions and a box of Legos and were going around helping the kids build.  Eli had his built before they could even get to him :)  

 

There has been lots and lots of music being played.  Ben got Eli a Star Wars piano book and he has 2 songs completely memorized.  He also got Colin a ukulele that he has been carrying around nonstop and has learned few things on it already.

We also had Riley and Tristen (8 year old twins) here for a couple of days while their mom had a baby. Tristen thought it was fun to help Eli with his songs



We ended the month with a trip to Sea World (next post) and yearly check ups. Alison is in the 95th percentile for height and Eli is in the 85th! And the best news, Colin is up to the 16th percentile for weight, at a whole 44 lbs!

Apolgia Science

We're less than 2 weeks into school and I am already LOVING Apologia science...and regretting not finding this sooner.  I found Sonlight's (what we have used up until now) lessons to be all over the place and the activities were extremely complicated with little explanation as to why you were doing the activity, thus we didn't do very many.

Night and day difference here.  It's so well written that my 6th, 3rd and 1st grader can all learn it at the same time and participate in the experiments.  You just read a couple of pages and then it will give you an easy activity to do with an explanation.  It also has an activity book that is probably most appropriate for the 3rd grade, but I am able to make it work for all of them.  This week, we just picked one page with a corresponding Bible verse on it and they colored it while I read.  At the end of the week, whoever had the verse memorized got a little treat.

Most of all, I've been excited that the activities are actually doable!

We learned about volume, matter and density and did an experiment with an egg.  

Will it sink or float in water and salt water?

And buoyancy.

They were supposed to craft a boat out of foil and pretend they are pirates who have captured a ship and need to bring the treasure onto their ship.  They estimated how many pennies (the treasure) their ship could hold and then tested their hypothesis.

Last Day of school!

We finished our school year July 26th.

When all the work was done and tests finished, we went to get pizza for lunch.

The kids wanted "sit down pizza", so we went to Toppers.  I filed this place away, if there is ever a time that we want to go out as a family but Ben and I want to talk...they were so enthralled with the TV's around that this is what they looked like the whole lunch:

I did get them to tell me some things they wanted to do over our break, but that was about it.  

When Ben got home from work, we had a little party.  He gave each of them a certificate and congratulated them on completing their grade.

6th grade, check.

 3rd grade, check.

 

 1st grade, check.

Our focus for this year was reading and I told the kids at the beginning of the year that we were going to see how many books we could read and then have a big celebration at the end to acknowledge all their work.  I didn't want to set a goal, because I didn't want them to reach a number and then just quit reading.  It was hard keeping track of the boys reading, but Alison did a stellar job.

Alison read 315 books!!!!

The boys read 164!

I am beyond proud of them.  We're going to Sea World in a couple of weeks to celebrate,

but for now, cupcakes and party blowers had to do.

Oh, yes...note to self for next year...buy graduation decorations in MAY...and don't even think about buying summer stuff in summer (I am thoroughly annoyed with stores stocking policies).

 I actually got pretty teary on this day.  I looked at the stack of books that we've finished this year and saw much more.  I saw the times that they worked on those books in a sea of boxes, while saying goodbye to dear friends, while unpacking their world into an unknown place, while being the definition of brave and making new friends and while figuring out a whole new rhythm of life.  I saw this day how many big life changes these kids have gone through all while learning; deployment, a cross-country move, another deployment, survival of the desert and another move.  I may say it a million times, but our kids are strong, amazing and brilliant people.

This year was another unique year and as we ended the year, I wondered "Was it enough?" (I'm pretty sure 100% of homeschool teachers think this at least 3 times a year).  I started to question whether I made the right decision with our time the last 7 months.  To be honest, people were a priority.  If there was an opportunity to make a friend or find a great activity or build fellowship, we were there.  That meant I did a lot of shuffling of schoolwork and shorter work days, but it also meant that they were meeting people and experiencing new things.

It didn't take long for me to realized that it was enough and our priorities are just right. 

I try to be diligent in keeping our schedule light because I believe it's a blessing when you leave space for people. If that's the only lesson they learn this year, I'm okay with that.