Homeschool at the beach!

I would be hard-pressed to declare my number one favorite reason to homeschool, but I can guarantee that right up at the top would have to be the ability to take our homeschooling anywhere!  How awesome is it to be able to hit the beach when the weather is still lovely, yet pay low-season rates because everyone else is back in school?!

That's what we did for a couple weeks in September this year (again).  And to make it even sweeter, we joined in with another homeschooling family (who we adore!) and had a grand old time!  It was so neat to see the kids jump right into their school work each morning to get it done so that they could have the day to themselves.  Sometimes they even got up before the grownups!

Beyond the normal curriculum, another thing that I love about homeschooling is the opportunities to learn things beyond textbooks.  Real life learning has proven to be so valuable for our children!  I am always amazed at the things that they retain and tell me about far beyond when we actually learned it.   Who knew that fishing could provide such a vast learning experience?

We had such a lot of fun on the fishing pier in Sandbridge.  The kids were so eager to learn so much, they were very good about talking to the "real" fishermen on the pier.  They asked them so many questions and learned so much about feeding habits, weather patterns, effects of hurricanes on the beach, fishing tips and techniques, fish species - the list goes on.  They even got to pet a shark that another fisherman had caught!  I had so many nice comments and compliments from tough looking fishermen!  ;)

Of course the kids got to enjoy all sorts of other beach/vacation fun, too.  Digging in the sand was a daily event - I've never seen such big holes in the beach!  Boogie boarding was another favorite.  But most of all, we all really enjoyed spending time with our friends.  Never mind that we had plenty of bedrooms to spread out a little, the kids loved piling in one room!  

Proudest mommy moment at the beach?  At family worship one night, the kids told us how they stayed up really late the night before (as if that were news to us! ha!) - it's what they were talking about all night that brought a tear to our eyes.  They were discussing heaven with each other - what it was going to be like and what their favorite things were going to be.  Those are the moments when you feel like maybe, just maybe, you're doing something right.  <3

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First day jitters

Monday we celebrated M, N and E's 10th birthday!  They are so excited to be double digits now!  Since we had cake at a church outing the day before, they decided they didn't want cake again - so they opted for peach cobbler (which worked out great since we had a half bushel of them fresh from the farm!).  

Tuesday we officially started the transition back into school days.  Of course our learning hadn't stopped for the summer - they've been crazy busy in the outdoors learning all sorts of stuff in our new home environment!  And if I had a nickel for every book they read this summer I'd be well on my way to vacation!  ;)  

Our day started out great - worship, journaling time, and then math.  Math took a while because we started a new curriculum this year (Math U See) and I had to get each kid into their appropriate materials.  Overall that went great, although I won't make any early calls just yet.  

What happened next (well, after finishing up canning my spaghetti sauce, feeding the kids lunch and getting cleaned up!) was not something that I was prepared for.  I hadn't planned on doing history our first day, but since M was bugging me about it (yes, he was dying to get started!) I decided that I would sit down and start gathering what we needed.  I had also chosen a new curriculum for history this year - and by first glance, it seemed like a good choice - it started at creation and included God in history, which is something that you don't see often.  As I sat there looking through the book, I began to get an overwhelming feeling.  Suddenly I was having thoughts like "I can't do this!" and "where is the nearest school?!"  My feelings completely surprised me as up until now I had felt fully confident in our decision to continue homeschooling and had even encouraged friends (who were on the fence) to do the same.  

I called a friend.  The friend I knew I could count on to listen to my cry for help and talk some sense back into me.  The one that would pray with me and reassure me that God knew the answers even if I didn't just yet.  Do you have a friend like that?  I sure hope so!  

After talking with some homeschooling friends, I quickly realized what set me off about the particular curriculum we had and took steps to change up what our plan will be for the year.  For as panicked as I was, it still amazes me that I am completely calm and collected again.  It's only through the grace of God that happened.  

Are you struggling with any kind of issues as you start this school year?  I'd like to share something that I put together to print out, fold and stick in my Bible.  As I do my devotional each morning, I will see this paper and claim some promises.  :)  I hope you will, too.  

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