First Day 2014-2015

Since Danny had a summer job that lasted till August 22, he asked to have a week off the last week in August before starting school. And then it was Labor Day weekend, so today, September 2, is our first day of book work for this school year!

Danny is 15 and starting 10th grade.

He is 5' 10 1/4" tall.

Tamara is 13 and starting 8th grade.

She is 5' 4 1/2" tall.

I took a picture of them with the book they are most looking forward to reading in History this year.

Interesting choices! Danny chose "Beowulf" and Tamara chose "King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table".

This is the first year Tamara won't be doing My Father's World. She has completed the 5 year cycle and is not ready for High School yet, so we chose the Medieval History study from Beautiful Feet.

They will both be using Teaching Textbooks for Math and Danny is taking a Spanish course. Both are volunteering with Teen Court as well. I hope to get in some good Home-Ec classes for both as well as Health. And we will be doing Science, once our books come! Looking forward to more Apologia!

A highlight for the kids too, is Field Trips, Co-op Classes and International Homeschool Spirit Week!

Hope we can keep this year fun and interesting! :)

Estuaries Day -Eastpoint, FL

Yesterday a few families from our home school group traveled together to Eastpoint, FL for Estuaries Day.

What is an Estuary, you ask?

es·tu·ar·y

ˈesCHo͞oˌerē/

noun

1. 1. the tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream.

A Shark Sucker or Remora

Checking out the live tanks in the museum.

This room could keep you occupied for hours!

Tamara finding all kinds of interesting creatures in formaldehyde! Some were kind of gross. There were some turtle eggs and the one actually had a baby turtle part way coming out of it! :(

My kiddo's <3

The kids had to wash their hands in this basin before handling the animals in the touch tanks.

Baby Julya really wanted to crawl in the tanks with the sea creatures! :) :)

That's better! :)

Tamara touching the horseshoe crab!

Checking out a soft bear skin!

"Friends"
Kayla, Anna and Tamara

"Little Friends"
Julya and Sarah Beth
 :)

Enjoying the cool breeze under a shade tree while waiting for the rest of the group to be done.
This was probably the most beautiful day we have had yet, this month! It was cool and breezy and just perfect for a trip like this!

Sweet Sarah Beth!

When our "field trip" was over, we drove across the Appalachicola Bridge. This is where Dan will be running his half marathon in 3 weeks! :)

From there we went to Mexico Beach. Danny was meeting the rest of the youth group there. They had a campfire and roasted hot dogs on the beach! :) I think this is one of the few beaches that allow fires, but I think that's so neat!!

We had to wait about an hour so we sat at the park across the road and just enjoyed our surroundings!

Tamara took this time to work in some of the booklets she picked up at Estuary Day!

Danny had to try out his strength on the rafters! :)

My photogenic son! I can't believe that 2 months from now, he will be driving! :O Time, please slow down!!

 There were lots of pelicans in the water across the road.....

...and then, we spotted dolphins playing near the shore!! I could never get a good picture, though. Made me wish we were down on the beach!! There were people standing in the water not far from them!!

I'm thanking God, most of all, for the safe travels!! We had nearly 1 1/2 hours to the Estuary, then about 40 minutes to Mexico Beach and then another hour home! And our van's power steering pump is giving out. God answered our prayers for safety and I am ever grateful!! :)

International Homeschool Spirit Week ~Tuesday thru Thursday

Tuesday was "Homeschool Away from Home" Day

Well, we were in a little bit of a predicament! Last year we went to the park in town and really enjoyed that. But this year, Dan's Jeep was in the shop getting some work done, which meant he needed the van for work, which left us without a vehicle!!

So, we used "vehicles" of another sort! :)

We loaded our backpacks and rode bike from our house to the library in town (3.7 miles one way)

Leaving our house

Biking down 69 South

Our study table at the library!

Tamara found a more comfortable seat to read her science book!

After the school work was done, we browsed and read library books.

Before heading home, we rode down the street to a convenience store and bought candy bars for energy on the ride home since it was almost lunch time! :)

Tamara does not enjoy exercise too much, but winning a game pack from CurrClick made it all worthwhile, she said!!! :) :) I told her I think we should do this every week. She was not impressed! ;) It was a good day though and another memory made!

Wednesday was "Crazy Hair Day"

We had cut Danny's hair the night before and here's just one picture of the fun we had.....

I told him he reminds me of a monk! :)

So for crazy hair day, he found a braided hairpiece in Tamara's "dress up box" :)

For Tamara, we took a wire hanger apart and gave her "Pippi" braids! :) It was so funny because she couldn't walk through doorways straight on, she had to go through sideways!! :D

Thursday was "Volunteer Outside Your Home Day"

Well, you know the predicament we had with no vehicle on Tuesday. By Thursday, Dan got his Jeep back, but then a noise that had started in the van got a lot worse. The mechanic thinks it is the power steering pump, but he said we could still drive it. Well, Wed. night on the way hoe from church, the power steering seized up and that scared me from driving it. 

So, we decided to pick up trash on our dirt road.

Danny just picked up cans, and Tamara and I picked up glass beer bottles and paper trash.

Some places the brush was too thick to get back into the trash! :(

Danny was good at spotting trash and if it was back in farther off the road, he was so kind to bring it out to the road for us!!

We did find some beauty among the trash!! :)

Almost back. Our bags were getting heavy. Between Tamara and myself, we picked up over 20 glass beer bottles!! And our road is not even very long!! :( It's sad that people are so sloppy and feel so free to litter!!

Our final results!

This is the top layer of trash in my bag.... :P

Cheers to a cleaner Parrish Lake Rd.!!