Our First Days of Summer!

It's June and it is officially summer for us even though the world technically waits til June 20th or 21st (I can never remember which day it is).  A heat wave moved in after days and days of rain, which seemed appropriate.  We were finally able to have our end-of-the-year egg hunt with our homeschool group.

The kids met a toad.

Petite started the egg hunt well, but I confess she was quite cranky the day of the hunt.

The kids examine their loot.

Because of the heat, the sprinkler came out for several days.  On one day, when the cousins were visiting, we also got sprinkles from heaven.  Here is my niece hiding under the table... although she was already wet :)

We've already checked a few things off our summer bucket list, including going out for ice cream. Though it's highly likely this is one event we'll repeat often this summer!

Another thing on our list (suggested by Brown Eyed Girl) was going to yard sales.  Petite found two new Minnie Mouse's for just 25 cents each.

And we made our first trip to the beach!  Saturday was a scorcher and the kids begged me to take them, though I knew the water would be like ice.   Everyone was happy to cool off.

And I'll never understand why they enjoy it so much, but they buried each other in the sand.

And thankfully washed off before we returned home.

As I uploaded these photos, I remembered that I need to do my end-of-the-school-year wrap up post.  May was such a busy month.   Things are starting to wind down. We just had a wonderful 40th anniversary party for Josh's parents on Sunday and we have a few birthdays ahead, but I'm hoping my thoughts will get pulled together soon to give me closure on our school year. For now, we're taking a much needed breath of fresh, summer air.

Our Summer Bucket List 2013

Summer really is a magical time of year.  It is simply the best. Even better than Christmas, in my opinion.  Especially when you consider there won't be any of that white fluffy stuff flying the whole season. Well... in this northern town, one can surely hope not, that is.

Last year was the first summer in our new town.  We no longer had the lake right down the road to spend our days at.  We had no friends to hang out with all day.  We'd had a rough, lonely school year with lots of emotions surging through our home.  I was very afraid we would have a miserable summer.  So I determined not to. We made a list of all the things we'd love to do and began planning them out, putting events on our calendar and setting the wheels in motion. It ended up being a truly wonderful, satisfying summer for all of us.

So this year we are doing the same thing.  As a family, we made a list of what we'd love to do in these few short months of sunshine, warmth, and no school.  Here's a sampling:

1. Lunch at the Japanese Steakhouse
2. Camp out at our friends' house on the coast
3. Mini golf
4. Make homemade ice cream
5. Camping trips with smores, hot dogs, and a fire
6. Picnic at the park
7. Picnics on the boat
8. Stay at Nanny's and swim at our "old" beach
9. Campfires at home
10. Yard sales
11. Go to Bar Harbor
12. Ice cream social
13. BBQs with friends
14. Go to the movies to see Monsters University and Despicable Me 2
15. Trips to the beach
16. Camping trips
17. Hike Blueberry Ledges
18. Read aloud several good books
19. Go to camp
20. Go out for ice cream

As I write, the kiddos are enjoying their first afternoon running through the sprinkler and filling up squirt guns.  A warm, gentle breeze is blowing the scent of lilacs toward the back deck, where I sit soaking it up.  Summer is no longer a far away dream.  It's here.  And we plan to savor every little bit.

I hope you create your own bucket list for this summer!  For help and ideas, visit The Happy Family Movement blog.

Enjoy the life you've been given and the place where you're livin'!

Australia and Antarctica- Weeks 31-34

I can hardly believe this.  We have completed Exploring Countries and Cultures from My Father's World!  Okay, so that doesn't mean school is out. We've got to hold to the letter of the law and make sure we've put in our 175 days of school (which means we have another week left!).  But our curriculum... DONE!

The final two places we visited this year were Australia and Antarctica.  Above, the kids made a mural of a coral reef, the ecosystem we focused on while studying Australia.  Petite added all the faces to the fish and other underwater animals.  Plus she added some of her version of Minnie Mouse, scuba diving I assume.

I found this box of Ferraro chocolates in the shapes of sea shells and seahorses a while ago and saved them as a special treat for this unit.

For the first four months of the year, we've been saving change and other extra money for a Bible Translation project through God's Word for the Nations.  We learned so much this year about how special a Bible is to people all over the world, who have never had one in their heart language.

We saved $100 (plus a little more change that didn't fit in a roll yet).  Yeah!  We decided to give it to Rancho Sordo Mudo, a home for deaf children in Mexico, and for work to be done translating the Mexican language into a Mexican sign language.

We restained our seven-year-old swingset to help it last longer....

And Mister celebrated quite a milestone birthday- #10!  Nana made him this very special cake, per his request, of Moosehead Lake.

I am hardly a cake decorator, but at home we had a  party with a homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream cake.  Delicious!

He got a much needed new bicycle!

Petite declares she is a princess and we don't really bother to dress her anymore because she always ends up putting on a fancy dress anyway.

Brown-Eyed- Girl cracks me up with her photo bombs.  Here she is wearing Petite's Minnie Mouse bow and glasses, hamming it up.  But when she really gives you that look, whoa, you feel it.

And our final country, Antarctica, was celebrated eating penguin shaped crackers and reading Mr. Popper's Penguins, a book everyone loved.  We also read The Twenty-One Balloons.

So that is that, we are bidding farewell to our first year with My Father's World.  I have nothing but good things to say about it.  And I hope to say more when I wrap up our school year officially next week.  For now, hope you enjoy this quick update on our past month.  Home education is really, truly... amazing!

Russia- Weeks 29 and 30

We completed our visit to Russia a week ago, but I'm late in posting because we had a much deserved week off.  I was gone on two different trips, including a homeschool conference.  We're about to embark on our study of my favorite place in the whole world: Australia. I've never been there, but it is the place I've always dreamed of going. But before we go there, I'll wrap up our trip to Russia.

We began reading the third and final volume in the Kingdom Tales trilogy by David and Karen Mains.  The kids were so excited to pick this series up again.  We get so much out of these allegorical tales and they always ask for more.  We cooked blinis, much like crepes, and spread them with jam and then rolled them up.

 They were so delicious, a mix between a pancake and french toast because of the eggs in them.

Our most memorable activity was blowing the center out of an egg so that we could decorate them.  We learned about Peter Faberge and his famous jeweled eggs and this was the suggested art project.  Oh my, we laughed soooooo hard!

We poked a small hole in the top and bottom of the egg and then we just blew into it.  If the yoke seemed to clog the hole, we pierced it or shook the egg to break it up.  Oh my, all I could think of was giving birth, with all the insides coming out of a tiny.... well, anyway.

I got in on the fun too.  Caleb said he's never heard me laugh so hard.

The kids then painted their eggs using acrylic paint.

We saw many beautiful Faberge eggs online, but I think the kids did a pretty competitive job at making their own.

Japan- Weeks 27 and 28

 I am woefully overdue when it comes to blogging, so this will just be a quick update on the past few weeks of our study of Japan and a few Easter pics. I knew the kids would not eat real sushi (I wouldn't either!) so we made fruit sushi.  Fruit Roll Ups, a rice krispy mixture, and gummy fish made a really fun sushi snack that at least got us talking about real sushi.

No raw fish, just candy fish!

 We had a great Easter, starting off with breakfast at  Grammy and Grampy's church.

 The number one coveted item at Easter is Cadbury Eggs. You wouldn't believe how hard they were to find but I did, finally, along with a few other goodies.

We are currently in Russia. The  next few weeks will be very busy, with school vacation in just one more week! Only five weeks of school left- incredible to believe!

China- Weeks 25 and 26

Another two weeks of school DONE!  We are in the final stretch, only 10 weeks left.  Or maybe even 9.  It is SO exciting.  We've had an awesome year.  We are looking forward to spring and then... ah, summer!

We have looked forward to studying China all year.  I have to say, I learned a ton about the history of Communism in China and was very surprised to learn that it is not nearly as restrictive now.  I finally learned what all the fuss about Tibet was over.  My thinking was challenged and I was able to challenge my children's thinking when it came to Communism, Buddhism, and our own faith.  Could education really be any better than that?

Our last missionary biography of the year was about Gladys Aylward and the kids begged me to read more than the one assigned chapter each day.  It is certainly a story of adventure and Aylward has become a hero to me.  Wow, she has guts!  I kept saying to the kids as we read.  We finished the book almost two weeks early because we loved it so much. I cried, of course.  Everyone  is getting used to that.  I have loved these missionary biographies and I know they have shaped my life and my children's.

One of our art projects was making a name stamp, as even the ancient Chinese artists used to sign their work.  We drew our initials on a pink school eraser and then carved it out using a bamboo skewer.  After that, all it takes is an ink pad to stamp your "signature" on your artwork.  So of course we had to make something to stamp.  Mister made a bamboo forest, Mt. Everest and some other Chinese things like a Siberian Tiger and pandas.

I made a cherry tree, but I think it is actually more Japanese. Oops.

 Brown-Eyed-Girl made a few hippos in the water. I'm not sure there are hippos in China, but who am I to stifle artistic expression. We used, my favorite, watercolor crayons for this project.

Tan grams is a Chinese game, the original using only nine pieces.  We started off using only the correct amount and shapes, but the kids quickly wanted to add to their projects.

Mister created this rendition of God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son creating man. See how they each have some of the parts to make another person?  Clever. Very clever.

We celebrated our last day in China at a Chinese buffet. I'm not sure the kids actually got anything Chinese.  Pizza, pigs-in-a-blanket, jello?  Nope, not Chinese. But they enjoyed the artwork and all the servers are indeed, from China.

We're headed across the Pacific to Japan!

India- Weeks 23 & 24

This post is very late in coming.  In fact, there will hardly be anything said about our two weeks in India.  We didn't do any of the India art projects and we didn't really eat any Indian food.  But we did love the biography of Amy Carmichael and we did do some other fun things during those weeks.

 Brown-Eyed-Girl and Cousin M. began a ballet class together at the church/school where we "come from".  

We had a very late 100th day of school celebration at an indoor pool.  Petite loved it, although at first she insisted she didn't want to go to a pool.  She thought it would be too cold to swim, so I assume she thought we would be swimming outside!.

We had friends join us.

Brown-Eyed- Girl has been doing some Project Life scrapbooking of her own.

Petite has begun drawing faces, arms and legs on everything.  Super cute and one of those developmental milestones.

We went bowling on the last Friday in India.  We did get some Naan bread and roasted chickpeas and some Halvah bars (even though we weren't sure they were Indian) at the natural food store.

I think bowling shoes are quite stylish.

But not as stylish as this little princess.

We are currently in China and I already have more to share of our actual studies than I did India.