July and August- Homeschooling Fun!

I have said it before and I will say it again: I LOVE homeschooling! I am so grateful it is a possibility for our family!

We finished our 10 weeks of official swim lessons in August. It was AMAZING to see their progress and enjoy their new skills and strengthen our relationships along the way! 

Here is the chart I made for Natalie, based on the skills taught in the USwim School of Australia. This was after our assessment of week 7 I think.

They all did SO WELL and I am so proud of them! We have one official swimmer, and three more who think they can do more than in reality. =o]

I am SO GRATEFUL for our kind neighbor who let us use her pool!!

It was important to me for the kids to get a lot of exposure to the water in different types of situations to be sure they were truly confident. Here is a man-made stream in a park nearby our home.

Here the kids are at the hotel in Reno before swimming in their indoor pool and hot tub for HOURS. 

Here they are in Salem pond with the cousins!

All ready for our last day of swim lessons! It was a bitter sweet moment for sure! It marked the beginning of our transition into fall curriculum. 

We went on so many field trips with our Friday Friends group, and just by ourselves too!

Here we are at Wheeler Farm: 

One of my best friends from high school Andrea, and another best friend from high school's wife Heather. They are both such awesome women! I enjoy learning from them!

Of course we went to the aquarium. It still hasn't gotten old! 

Here you can see Natalie recording her observations in her journal. So dutiful. And adorable. And smart! 

We got to tour a candy factory!

Caleb won the estimation game! 

In my opinion, you can never hit up too many parks!

Ah hiking! This was a sad one to transition out too. We just LOVE the great outdoors and I am grateful to live in such a beautiful place!

We go to the library every week, and I love how each one had it's own flavor. So fun!

More park hopping. 

Service Club. BEST IDEA EVER. I am so grateful for the chance we have to help our Heavenly Father's children who are in need! And you know what? We have never had a bad experience. It is always uplifting and fulling! I hope and pray I am creating a habit in my children that will last for the rest of their lives!

Here we are at the Ronald McDonald House nearest us. 

Again with the parks lol!

And again with the hiking =o] Natalie took all the pictures for this one by the way!

Did you know that TONS of moms eat at Chick-fil-A with their kids for lunch? Neither did I until our friends invited us to accompany them. My kids wondered whose birthday it was lol! 

This historic farm was AWESOME! Except for the terrifying encounter with a hidden wasps' nest!!

The park by one of the libraries. We love taking a picnic lunch! 

Ah Music Mondays. Such fun! This year's study of people who changed the world through music was a smashing success! But all good things must come to an end, and we transitioned this out two weeks before starting our fall term. 

When we studied the man who is credited with inventing the piano (Bartolomeo Cristofori) I got to show them the piano song written for me by our family friend Bob Keller. I wish he could have been there to play it for them!

I have to say that I'm going to miss dancing around the house all day once a week. Next summer. Right? =o] 

How do people live without books? We are so grateful for the library!!

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that I get to learn WITH my children. I have the academic advantage so I can ask the right questions and lead the study of important subjects, but I don't have to know EVERYTHING to be a mom-teacher. It is pure magic to discover the world TOGETHER! 

Hooray for author/illustrator studies!!

It is also fun to expand our own library!

Is is strange that one of the hardest subjects for me to teach is PE? I just feel like working out is MY TIME to detox and fill up my well. So I have a hard time making time to exercise with the kids as well. A couple of times we have done yoga. (But I can't show them any of the videos I own because they are all immodestly dressed!!)

Special thanks to this cool book from the library!

And a couple of times when Kent is out of town we did after dinner park work outs where I run laps around the play equipment and they take turns racing me and doing exercises in between. We really liked this actually, but it will probably only be a summer thing.

The last week of August was a huge wake up call that summer was actually coming to a close and that the fall term would be starting. I only had a couple freak out moments praying that I am actually doing the right thing for the kids and making sure our plans are well laid. =o] I do love homeschooling, BUT there are pros and cons to any educational setting and so it is just hard to remain sure ALL the time when you are going against the grain. So many questions! From people I love, from strangers, from myself! So much to consider that others seem to never even think of! Anyway, it is a journey I know we are supposed to be on so all I can do is my best. 

Here is Natalie opening her math supplies from k12. 

Caleb felt SO SPECIAL getting his package in the mail too! I'm glad we went with k12 for the math curriculum, since they are taking the state tests they need to know the common core strategies! 

We had to go through all of Natalie's stuff from last year so we could organize it and put it in a save binder so it would be out of the way. WOW! So many papers!!! This isn't even half of it lol!

Here is what I posted on fb about this day of school room set up:

Today we have been working on organizing and cleaning the school room and I was feeling discouraged that it is ghetto because it is in the unfinished basement. But then I reviewed in my mind the commitment that Kent and I have made to stay out of debt. Yes we had to go into debt to buy our home, but that doesn't mean we are going to run out and spend tons more to do everything we want. Yes our yard is still weeds. Yes our school room is ghetto. BUT we are keeping our commitment to save up and pay cash for home improvements so we will make do in the mean time! Here's to what we've got!!

And there you have it. Our homeschool summer holidays have ended!