Year-End Reflections Part One

As I am sure every good parent would do, I find myself now, at the end of the formal school year, questioning:

Did we do enough?
Did we experience enough?
Did we see enough new things?
What did we learn?

As someone who doesn't test, I must rely on my notes throughout the year, and my photographs, to answer this. 

So, did we?

Let's see. Let's start one year ago, and see what we did, what we experienced, what we saw, what we learned. 


May 2012:

This was a trip to Callaway Gardens in Georgia, to see the lake.

Tuna had her hip-hop recital. She was awesome!

Our trip to Savannah, GA included a visit to Tybee Island's lighthouse and beach. Here are the girls and dad atop the lighthouse. 

We visited historical Bonaventure and Colonial Park Cemeteries. We'd read up on these before our visit, so we knew to look for Little Gracie's grave (pictured here) as well as the history of the two cemeteries. 

Our dolphin tour was very cool. The guides told all about local wildlife, and we got to hold a jellyfish and a crab, in addition to seeing many dolphins (which are incredibly difficult to photograph!)

Playing in the chilly Atlantic ocean at Tybee Island. We also visited the lighthouse and museum here, which had a military focus. At the beach, we watched seagulls dive bomb small fish, and sometimes, they even caught one!

Fort Pulaski National Monument. I think this was our favorite part of our Savannah trip. Being a military family, we  enjoy and feel a connection to all things historically military. We got to see the cannon damage in the walls of this fort. There were still cannon balls stuck in the walls!

June 2012:
We visited the Atlanta Zoo, where Tuna got to feed, pet, and brush animals in the petting zoo, navigate the zoo for us with her map, feed parakeets off of overpriced sticks of seeds, and have a good time romping around, enjoying mom and dad to herself while Bay was with some friends elsewhere in the state. 

Tuna got a haircut...

...and donated her ponytail to be made into wigs for kids with cancer!

Cheer camp!

 July 2012:

Scorching July in Georgia. We spent a lot of time at the pool. 

We tried bubble painting. It was fun, but short-lived. 

While Bay was at summer camp in Florida (a first for her, and she loved it!), Tuna and I visited  Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain, Georgia. The best part of this place is the drive-through safari. You can either drive your own car or rent a van to drive through. The vans have no AC. I risked it and drove my car. Worth it. Anyway, you buy some overpriced food and you feed the animals that wander to your window. You're supposed to throw the food to the ground, not in their mouths. But who could resist? Not us!

One of the noses that pressed itself into our car. :)

Not for the squeamish. We had lick marks, red clay mud, and nose prints all over our car, inside and out, when we were done. Again: worth it. 

Tuna's reaching down to feed something low to the ground. 

I think the buffalo were so ridiculously cute. Look at that eye. 

They learn to beg at an early age. 

What a great way to get up close with nature!

This guy made us a wee bit nervous!

I covered the table in spices, herbs, and dry foods, paper, glue, paint brushes, and various utensils, and invited the girls to make a collage. 

Learning to kayak

The girls went to Florida in July without me: A big step, and I missed them very much. But they had a blast with Grandma, Grandpa Ken, and my grandparents. 

 Swimming at the neighborhood pool

relaxing at the beach

ripsticking at the park

Walking Grandma's dogs is always fun. 

They went to Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure, and stayed at Portofino Bay Resort. Fun and luxury. 

Taking the ferry to the resort after a long day of play

Fun times in Seussland

I think this was the Hulk coaster? Not sure. 

Talking to me on the phone :)

Getting to spend time with Great Grandpa: priceless

We tried Time 4 Learning in late July. It didn't work out for us, but we did keep at it for a couple of months. It was a transition period for us. 

August 2012:

This was the day we found out we were moving to Germany! We were so excited!!!

On Jimmy Carter's boyhood farm, the kids got a personal "school tour" from a tour guide, who taught them how to use the very well Jimmy Carter used to bring water to his house every day. 

How to shuck corn for the animals by hand...

Free private tours are the best. :)

September 2012:

We were in transition this month. We had stayed at a hotel for several weeks once our house was packed up for the move to Germany. Then we went down to South Florida to stay with my mother until our passports arrived. 

We took a trip to the Florida Keys. Splendid time. Special place. 

GREAT pie. 

We snorkeled here, at this very beach. The sea life we saw was amazing. Also, a wee bit frightening, as the murky water was perfect shark territory. We didn't see any sharks. 

One of the beaches we walked in the Keys

October 2012:

We moved to Germany! We took our first trans-Atlantic flight and we moved to Germany. 

Our neighborhood grocery store took some getting used to. It has never taken me so long to shop for groceries. Reading labels in German was tricky, but we worked together and so far, we haven't accidentally eaten anything weird. 

The jet lag was killer. We spent many a day inside, waiting for it to pass. 

The view from atop the castle in our little town. 

Raking leaves is a novelty for us, having lived in the south for so long!

OUR FIRST SNOW! It was nothing, a dusting is all, but Tuna got out her sled and went down the hill anyway. 

How we dressed those first few weeks in Germany. 

...To be continued

Et tu, Brute?

Tuna and I love Story of the World. Many homeschoolers don't, citing its "great men" emphasis, or its author's religious tendencies. However, Story of the World is a wonderful tale of history, and treats all religions equally, so far as I can tell so far, setting all religious stories aside as just that: tales of the times. We can appreciate the myths told as such. And being as it is not the only exposure Tuna gets to either history or any of the social studies, I fear not the "great men" emphasis. 

We have enjoyed every chapter of volume one, and look so forward to volume two, which we will begin in the fall. 

Today, we read about Julius Caesar. The story was so captivating that we breezed through two entire chapters in one siting, then found this BBC series on Julius Caesar's death on YouTube. It's told in old English, but Tuna found most of it easy to understand after having listened to me reading from Story of the World. Once in context, the old English is not hard to understand. I only had to translate a few phrases for her. 

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

What Have We Been Up To?

Oh, a little of this and a little of that. 

We've been spending quality time together. 

We've been finishing patio furniture. 

We've been playing in the rain. 

We've been finding worms and roly-polies and slugs, and creating temporary habitats for them so we can learn more about them. We've been learning about how carnivorous plants digest their meals. 

We've been skinning our knees. And our hands. And our shoulders. And our feet. And wrecking our pants. And we've been getting fillings on our front teeth, because some little crapturd neighbor kid cherry bombed us on the seesaw and chipped our tooth (a cherry bomb, for the rest of us, is when you jump off the seesaw while your friend is up in the air). 

We've been feeding ducks and swans and checking out the local wildlife. Today, we visited a lovely (and free!) "zoo" near Burglegenfeld, Germany which featured native animals in decent enclosures. We were able to buy food to feed them, which was pretty fun. We wish we could have spent longer there, but we had to hurry off to the dentist (see above description of incident). 

And we've been finishing up our school year. Our official last day is next Friday. Bay just tested out of her algebra program, and we got her enrolled in high school for the fall. Tuna and I are reading By the Shores of Silver Creek, and she is still loving the Little House series, so we plan to continue the rest of the series throughout the summer. She's still loving Life of Fred, but we will be wrapping that up soon. And she has absolutely loved Story of the World. 

I am so glad we made the decision to homeschool this year. I look forward to our fifth grade year and I hope Bay's year at high school goes well. Of course, if it doesn't, she can always come home and we'll have loads of fun. 

On the agenda for the rest of this week: a cook rice experiment, a can crushing experiment, a tree exploration, some cooking, and lots of snuggly reading. 

Hope you're all well. :)

Where we learn...and what we're up to

Well, the Hubs comes home tonight after a week away with work. Here's what we've been up to this week:

Monday

Finished reading On the Banks of Plum Creek

Bay tested out of one level in her math course

Worked on painting the wrought iron furniture

Lots of Minecraft and YouTube

Lots of playing outside

Tuesday

Volunteered at the thrift shop

Bay tutored in math

Bay tested out of another math level

Didn't really track what Tuna did with her time. Minecraft for sure. 

Watched some documentaries on Netflix with Tuna

Bay went to the teen center for the entire afternoon and evening. 

I found a new use for all the scarves Hubs brought home from Afghanistan:

Wednesday

What on Earth did we do on Wednesday?

We watched Jodi Arias get convicted of first degree murder, after watching the entire trial live. That was educational!

Bay tested out of more math. 

We watched more documentaries.

We went shopping. 

Minecraft and YouTube

Thursday

Our other volunteer day at the thrift shop. Tuna bought this and has seldom set it down since:

our sofa nest is our favorite place to curl up with a good book

Bay went to the teen center for the afternoon and evening. 

Tuna and I went grocery shopping. 

Lots of outside time was had by all. 

Minecraft ruled the evening. 

And Friday

We cleaned the house together. 

I baked strawberry rhubarb pie with Bay looking on. 

Tuna studied up on a minecraft server she has asked to join. 

More outside time was had by all. 

We're learning to forage. We are picking up some library books tomorrow!

We all remarked on how much our plants have grown. The garden has been quite educational, too!

 

these lettuce babies need to be tranplanted this weekend!

Trust the Process

It can be difficult to unschool our thinking and trust the process that's happening when we let go and try unschooling. Won't they just watch TV all day? 

Tuna's Minecraft nest

(no)

Sometimes, I catch myself wondering, "Are we doing enough?" and that's where keeping a blog and taking pictures helps me. 

Tuna and I have begun watching Kitchen Nightmares and Gold Rush on Netflix. Believe it or not, we learn a lot from those "reality" shows! It opens up a lot of discussion. Plus, Gold Rush ties in nicely with her Minecraft obsession. 

She's been wiggling two loose teeth for three months now. Stubborn, these teeth. The last three months, she's tried various experiments to help get those teeth out. There was the basket she tied to some yarn, which she tied around her tooth, and she stood up on the sofa arm and dropped the basket, hoping to yank out her tooth. There was the door slam experiment. She asked Daddy to try his pliers (it was not loose enough). Then, she left it alone for a few months. Last night, it started bothering her again, so she wiggled and wiggled and decided to try an apple. She ate the whole apple and still had a loose tooth (hanging by a thread). So she twisted it around and around and every time she felt a pop, she told me about it, until out it came, and she put it in a cup of warm water to keep it "safe."  Success. :)

Today, Tuna and I finished On the Banks of Plum Creek. I've come to peace with the Little House series. Tuna loves the books so much. Her enthusiasm is contagious. So I read on. She really gets into the story and brings up scenes from the books at various points in everyday life. We have even had a few experiments and activities based on things we've read in the books. Tomorrow, we're going to start By the Shores of Silver Lake, the next in the series. 



We set aside math and Story of the World. Tuna likes them. We just needed a break. We get plenty of living math each day. We are going to pick it back up tomorrow, though, because Tuna is asking me to. 

Bay's plugging along working on testing out of her math program so she can enroll in Geometry next year. She spend a lot of time writing and drawing and reading. 

As a family, we're working on the renovation of my grandmother's wrought-iron patio furniture set. It's proving to be an educational, long, and expensive endeavor, and an endeavor of love and sentiment. I can't wait to finish the project. 

Cheech helps by supervising us from the comfort of the doormat. 

Tuna did mention something today that I hadn't even thought of: Bees are attracted to the color red. And guess what color we're painting the furniture. 

You guessed it. Red. 

Good thing we're putting mosquito netting around the sitting area. 

Keep the faith. Unschooling works. Every member of the unschooling unit learns together, learns richly, and learns to think independently. There is no room for hive mind here. 

Unless you're on my new patio, I suppose. I do wish that would have occurred to us sooner. Oh well. I do so love the color red. 

The Decision

Bay has decided to return full-time to public school in the fall. We're supporting her decision. She's a smart, level-headed young adult, and it is her life to live. We will support her from home. 

She craves the structure and social element of school, which doesn't make any sense to me, but again, it's not my life. The problem that I have with her decision is that she has, in the past, turned hostile toward her family members during the school year. Mean, foul words to be said, eyes rolling, doors slamming, no patience, no kindness, hostility. 

I told her that this was my concern, that she would shut down again, shut us out, disclude us. She assures me she will not. Still, I cringe. I worry. I already mourn her leaving me and the safety of the nest. 

She is crash-coursing to get Algebra I done so she can enroll in Geometry. 

Tuna has no desire to return to school, thankfully. She is most harmonious at home, and thriving extremely well. I hope she never, ever changes her mind. 

I am sad over this. I am sad at what she will miss out on: travel, learning at her own pace, learning what she wants to learn. Then again, that's just me projecting. What's important to her now is not any of that. And it's time for me to respect that choice. That doesn't make it easy, though. Nothing would, I suspect. 

Our Hike in Pictures

We spent the afternoon hiking today and we all had a great time. We learned a little, too!