Summertime means travel

In a rather impromptu fashion, we decided to pack up around noon on Friday and go somewhere. So we grabbed our Germany guidebooks and started looking for a place to go. My husband found the charming city of Ulm: birthplace of Albert Einstein, home of both the narrowest and crookedest houses, as well as the world's tallest church spire, and an otherwise great place to walk about and discover things. 

Bay was on a youth center-sponsored trip to Europa Park (basically, Six Flags), so Tuna, Hubs and I went off in search of adventure. 

We found surprising things around every corner. While searching for something we roughly translated to be an aquarium, we got ourselves lost in a beautiful park full of flowers and sculptures. 

We did manage to find the aquarium, which housed, among its collection, a surprisingly large variety of creatures native to North America -- exotic by European standards. We enjoyed it. 

Connected to the aquarium was a small zoo, featuring primates and farm animals and some exotic birds. We enjoyed feeding the animals for some time. 

Off we went, back to the car, to find the fountain erected in Einstein's honor. Our guidebook explained that Einstein means "one stone," (how we didn't puzzle that out on our own is rather humbling, as we're here, in Germany, learning German, and ein means one, and stein means stone, but I digress), and that there was a place in the building next to the fountain that is missing a stone, but in its place, is engraved, "Einstein." 

The fountain itself was a bit of a letdown. I mean, if Einstein was born in my town, I think I'd shout it from every rooftop. This strange creation was tucked away near a rather plain building, with no signage or indication of its purpose. We had to hunt it down (which was part of the fun, anyway). 

It kind of looked like Einstein attached to a swirl of poo on a rocket ship. We don't know what the poo-swirl actually is, but the fountain is, indeed, a rocket ship. The water coming out from the bottom is highly pressurized and loud, just like a rocket. 

The crookedest house was fun to see:

And Hubs enjoys the architecture of old churches, so he especially enjoyed seeing the tallest spire:

Having whet our appetites for travel, we immediately chose our next destination and decided to go on Sunday (Father's Day) to Neuschwanstein (noy-SHVAHN-stine) and Hohenschwangau (HO-en-shhvahn-gow) castles in the Alps. Oh, my! What a gorgeous place to be!

Beside the view, we learned a lot. For example: We have known that my husband (and thereby my children) are related to Charlemagne and King Pippin III (Pepin the Short), but as we were touring Hohenschwangau, the guide told us the tales of those two being guests in this very castle, and there were paintings (original, not retouched!) of them and their exploits! It was fascinating, and chest-puffing for Tuna. Later, in the car on the way home, after a while of silence, she blurted out, "So basically, that makes me a princess!" We debated telling the museum they must leave because we were claiming the castle in the family name. We decided we'd better not. 

The rich history, the mystery surrounding Ludwig's death, the opulence, and the view were marvelous. 

Still not sated for travel, we are now making plans to visit Salzburg, Austria and Berchtesgaden in two weeks. 

I'm so flexible I'm Gumby

Tuna says she would like to start fifth grade NOW. She doesn't want a summer to sprawl out, chill out, play all day. Oh, wait. Yes, she does. She just sees "school" as an extension of that!

Perfect! 

So, as of now, I have a fifth grader. Speaking of which: I'd prefer to drop the grade designation, but she likes it. Plus, how does one get along in American society without knowing what grade one's child is in? I'm not sure how that works. Still, I'd prefer to ditch the grade. 

Anyway, we're going to adopt a light schedule of about an hour a day, three days per week:

Twenty minutes (one chapter) of Life of Fred (we're working on Ice Cream right now, still catching up from math horrors of public school)

Twenty minutes of Story of the World (one section per day, plus map work and projects)

Twenty minutes of Brave Writer. Ish. This will probably take longer on some days. Tea and poetry, for example, which we are both looking very much forward to, and we even bought a new tea service at the thrift shop where we volunteer. 

We'll add art, music, German, science, critical thinking, and geography beginning in August and coming to full speed in September. 

Earlier this week, we enjoyed our very first fire in the fire pit since moving to Germany, watched a movie on the back patio curled up by the fire, snuggled in thick blankets, enjoying ourselves while the rest of the neighborhood went silent because it was a school night. 

We also got to watch shepherds (dog AND human -- if there's a human shepherd in Germany, is it inappropriate to call him a German Shepherd?) herding their flock of sheep down the road. Watching the dog wrangle his herd was fascinating. It's one of those things most people read about, but never experience. Living in Bavaria has the added benefit of exposing us to all these novel things. It was the absolute highlight of our day, and we pulled over, rolled down the windows, and stared, googly-eyed, silly smiles, oohing and ahing over the sheep being herded. Good times. Wish I'd had my camera on me. 

And today, we met some cool homeschool kids and some rather uncool homeschool moms. I'm in the position where I need to see homeschool group as something for Tuna, something I suck up and do, rather than support for me. Not that I need it. I'm doing just fine on my own, don't you think? 

Enjoy your weekend, lovely readers. My husband is home this Sunday, so we're going to grill and watch a scary movie together. He hasn't been home in several weeks for longer than six hours at a time, so I'm going to soak him in. :)

Brave Writer is 50% off at Homeschool Buyers Co-op

Hurry over and snag Bravewriter! They have The Writer's Jungle, subscriptions to Arrow, Wand, and Boomerang, AND bundles of back issues of those three, for half off! I am so excited to begin this in the fall!

Year-End Reflections Part Three: Wrap-Up

Well, the school year has drawn to a close. Over the weekend, I made two photo journals of our year gone by, to document our learning as it happened. 

Part One
Part Two

I didnt' include everything. I didn't include our bookish things. Let me touch on those here for a minute:

Tuna and I completed the following books:

• Paddle to the Sea
• Little House on the Prairie
• On the Banks of Plum Creek
• By the Shores of Silver Lake
• Pippi Longstocking
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

We also completed Life of Fred Honey, Farming, and Goldfish, and we're in the process of Ice Cream. 

We read, cover to cover, Story of the World Volume 1. 

Our science experiments included, but were not limited to:

• mummifying apple slices
• growing soap in the microwave
• making water beads
• ice, salt, and tire traction
• crushing cans with only water
• attempting (unsuccessfully) to get an egg into a bottle
• making rock candy
• making a model of precipitation with shaving cream and food coloring
• breaking open rocks to see what's inside

Our "field trips included, but were not limited to:

• a lake beach and public gardens
• Savannah, GA (Historical places, culture, nature)
• Tybee Island, GA (Historical places, culture, nature)
• Myrtle Beach, SC (nature)
• Atlanta Zoo (nature)
• Wild Animal Safari, Pine Mountain, GA (nature)
• Palm Beach County, FL (nature, adventure, PE, family)
• Orlando, FL (fun! economics -- souvenir budgeting!)
• Jimmy Carter Historical Site GA (history, farm life)
• FL Keys (fun, nature, historical sites, geography, culture, art)
• Moving to Germany (passports, flight processes, airline procedure, foreign language, so much more)
• Dachau Concentration Camp Munich, Germany (historical place)
• Wolfstein Castle Neumarkt, Germany (historical place)
• Parsberg Christmas Market (historical place, culture, foreign language)
• Velburg Castle (PE, historical place, foreign language, photography)
• Wildlife Park (nature)

Other things we learned to do included, but were not limited to:

• Speak German
• Raise a garden
• renovate furniture
• draw anime
• find planets through a telescope
• hip-hop dance
• cheerleading
• gymnastics
• bake

I'd say our year was definitely a success. I'm happy with what we did. Looking onward to next school year, here's what's in store for us:

1. Bay's going back to school full-time. She's in high school and this is a choice she's made. 
2. Tuna wants nothing to do with school and loves being at home, and will continue hopefully for her entire school career. She has asked for more structure, though, so here's what that is going to look like:

Math: continue Life of Fred. We're planning to use Kidney, Liver, Mineshaft, Fractions, and Decimals & Percents. 

Science: Elemental Science Physics for the Grammar Stage

Language Arts: Bravewriter

History: Story of the World Volume 2

Also: Prague, France, Austria, Poland, UK, and possibly Spain and Portugal. Who knows? Maybe even the US for a couple weeks. :) 

Over the summer, I will continue posting what we're up to, because although my attendance record is full, we never stop learning. I love that. 

Year-End Reflections, Part Two

Note: This is part two of my series Year-End Reflections. Part One can be found here. 

Let's see. We stopped in mid-October. 

We made awesome cupcakes. FYI these knives are available at Michael's. The gel I bought at the grocery store.

Bay got bright pink hair

Bay discovered her passion for photography

Bay wasted no time making friends and exploring our area on her own.

We visited Dachau Concentration Camp. It was a sobering experience. 

November 2012:

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner for about a dozen single soldiers. My household goods had not yet arrived. And still, I managed to put on a great feast. 

 Poor Tuna was too sick to join us. She had her meal in bed, laying down, while intermittently vomiting. 

 g, Tuna was hospitalized for kidney infection, so we learned some German very quickly in order to communicate our needs with the staff. We also spent quite a bit of time watching German TV, including Disney channel, which helped our German, too. 

Those bandages are covering IV sites.

We visited Wolfstein Castle in Neumarkt in a snowstorm, and had the entire place to ourselves. It was eerily quiet, so we played tag, hide and seek, and had a snowball fight. It was epic. 

December 2012:

We went to several Christmas markets. This was our first, in Parsberg. It was snowing, and it was in a castle. 

We got more snow than we knew what to do with! There were lots of snow days this month!

Another Christmas market. These are great fun. 

We made and decorated cookies as a family. 

Bay got purple hair. And a bundle of cash. 

Tuna got a telescope!

January 2013:

Tuna and I spent the month learning about the solar system. We made a salt dough solar system, seen here. 

We made a bird feeder, which successfully drew large crowds of birds until it had to be unceremoniously cut down to make room for our new patio umbrella. We have since replaced it with a standard bird feeder. 

An edible cookie map of ancient Egypt!

writing on our paper!

February 2013

We did a lot of freestyle art this month.

March 2013:

March will forever be known as The Month I Taught Long Division in One Hour!

April 2013:

We baked cookies and made thank you cards for the places on post we homeschoolers use the most, and delivered them with our homeschool group. 

We learned how to renovate furniture

We made rock candy!

Bay worked on her anime eyes. Pretty darn good!

May 2013:

We hiked to Velburg Castle. 

We hung out in the castle ruins

We learned to spray paint wrought iron. 

Bay finished her math curriculum early: An entire year finished in five months. 

Tuna caught slugs and roly polies. 

We visited a place nearby called Wildlife Park, where we got to get up close with a bunch of native animals. Feeding ducks is always fun. 

And that brings us to June 1, today. There are many things I didn't photograph, many things I didn't include. But the last two posts give you (and me) a pretty good idea of what we did this year. In Part Three, I will review and assess our year, and talk about our plans for next year. Stay tuned!