Wow!

We really Do live in a beautiful place.

I am so truely happy that my son has passed his state mandated test with flying colors (99th percentile) so now we can explore freely, and just be. The season has started, and we are out of the gates running as fast as we can. We love to be out and about. The family harmony is truly rejuvinated this time of year.

Yesterday we went to Seaside - to the toy store, to the carousel, to the beach, flew our kites, made sand castles, laid down and cuddled, had a bit of a nap and got a bit of a tan/burn - it was wonderful!!! I love home schooling, we can do these sorts of things in the middle of the week, when no one is out really.

Not having any pressures to crunch my son with is a big relief. I still have my own school work to do, but I feel like we can start our summer now. We are still "doing school" though, just not at a break neck pace.

The other day we went for a huge hike and I made press books for the kids to gather any plant they wanted to keep; we collected at least 50 samples between the 2. They had a blast. We came home and organized all the plants, and we will identify them and sort them when they are dry. I want to do this with all the different terrains we have here. We covered the Columbia coastline, we will be doing the Pacific coastline, and at least the rainforest species; I would like to cover the mountain plants too, if we have time. What will be neat is to do all this and then have a Spring sample to compare the other seasons with on future hikes. This is something we can build on over the years. I am very pleased that my kids love to hike, and love plants as much as I do.

To kick off the Plants theme I checked out tons of stuff from the library, and D came home and gobbled up 1/2 the books that day, with M at his side taking it all in. I was so proud. I find that when I cover topics he is interested in, we go through everything like lightning. And M is right along with us the whole way. She is a sponge, and comes up with the most amazing things, days or weeks later, describing the world to me; so I know the retention is there. And she loves it when I quiz her, which I do regularly, just asking about details of things we have done or read about. I love my job (most days) ;-)


HAPPY SPRING EVERYONE!