Olympic Peninsula Camping in the Rain

Our family went tent camping this weekend and it turned out to be quite an adventure!  Although I camped a lot in college, it's been 20 years since I last pitched a tent. My husband hadn't been camping since his youth and DJ's knowledge of camping began and ended with the Daniel Tiger episode, "Backyard Camping".  But our local homeschool club planned a group camp outing for this weekend and we signed up back in August to attend.

Week Two: Salmon

This was a very non-traditional week of school. We started on Tuesday with a homeschool group tour of a local salmon hatchery.

Salmon is a huge part of our culture here in the Pacific Northwest. The tour was split into two groups of 40 kids each by age (over 10 and under 10). When our group started, the tour guide called the kids to order and said, "We're here to learn today even though this isn't school." One young boy in the front raised his hand with a confused look on his face and said, "But... this IS school?!" I love homeschooled kids!

First Week of Preschool 2015

For those of you who have been following this blog over the summer and the past year, it might seem odd to call this the first week of school. But it's official - we have started the new year and since DJ is a November baby, this likely would have been his first year if he went to regular school. In some ways I consider last year just a practice year, but DJ accomplished SO much it also feels kinda silly not to consider him a second year student.
What makes this an official end to summer and start to a new year has more to do with me than DJ. While I have coasted through the summer, I now have a renewed commitment to present new work to DJ each week along with a goal to do at least one "science" activity each week.

At a park with friends

DJ had an awesome time at a local theme park with two of his best friends. Happy Labor Day, everyone!

A nice holiday drive

Don't worry mom, I've got this

Last Gasp of Summer

In the last two weeks of August, DJ has been enjoying what will likely be the last of our warm dry weather. We still haven't "officially" started the school year.

"School Room" Tour 2015

As a new school year approaches, here is an updated look at DJ's "schoolroom," which I put in quotes because this is actually our living room.  We don't have a spare room large enough for all of his school supplies but I also like having his school work as part of his daily life and not something we do in a special space.  Making learning a part of life is one of the many reasons that I choose to homeschool anyway.  Of course, the downside to having school in your living room is that you never get away from it.  It's always there in front of us, for good or bad.

Whirlwind of activity

Wow. For some reason, DJ decided to take a tour of nearly everything on his shelves this week. Note that we are still NOT doing school in any formal sense of the word. But that doesn't seem to stop DJ.

Here is a list of all the activities he chose to do this week in no particular order:

M&D Pattern Blocks & Boards
Guidecraft Feel & Find shapes
Little Blue Truck Book
Knobbed & Knobless Cylinders
Golden Bead Subtraction
Sandpaper Numbers
Cards & Counters (1-10)
Sequencing Cards
Sandpaper Letters
Movable Alphabet
Touch Tablets w/ blindfold
Binomial Cube
Trinomial Cube
Zoology puzzles
Living/Nonliving cards
Rhyming Cards
Classification Cards (bathroom)
Parts of a Car (3-part cards)
Table washing
Vacuuming
Making PB&J sandwiches