Adventures in Year 3

We finished out our school year last week with a final week long field trip to the beach!  We love going to the beach and since the oldest just finished Appologia Zoology 2, it seemed a fitting end of the school year!

It's hard to believe that we have been homeschooling for 3 years.  As a brand new teacher 15 years ago, this is not a journey I ever thought we would be taking.  However, the longer we do it, the more I am able to see that this is most certainly the right choice for our family.  My first "homeschooling goal" has always been to get the oldest to 3rd grade and know that if we wanted, we could put him in public school and he would be on the same page as his peers.  I believe that we have accomplished that goal!

We may not be forever homeschoolers, and we plan to take it year by year, semester by semester, day by day, but for right now we embrace the chaos!


Here is a look back at our year!

First day of school!

Manipulatives for the win! 

We enjoyed ALOT of trips to the zoo aka his special place!

We watched the eagle hatching.

We got cats.  Or rather the cats found us...

We studied geography! 

Wild Kratts!!

Doesn't get much cuter!

First Science Fair! 

We participated in the Game School Challenge! 

Great Wolf Lodge!

Sometimes, I can make good on my promises to see cool things :)

Teach your children well,

Their father's hell did slowly go by,

And feed them on your dreams

The one they picks, the one you'll know by.

Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,

So just look at them and sigh

And know they love you.

-Graham Nash

Adventures in Weathering the Storms

Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.

This is me.  As I reflect on the last days of school, I am reminded of how incredibly insane those days were.  Our last 3 months really.  And if I let myself think on it for long, I am reminded that since Christmas our days have never really slowed down at all, and I am weary.

The storms of life have hit us hard.  The clouds have been dark and came rolling in.  Fast.  The rain has been painful.  Stinging as it touches our skin.

We have dealt with death.  Lots of death.  

We have done a lot of traveling.

A LOT of school on the road.

In the end, we raced to finish our books because we were all just so, so done with doing ALL THE THINGS required of us. 

And yet, He has been carrying us all along.  

When you look in the sand there is only one set of footprints and they are not ours.

Now we rest.  In His arms. 

We will meet him in the morning.

Won't you join us?  We all need rest.  We all need to be carried through life's storms.  

Through life's trials.  

You are not alone.  Ever.  

There is great hope.

"Come to me all who are weary."

A Prayer in the Morning

Thank you God for making me alive.

To beauty, to love, to life,

Thank you, too, for 

making me know

That quietness follows the strife.

Thank you for the constant assurance

That, even as the storm clouds rise,

The world is Yours and each 

sparrow's fall

Is seen by Your watchful eyes.

Teach me, God to

feel Your presence

In everything I see-

In nature, in people

in common events;

and even, at times, in me.

Teach me how to stay alive

'Midst the deadening concerns

 of the day.

Show me how to guard against

Becoming callous along the way

Create in me an eagerness, God.

To live, to love, to care.

Fill my heart so full of love

That I can't keep it there.

Send me forth every day,

Not for some great deed;

But help me see the

greatness that lies

In meeting on an ordinary need.

-Sidney E. Sandridge aka Papa