End Of Year Celebration

To end our school year I organized an End of Year Celebration with some fellow homeschooling families. This is only the second year doing this and it grew a lot this year, I am hoping that by the end of next year it will be even larger.... as we all (children & adults) loved it. It was a wonderful way to put a close to the year or simply award your child some recognition on accomplishments they worked hard on throughout the past year. This was a a nice approach for homeschoolers who followed various calendars - it was not assumed each family was 'ending' the school year as some were awarding reading awards, special class awards, workshops certificates, art awards, musical talents, etc. A wonderful mix!!

We invited all the students to bring along some of their work from the year to share.  There was such a variety of work displayed, everything from display boards of art work to Lego creations, photo montages to portfolios of work, sewing samples and penmanship work, live music and singing. The variety of work was wonderful and really offered a great show to enjoy for both the kids and the adults.

After we all enjoyed time viewing the kids work we viewed a slide show of the year as a group and kids were then invited to share their work. This offered them a chance to do some public speaking (which was so much fun!) and some did musical pieces... so much talent! To finish out the evening each family then brought up their students to recognize their year.

I did Holly's award, recognizing her First Grade year. She had an amazing year filled with so many activities and field trips, classes and group experiences, math and art, science and nature club, reading to many books to count, spelling and writing, projects and cooking... the list is endless! Holly has grown as a student and we are so very proud of her. She is now heading to second grade this coming fall -- another wonderful year ahead I am sure!

It was a wonderful evening and I am looking forward to watching these kiddos grow through the years and see their wonderful accomplishments!

Rock Hound Discovery Kit

Bryan and Holly picked up this neat little Rock Hound Discovery Kit from a place called Rock Solid Learning website. This was a fun bag of sandy dirt filled with a large variety of rocks and fossil bits. She loved it!!!

We placed the contents into a bin and she then sifted through and found items - using a magnifying glass, loupe, brushes and a card to identify her findings this kept her entertained for some time. Rocks and fossils are right up her alley so Holly adored this project kit! We also got a bag of rocks to add to her tumbler mix in which she cannot wait to get started!

Titlow Beach

We enjoyed a wonderful day on the beach with several friends from our homeschool group. The tides were very low this day, lowest of the year making for some wonderful beach combing. This beach is a very rocky beach with old pilings and debris - which actually makes for great places for sea creatures to hide. We brought along a laminate field guide and some clear containers to place creatures in and share a bit before returning safely to their home.  This was a fabulous outing in which we learned so much!!

Fishing

Holly enjoyed a bit of fishing with Dad this week! We visited two different lakes for her to drop her line in. She is interested in learning more on fishing and Bryan is ready to take this on as he would love to see her enjoy this hobby... I would love to see her enjoy this hobby!

Niqually Delta

About a week ago I took the kids down to Nisqually Delta park, just them and myself... it was really nice! Typically we do many of these outings with a larger group and I have to say that I loved enjoying this day with just my two kiddos. They were on their very best behavior, very engaged, cooperative, inquisitive and joyful!

The park was rather quiet as the weather was not the most promising. We lucked out and enjoed the few hours in between rains squalls, in fact the sun came to visit us. With the park being quiet it offered ample opportunity to find animals we don't normally find such as racoon, mice, rabbits, snakes, frogs and turtles. The forest was filled with song from more birds than we could count... it was amazing!

We took many opportunities to just sit, watch and listen versus rushing along the boardwalk... we slowed down! Slowing down truly ensured we found all of these amazing sightings, watch bird behaviours, listened to bird songs and located the matching birds, watched raccoons forage and rabbits nibble. It was amaizing! All of this really inspired Holly to nature journal - and both Hudson and I joined in.

It was a beautiful day!!