Life Has Been A Whirlwind

Now that we are coming close to the end of Emma's Kindergarten school year, we have to look back and evaluate how we did. Lots of things happened this year to take the focus away from Emma and homeschooling. Of course holidays can be a big distraction, but it's the unplanned events in life that really knock you off of your seat. With the very unexpected passing of Drew's father in mid-January, we were truly thrown for a loop. Now being 4 months since he passed, it is still difficult but we are trying to focus a majority of our attention to homeschooling again. Of course, since my last post the kids have been learning and we haven't been neglecting them, but we just haven't put all of our energy into their education. Children are always learning by the thing they do best, living life.

Some ways that Emma has been learning is by playing on the computer or watching educational shows. We also read with her of course. As most of you probably know already, we just took a 2 week road trip. The purpose of the trip was kind of a memorial to Drew's father, but also turned out to be very educational.

We tried to stop at as many national parks, wildlife refuges or national forests as possible. We also did some other things, like going to a Butterfly conservatory, some state parks, the clearwater marine aquarium and the Miami Seaquarium.  

One thing we did that I had fun with was getting a National Park passport stamped at the various national areas that we went to. Overall our trip was very pleasurable. Yes, even driving about 4500 miles round trip with 3 children ages 6 and under.

Now we are starting to plan the upcoming school year. Hoping to do lots of hand-on activities, one of which will be volunteer work for Emma. We gave her a few options, Presque Isle, the Tom Ridge Environmental Center, the zoo or a farm. Emma chose a farm and more specifically to help with horses. We are in the process of getting that planned. I love her love for animals :)

Have a great summer!