August Activities

August was pretty eventful for us. Initially I planned to start school the first week of August but everyone else had other ideas. Our new volleyball coach scheduled 2 a days for the first week. Our speech and debate coach found a good speech and debate camp for the second week. The third week my girlfriend and her family were able to come to the lake for a visit.

The best laid plans is really code for I need to learn to be more flexible. Flexibility is overrated! It really means I'm not getting anything accomplished and I'm trying to be okay about it. All the activity was fun and I wouldn't have wanted to miss any of it, but it also put me behind with lesson planning, gardening, home keeping, etc.

Amidst all the fun this summer, we received troublesome news about Brad's grandfather. He was diagnosed with cancer. He is scheduled to have surgery soon. The family had a party for him and we were able to visit with him. The kids call him "Candy Man" because he always has oodles of candy in his pockets. Ladybug was ill so she wasn't able to come. Below is a picture of Candy Man and his wife Joan with a small portion of his great-grandchildren.



We made several more trips to Lake Michigan with friends. Busy Bee really enjoyed his new wake board. He stayed busy on the shoreline most of the day riding on it. People were stopping him constantly and asking him about it. Grown men were tumbling into the surf left and right trying to ride the board. Busy Bee made it look easy but he was also much lighter than they were.

Ladybug, Bookworm and her friend had a great time together. The waves were huge that day and I was still recovering with a bout of vertigo. Let's just say that I wasn't always sure which way was up. The kids thought it was pretty funny.



We walked the beach and watched the big ships going through the channel. The sailboats were so pretty to watch and I've always liked lighthouses.



Now it's time to buckle down and get moving on all those lesson plans. I also have some Charlotte Mason mp3's to listen to. I am definitely ready for a schedule again. Hope you're enjoying your summer.

Back At It

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer break. We are ready to get back to a regular routine. You can add up on one hand the number of times our whole family spent an entire 24 hours at our home. We spent the majority of our time at the lake with a week here and there at camps or visiting friends.

We'll start lessons in a week and I will be posting more regularly now that I'll actually be at home. We have no internet at the lake and that's okay with me. All I want to do when I'm there is swim, float or fish and visit with good friends.

I plan on deep cleaning our learning room and doing a little more organizing this week. The kids are chomping at the bit to open their new books. My non-homeschooling friends think we're strange. It's like Christmas when those book orders start arriving!

We have our books and materials all ready to go. We're trying out a new spelling program this year- I'll post about that after we've been into it for a few weeks. I have also written up my own history curriculum for the most part for this year. I loved Mystery of History, but we finished Book 3 and Book 4 won't be done for awhile yet. I couldn't find anything I liked quite as well, so here goes nothing...

Detroit Zoo

Bookworm wanted to go to a zoo for her birthday. She LOVES Polar Bears. I'm sure you all think Polar Bears and right away the Detroit Zoo pops into your head. Right? Well that is what popped into Bookworms head. I admit to some very low expectations, but it was her choice. We each invited a friend and off we went.WOW! I was blown away. The zoo was clean with beautiful gardens, reflecting pools and fountains. The exhibits were huge and the animals seemed content. I never saw one thing referring to evolution. I know, I was shocked! The signs were educational and focused on the animal and it's habitat as well as what the zoo keeper's do to enrich the animals lives. They also shared about their research and ongoing efforts to save endangered species.

The Arctic exhibit was awesome. The Polar Bears were active and moving around their 4 1/2 acre exhibit. We went through 3 separate times and every time they were doing something different. This was definitely the highlight of the day for us.

The girls at the reflecting pool. I highly recommend this zoo. The prices were very reasonable, especially compared to Cincinnati or Indy.

This guy had me a little concerned. He kept staring at me and I don't have a good track record with the Gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo. He threw a clump of sod over the ravine and it narrowly missed my head.