Summer School complete, back to school

We were lacking one very important thing this summer- James (Daddy) was away all summer for work. We are so happy he is back!  Of course, when given lemons, you make lemonade! so besides missing James we had a great summer filled with park quests, Tuesdays at Days Cove, visits from friends and family, Bible Bee, and chess.

This was our first summer doing Bible Bee. The final contest was canceled bc of Hurricane Irene but we had our own Bee at home which was probably better for our ages. We all learned tons from 1 Peter and  lots of Bible verses. It's so cool when we read a verse and they get excited because they know it. I think Bible Bee is something our family will continue.  here's a link to a great website where someone uploaded the Bible Bee verses to help memorize.

We also played a lot of chess- again I was amazed how quickly K and C learned. I thought we'd spend a lot longer on learning how the pieces moved. But I had to find a chess book to teach them- we learned strategies for opening and practiced different checkmates. Watch out Bobby Fischer.

We celebrated back to school with fun school boxes from Ikea that are really handy for holding the kids' books. They loved having their favorite color notebooks and a new puzzle each. We met friends at        B and O Railroad Museum  last week and had such a good time that we went back Wednesday to celebrate the last day of August. (B and O and lots other museums were free for military over the summer thanks to Blue Star Museums)

B and O railroad museum

Loving homeschool when we can go learn all over! The kids are super excited about history (especially K) so all the 150th anniversary of Civil War exhibits are super interesting.

New School boxes

Even with all these great places to go to learn, we are actually squeezing in some school at home :) we're using Ambleside Online Year One which covers history, literature, and more.  We're loving the books so far- today we read about the 300 Spartans which is pretty exciting and some from Little House in the Big Woods which the kids are loving. They're ready to get a pig so they can make a bladder balloon! We're also using Math-U-See, Rosetta Stone Spanish, and lots of time out in nature. We went to the fair today and the kids knew tons about the animals in the Maryland Park service exhibit from our park visits. We're continuing our Bible verse memory using this easy system, reading Leading Little Ones to God and  Missionary Stories with the Millers, and spending lots more time outdoors.

I just uploaded our booklist to scribd- check it out here: 

And one of the things I'm most excited about is our new Lewcrew Sports Team. We were thinking about signing up for soccer, karate, swimming, something, ... but nothing seemed the right time, distance, price, ... so James suggested Lewcrew sports. He got cones for practicing soccer or baseball, a pink Dora tennis racquet for Kayleigh, and a tee for some tee ball. Our first practice was a great success Wednesday! Right time (whenever we want), right distance (at home or wherever we want), right price (free except equipment which we'd need anyway), and most important time with Daddy teaching kids. Yeay!!!

our leftie

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