Arlington National Cemetery

Last weekend we took a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. The sun was shining brightly and BOY was it hot, but we slathered on the sunscreen, brought our small cooler filled with water and enjoyed a nice dose of Vitamin D!

(as always, click on the pictures to enlarge and see more)

This is the sign greeting us on the way into the cemetery. We made the boys read it and make sure they knew this was not a playground but a place to show respect. All three of them did a real good job.

I think the boys got a lot out of seeing all the different tombstone markers noting which war(s) the person fought in. 

We made our way to the Kennedy grave site and the Tomb of the Unknowns.We would have liked to have seen more but the sun and heat kept the trip short.  Maybe we can go back on another day when the weather cools down a bit more.

I think this robin was posing for the picture. He probably thinks of himself as some sort of celebrity, all these tourist coming to see HIM.

Probably the most impressive thing we got to see was the changing of the guard and some wreath laying ceremonies at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Unfortunately I didn't get a great picture with the crowd. I just held my camera up and "clicked" hoping I might get something worth looking at. LOL

Abigail was there too. We had to keep her covered up from the sun.

I caught this glimpse on our walk back down to the entrance. It's a little over exposed but you can see the Washington Memorial there in the background.

Campout

We officially finished up school last Thursday. Our "review" with the State went very well. I'm pleased with how well our first year homeschooling back in the States has gone.

Well, to kick off our summer break correctly, on Friday, Dennis and the boys went on a Men and Boys Campout with our church. They had a great time sleeping out in the woods, eating marshmallows, shooting guns!? Yep, you read that right! They set up a shooting range, apparently with some exploding targets as well, and the boys got some instruction on shooting weapons. They had a great time!

Us girls stayed home and enjoyed a quiet, peaceful house.

Our little "school house"

 Here's a little peek into our little "school house",

if you ever wondered where our learning takes place.

This here is learning central. Our dining room table / school room.

Most of our day takes place at or around this table. As you can see there is a nice big floor space here in the center for any activities. Sometimes Ryan likes to take his books and sprawl out on the floor instead of sitting at the table. Other time we will use the space to sit all together during group activities and experiments.

Here's a closer look at our maps and charts. The charts to the right are our English grammar helps: what is a verb; preposition list; diagramming; etc.

Here is Elizabeth's little nook. She sits here and colors, plays with playdoh, crafts, whatever will keep her occupied for a minute or two before she darts off somewhere else.

This was supposed to be our actual school room. As you can see, space does not allow for it. So now it is more of a reading/computer lab/relaxing space. The boys lounge in here to do their reading or go on the computer for their typing or math exercises. They also have a little tv to play video games on the weekends... only if they are earned!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our little schooling areas!

Final days of school

We are winding down the school year here... yay!!

 I have been a bit busy lately getting ready for our final school review with the State, among many other family activities. So, I snapped a few pictures of some of the things we had been working on the last few weeks to give you a quick update before we take a break for the summer. Don't worry, I will still be updating through the summer (or so I plan to) we have a lot of fun activities planned between now and October so stay tuned! ;)

Here are the books we used for History and Science. We had a great year learning how the United States came to be plus all of the other world events going on at the same time:

This is our wall map filled for the year. All of the states filled in are the members of the Union up to1850. (The time period we have stopped at for the year. We will pick up from there next year)

The boys (Elizabeth too) have loved filling in this map and learning about these states.

Here's a quick timeline snapshot of what we have studied about this year:

 

 

Both boys kept up notebooks for History and Science. 

Each day, after a lesson they had to write or draw a picture of the events.

(maybe we have to take a drawing class next year and try to get past the stick figure stage LOL)

In Science we learned all about Botany for the 2nd semester.

Each boy did a lapbook like below as we worked through each lesson and experiments

Some samples of Sean's art work

And Ryan's art work

Next year we are learning from 1850 until modern times.

Here are some of the books we'll be using 

(minus the Narnia series to the right, Sean is reading through those now and finishing them over the summer)

This is our new wall map for next year. 

It's huge, I just finished laminating each little section.

Happy Summer everyone!!