Day 1 — May 22, 2010

Well, as I had said, we went on a mini-vacation of sorts to “Journey’s End”.  We went with another family, as well as taking along Tyler’s best friend, James, and Lit’l Bit.

I was hoping to only have pictures on here of the 22nd, but it was too difficult to gather all the kids together the 22nd. . .

Now my family are early risers.  I’ve mentioned this before, and I don’t quite believe that people think I’m being honest.

The family we went with claim to be lazy morning people.  (For the record, if you ever tell me that, I do believe you most sincerely.)

We had gone to bed at almost midnight the night before, but most of my crew was up and had eaten breakfast by 0700 on this day.  Thankfully, we were sleeping in a different location than the other family, so they were spared our early rising (at least for the moment).

On tap for the day — anything to do with water.  And a challenge of a canoe race first thing.  So, Tyler and James decided to go out for a warm-up.

I managed to keep the kids away from the other family for an hour, but I forgot that James has his own cell phone, and he had found the phone number for the other location.  (I don’t believe that they got to sleep in at all!  But, they still didn’t wake till almost 0830.)

*sigh*

As I said, a challenge had been tossed out and accepted, so boundaries needed to be determined.

And, then the race was on!

The girls totally won!

I have to tell you, I love taking pictures, but I’ve been tipped out of boats enough times, that I don’t care to take my camera with me on such trips.  I truly wish that was not the case, as I would loved to have pictures of the things we saw whilst canoeing, but that’s just the way of things.

We took a couple of long canoe rides and saw a great number of blue heron, as well as Osprey.  We also saw a number of water snakes, frogs and fish, as well as soft-shelled crab (most of those were dead).

We also saw a  muskrat, and possibly some otters.  (We just saw their heads above water at a distance so we can’t be sure about the otters.)

We were sharing our water playground with speed boats, jet skis and kayaks.  (The kayaks never presented a problem.)  The speed boats and jet skis were just a massive pain though!  At one point they were coming on so fast (it is actually their “wake” that presents the problem) that regardless of how hard we tried we could not move.  The best we were able to do was just sit and keep the canoe upright.  That caused the two younger people in the canoe some massive issues that we were going to be stuck out on the water forever, but then there was the triumph of making it home safe and sound, albeit wet, and all was made right in the world.

There was also a paddle-boat there for our use.

The only problem with that though was that the rudder was broke, so it lent a good perspective (the first time out) to the saying, “up the river without a paddle”. 

Some of the kids went swimming

because they are nuts!  The water was frigid!

So, how does this relate to a homeschooler?

Subject	*	Notes
English
Math
Science	*	nature studies, force, simple vs. complex machines
History
The “Arts”
PE	*	exercise, competition, working together
Socialization	*	competition, working together, having fun, enjoying being around multiple age groups
Life Skills
“Other”

Please note I put the ever-so-aggravating subject heading of “socialization” on this little chart.  I am honestly frustrated by that continually being brought up!  (You’d never see such a thing on a public school report card.)  So, if nothing else, I will dispel that item from everyone’s head for good! 

(Which coming from my family, who enjoys our quiet time, a number of whom are quite shy, and aren’t active in many groups / activities should be a sufficient indicator that “socialization” truly is not an issue.)