You made the kids do what???

Well, we've done the unthinkable.  We have schooled while on vacation...and the children loved it!  We had our "wrap" party for our Seashell Unit Study tonight (shout out to Amanda Bennett's Download 'N Go Unit Studies!)

 Here are the girls with their finished Lapbooks!

Dinner was a little crazy...we had octopus bratwursts and seashell cupcakes for dessert.  I told the girls we were having octopus for dinner so that they could say they had truly experienced a cephalopod in every aspect! Lucca volunteered to fast dinner! They were so relieved when they actually saw dinner...

Tasty Cephalopods!

Cupcake kudos go to this neat lady...I don't know her, but I know I'd like her!  Her ideas are amazing!

http://www.walkingbytheway.com/blog

Seashell Cupcakes

The lapbooks turned out too cute...

They also made these cute seashell boxes.  They are only allowed to bring home as many shells as fit in the box!  How's that for some planning ahead Mommy thinkin'???

Willow's Shell Box

Lucca's Shell Box

I also laminated a Quick Shell Identification Guide for each child...they loved having their own and even created a pocket in their lapbooks for it!

I am trying so hard to re-define school and this has been such a lovely start.  I found school boring and oftentimes ridiculous.  I have enjoyed no part of my didactic years (and there have been MANY of them.)  I look forward to seeing my girls loving learning.  My goal as a homeschooling mom is to instill the 3 most basic tenants there are:  to love God, to love others and to love learning. We're off to a good start this year!

Disclaimer: I take NO responsibility (even though she IS my child) for Lucca's pony tail.  That's a look (sure is a look) that she is perfecting herself and I have nothing to do with nor do I plan to ever have anything to do with!

For the joy of it...

For so many years, I have sought Joy. As a teenager, I believed Joy came with age.  As a college student, I believed it came from the self-help aisle.  As a young adult, I found glimpses of it in God's goodness.  I saw it in the faces of African children, in the integrity of the poor man, in my gift of a husband.  I knew Joy the moment my first child was born.  There was no question.  I was, however, surprised that Joy wasn't a permanent state.   All my life, it seems, I have sought something that, perhaps, was meant to only be fleeting.

And then it became clear...

While watching my sweet little girls chase seagulls on the beach, I realized Joy is available to us anytime we choose it.  I asked the girls, "why chase the seagulls?"  Their answer: "For the Joy of it, Mommy!"

Joy is not to be sought, but to be reveled in.  It's everywhere! I'm learning to soak it up...

We're going to trek down the shore in the dark tonight looking for turtle hatchlings...I'm sure we will be eaten alive by bugs, attacked by ghost crabs and end up sandy and wet... 

We are all looking forward to it...for the Joy of it!

...