Girl Scouts caroling

Our scout troup went caroling at a nursing home. Everyone was very appreciative, even if the girls were a tad bit off. It's kind of sad to see how much some of the people want contact with younger people.

Keeping track of schoolwork

I found an online school tracker - http://www.homeschoolskedtrack.com It's been really helpful. I've entered the previous lessons and future lessons in some topics. Then each day I can see what we're supposed to do in the various subjects. If we don't get to a topic, it rolls over to the next day. And I can project into the future to see when we'll finish. So far it looks like the middle of July for most things.

Boca Raton Holiday Parade

It's that time of year, parades abound. We did the Boca Raton Holiday Parade with Roots and Shoots.  Flying behind her is the Sunny the peace dove.

Penguin Pajama party

We went to Motes Marine Lab for the Penguin Pajama Party. Motes brought in some black footed penguins for a few months. It was a fun time, even if we slept on the floor next to a bunch of fishes. I was a little disappointed we didn't sleep next to the penguins, but they were outside and it was cold. It's a pretty cool place, they also have other marine rescues like manatees and a dolphin that they are taking care of. 

Trying out a fish net

Rudy is the curious one!

Coaster and Oswald

Feeding time

Hi, I'm South!

Camping with cousins

We went over to the west coast of Florida. We're camping at Oscar Scherer State Park for a night with my cousin and his daughter, and then tomorrow we'll be doing the Penguin Pajama Party. Usually he goes camping with us sans children, but since we are relatively close to his home, he decided to try a first camping trip for his older child. I think the playground was perfectly located, they could play without much monitoring from us. And there were several families with kids there, so Cowgirl made new friends. But that's not as good, since she then proceeded to play with the other kids more just because they're they same age.

He finally is using his big tent!

The park had a fish painting activity

Playground right across from our site.

Geocaching hike with a new friend.

Little Mermaid

So many little girls are mermaid crazy, and so is this one. She's been wanting a tail for a while, and today's beach session gave her one, for a little while. It was too cool to actually go into the water, so we played in the sand.

Reading at the Book Store

We go to the library a lot, but we also like to go to the book store too. This day we brought a couple of stuffies, and then found a couple of new friends to listen to her reading. It was a very cute moment.

Legoland

We went on a homeschool outing to Legoland. It opened earlier this year and the group rate was quite a deal. The gardens were beautiful, the lego sculptures are pretty cool and the waterskiing lego men are entertaining.

Practicing driving

Harassing the sleeping knight

The wild child

The girl loves to be in trees. 

Looking for food

We are down to 2 hens. They know where their food comes from!

Farmer Jay's Homeschool Class

There was a homeschool class on Organic Farming taught by Farmer Jay. It was a good discussion of plants.  We were trying out a homeschooling group, and while I like them, they are based out of Broward, and a lot of their activities are south of us and generally a bit far. There are a fair number of homeschool groups around here, but a fair percentage are Christian, which doesn't appeal to me.

Ladybug visiting the class!

Jellyfish

We went to the beach, and normally it's a lovely place, but there were moon jellyfish and someone got stung. The stuffy is to remind us what happened. And while the last few weeks there have been a lot of jellies in the water, today wasn't the case. But it only takes one little one to make a big impact. 

Too many Roos and a little chick!

We have 4 roosters. That's 4 too many, since we do live in town. They are beautiful birds, but way too noisy.

Here's my little chick doing her vietnamese workbook. The bottom third is handwriting practice.

Girl Scout Campfire

The Girl Scouts in S. Florida sponsored a campfire that we went to at Camp Telogia. Unfortunately it was a rather rainy day(typical for summer here!), so the fire didn't go so well. They wanted to make sure the girls got a chance to make smores, so we had a small fire in a pan, and once that was done, there were songs and activities inside the main cabin. 

Ocmulgee National Monument

Ocmulgee National Monument: I didn't do any prior research on this park and was very pleasantly surprised to see something totally different from all the other parks we've been to on the east coast. This is a prehistorical site with artifacts from 9000BC... And the main building is pretty cool architecturally too. It was another hot day in GA though. 

There is an entrance to the mound on the left.

One of the old type signs in the NPS system

More Atlanta area National Parks

We went to two outdoor parks today : Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield and Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. It was a very hot day , over 100, and we mostly stayed in the visitor center at Kennesaw and did the JR program inside. At Chattahoochee we went in the deliciously cool water.

Canadian Geese rarely make it to S. Florida

Martin Luther King jr. National Historic Site

Martin Luther King jr. National Historic Site: We really haven't discussed his significance yet, so she got what she got from the Junior Ranger program. I think segregation and racism aren't a real part of her world, so some of the exhibits probably didn't make much of an impact.

Jimmy Carter National Historic Site

Jimmy Carter National Historic Site: I had been to Plains, GA once before as a teen on a road trip with my parents I think. I remember the peanut obsession. Anyway, I'm not sure how much Cowgirl got out of this side trip, other than that someone can come from practically nothing to become President of the US with a lot of hard work and a little luck. Maybe that's a good enough lesson. He's definitely done a lot since he's been President.

One room schoolhouse - working on her Junior Ranger book

Sweeping the yard.

Checking on the animals

Getting an animal interested

Road trip to Atlanta

We took a road trip to Atlanta for Cuong Nhu Training Camp. Along the way we stopped and camped at Georgia Veterans State Park. The day was over 100 degrees, but temps were comfortable at night. The lake nearby cooled off the area nicely. We also had a chance to find a geocache, and the state of Georgia has a whole series of geocaches in their state parks, with little prizes for collecting so many. It's a cool idea to get people to visit their state parks.

Swimming at the "beach"

Our girly campsite

Veterans parks have military stuff!