It’s June 9, and we are coming to the end of our second year of homeschooling. Have I had any time at all for blogging? Nope. Don’t know how I thought I was going to fit that in! So here is the year in review…

The Highlights:

Our lovely homeschool co-op, at which E and N have taken classes like sketching, sports science, chemistry with toys, astronomy, and skyscrapers. A attends the co-op’s preschool, and during the second semester, he finally really started to enjoy it. How adorable he was, so proud of his art projects and new songs he had learned. So co-op continues to get a big thumbs-up from all of us.

We’ve had another year of fantastic field trips. Our favorites were Jamestown, Virginia; Claude Moore Colonial Farm in Langley, Virginia; seeing Doktor Kaboom at the Kennedy Center; the Arcimboldo exhibit at the National Gallery of Art; and seeing a production of Annie at the Olney Theatre.

Oldies but goodies include the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore and in Ellicott City, the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore, and Meadowside Nature Center. New field trips for us were to the National Arboretum (everyone liked the Bonsai and Penjing Museum!), Railroaders Memorial Museum and Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Botanic Garden, and the National Archives. Our homeschool class really gets around!

We are continuing to enjoy Story of the World, and this year we have started studying the Middle Ages. The boys love learning about castles, knights, and arms and armor. This year we also started learning American history using the America: The Story of Us DVD’s as our “spine”. The DVD’s are fantastic, very well done. We’ve learning about colonial times, the Revolutionary War, and Westward Expansion. This summer, we’ll be studying the Civil War in a kind of unschool-y way. E and N are psyched about that, and I am thrilled that they are such enthusiastic learners.

Our family trip to Puerto Rico in January was fun, relaxing, AND educational. We went to San Juan, Ponce, Boquerín, Rincín, Arecibo (my mother’s hometown), and back to San Juan. E, N, and I are still hoping that we might one day be able to live there! In the meantime, we are eating more Puerto Rican food than ever in our house, and the boys and I have all been using Rosetta Stone to improve our Spanish.

Now we’re doing a slow fade into summer. We’re planning to school through June, take July off, then start up slowly in August. We’re all looking forward to lazy days by the pool!

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