Our Life of Learning: NOT Back to School Day

One of the awesome perks of homeschooling is that we don't have to go on the public school's schedule. We started 3 weeks before the public schools started, so when it was time for the public school to start, we decided to have our own "NOT Back to School Day". I will out myself and say that this was a little perk that I might have mentioned to the girls when they were up in the air about homeschooling ;). A bribe...nahhhh, but a nice little perk :).

For our Not Back to School Day we decided to take a trip to the beach. We had been so busy that we hadn't actually taken the kids to the beach all summer long :(. We are normally Central California Coast folks but we decided to change it up this time and head south. In our new found Life of Learning, I couldn't just let this be a regular ol' beach trip...I wanted to make it educational in the process. Leading up to the trip, I found a very cute little preschool beach unit for Miss Mir. It had some fun math, writing, matching, cutting, sorting, tracing, etc projects in it. We did some leading up to the trip, some during the trip, and even some after the trip. She loved it :)

For the older 2 girls, I wanted to find something that taught us about the beach itself, not necessarily the ocean life, but truly about what you experience at the beach itself. What the sand is made out of, how the shells get there, etc. I found a great study with wonderful book suggestions, art activities and more. It gave the kids a whole new way of looking at the beautiful sand beneath their toes and a wonderful appreciation for God's gorgeous creation.

My sister is a teacher at our co-op preschool, but the first day of school wasn't until Tuesday, so she got to go with us, and of course she brought my cutie patootie 2 yr old niece also. Unfortunately Daddy didn't get the day off work, so it was a just a girls trip this time. Since we were at a new beach, we wanted to see everything that it had to offer. We started off at Redondo Beach with a goal of a paddle boat ride or a glass bottom boat trip. After some back and forth and a little drama that comes with 4 kids, we decided on the glass bottom boat ride through the harbor. It's just a little boat and not a long trip at all, but what fun it was! When you were in the bottom of the boat, the driver took you along the rocks so you could see some beautiful sea life. I wish I knew all the names of the fish...but alas...I don't LOL. I know one of them is apparently the California State Saltwater Fish (or something similar)? I didn't even know there was such a thing, but we saw it ;). The boat also drove us to an old abandoned dock that has become home to a large number of sea lions. The guys were so crowded on it they were laying all over each other and fighting to keep their position on the makeshift island. It was fun to see :)

Auntie & Aly

Miss J

Sav

Sea lions

Aly

Fish everywhere!

Watching the sea lions

Miss Mir - This sums up her mood for a large
portion of the day

After walking along the pier, we then headed next door to Hermosa Beach for the sand-castle-building-play-in-the-sea type fun. That waves were much stronger than we were used to, so it took all of 3 seconds for the first kid to eat a face full of sand, and maybe a max of 5 minutes before 3 of the 4 had done the same. They were tough and kept on playing...some a little more cautiously...some not a care in the world :). We had sand castles being built, shells being gathered, naps in the sun, arts & crafts on the beach, and just general fun :).