Sissy's Second Grade Year: Post #9

Out and About

We joined our friends for a day at Sweetfield Farms Brooksville. They had many activities for the kids.

Sis is reading our clue to help us through the sunflower maze.

old-fashioned toys and games

pig races

scavenger hunt

 

Fun day!

 

a library trip one day

 

one of the first swims of the season

 

And, of course, more Gone Bananas!

 

To celebrate the boys' last week of school, we ate lunch and played Pictionary at Kaleisia Tea Lounge.

 

Home "School"

 One of our favorite units of the year was our Fairy Tale Unit. We read lots of books and stories and watched a few fairy tale movies, as well.

She enjoyed working on this project. We made pocket pages with construction paper, and each page held different folk tale/fairy tale activities.

Here are some examples of the activities.

 These are the 3 books that helped us with our unit. Literature Pockets are great books to use. The book in the middle contains short stories with reading comprehension questions.

Sis has gotten to be a pretty independent cook. She loves it.

 

Kaleisia School

 We enjoy going to one of our favorite restaurants, Kaleisia Tea Lounge, ordering food, and sitting in the "quiet" (no shoes) room. Sis and I shared this tray of food while she worked on homework.

 her smoothie with boba and my tea

 

Homeschool Co-op

 We celebrated the end of the school year with our homeschool co-op at Lakewood Retreat. This is a lovely, peaceful Christian camp and conference center with so many activities such as camping, canoes, nature trail, game room, and outdoor sporting areas. We packed a picnic lunch and spent most of the day at the pool...

 

and the zipline. That's us moms taking our turn!

 

 Dance

 

The moment finally arrived: recital time. These were her three costumes (on picture day):

hip hop (Beat It)

 

 lyrical (Say Something)

 

 jazz (Rio)

 

lining up for dress rehearsal

 

after her recital

 

Field Trip

 

We had the fun opportunity to join Tornado's school on their field trip to LEGOLAND. Here are several pics from our day. It sprinkled a little bit during the day, and it was totally pouring by the time we had to walk to the car. But we managed to squeeze in a full day of fun.

 Choir Party

 first with a little support...

 

and then taking off!

 

 

It was a nice culmination to their choir experience. I wish we could do it again next year, but we are going to take some time off next year because of the 30 minute drive. If we were a little closer, we would love to do it again.

 

 Another Field Trip

 It was Tornado who inspired this field trip to Ripley's Believe it or Not! in Orlando. He's all about the weird and wacky.

Teacher/Big Sister

another craft she helped Brother with

 

True Love Always, I hope

 

Cultural Experience

 We had the unique experience of hosting a wonderful woman from Latvia in our home for a few days. This is something we have done before, as we have been involved with orphan hosting ministries for the past few years.

We brought her to the beach with us on the beach afternoon/evening we had with our homeschool co-op friends. The previous chaperone we hosted could speak English very well, and I assumed that all of the chaperones spoke English. She did not. So it was fun and sweet trying to communicate with her with few words but lots of smiles, hand motions, and a little bit of google translate. She was such an easy, gracious guest. I recommend hosting the kids in these programs, and I greatly recommend hosting the chaperones. The only thing it costs you is a little time - and you offer them a bed and feed them meals in your home. They are given spending money to use for outings, etc.

 

 

We drove to Disney Springs to meet the next hosting family that would be taking her with them. We ate at Rainforest Café. The woman (along with her children) was one of the nicest ladies ever. We have been so fortunate with all of the very cool people we've met through hosting and adoption.

 

 We also took her to the Tampa Bay History Center. This is the kids' favorite part, the cabin inside the museum.

4th of July

4th of July party at a nearby neighborhood

 

Summer 2015

Mid July, the kids and I headed to the Midwest for the rest of the summer. I celebrated my 40th birthday with a big party, and we filled our days doing things like going to the creek, attending my hometown festival, and going to parks that I went to growing up. Daddy also flew out for several days, too, to hang out with us.

Some of their activities:

Sis was able to spend a week with her best friend in Arkansas at a horse day camp. She loved it and learned so much about horses and riding.

 crazy hair day at basketball camp

 

learning about the Civil War at

Wilson's Creek Battlefield

 Our kids won the only 3 awards given at the basketball camp they attended. Sister's award was the Big Dog award because she had earned the most points throughout the week, memorizing scripture/homework, following rules, and playing well, etc. (Dash's award was achieved through performance and skill. My friend's daughter was the most enthusiastic.)

 panning for "gold" at Silver Dollar City

 I took the kids to Fantastic Caverns in Springfield, which was the location of my 4th grade field trip.

 The kids had a great experience volunteering at a local back to school event.

 We visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Home and Museum in Mansfield, MO. This is the Rocky Ridge home they lived in for awhile, which is just down the road from their farm. We have been reading the Little House books and watching the television series, so they loved this. Even the boys like listening to me read the books to them.

 I helped my friend set up a zipline in her backyard. They enjoyed all of their time in my friend's yard because it's a child's dream place to play. I really loved and appreciated how much "simple" time my kids spent this summer, without television and wifi. They played with one another and were so creative with their time.

 The kids joined our sweet friend for a lemonade stand on Main Street. They raised money (I think it was around $180!) for Samaritan's Purse Children's Heart Project. Everyone was so sweet who stopped by.

 

 

 They enjoyed so many other activities in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois over the summer. They had great quality time with relatives and making new friends. Finally, at the end of August, we headed back to Florida...

Farewell to summer beach trip!

Farewell to second grade!