School Goes On...

Hello all! We plan to be away from home for the entire third quarter and since it is such a long time, we decided that it was just not smart to skip school, I am not a fan of the summer brain drain and never allowed school to be fully out, even when they were enrolled in private schools. I would always put them in some type of education program and we would do summer workbooks, so needless to say school would go on! We have one entire suitcase dedicated to just books and we found out the hard way that it was just TOO MUCH weight for an airplane. We had to open each suitcase and spread the book love. Everyone always has too many clothes or shoes or bags...nope, we're nerds with too many books!

The sun shines bright while we are away and what better way to enjoy it than to do school work outside?! Oh yes, to do it pool side! Big smiles and happy faces say it all! We love waking up and having our breakfast together and then heading outdoors to do our work! Sometimes it's a bit breezy and we need to wear sweaters, but it's always awesome!

One thing I love about when we travel, is getting to know the area and the best way to do it, is to master public transportation. Needless to say, it can be scary, but that is what an adventure starts out as! I purchased a week pass for us so that we could come and go as we please and figure it out as we go! Day one was quite the show, as I was completely clueless but I pretended to know what I was doing and the kids loved it all!

Workbook work is one thing, but we also took our travels into consideration. We studied the states we would be visiting and budgets and also worked on plans for our days along with miles walked and things like that. I love teaching my kids about every day things as well as book things!

There is ALWAYS time for fun on all of our trips! Exploring is never out of the question and learning something new is ALWAYS happening!

Enjoy every minute my friends!!

 

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Sun...Sand and WINTER?!?!

Hi there! I am here and doing more than well but I know that we have pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth! Let me explain and share what we have been up to. Last year, we decided to spend the Winter in Mexico and come back in time for the snow to begin melting and the temperatures to be warmer. We plan on coming home in March. Unfortunately it began to snow and get chilly RIGHT before we left and I even worried that our flight would not get out...wait WHAT?! Yes...we flew...we had planned on making it a grand adventure by taking a bus cross country to Dallas, Texas. This was going to be a 48 hour adventure with many stops along the way to do a quick explore and learn. THEN...the weather went sour and my husband began to worry about busses on icy roads and the like...so we bought plane tickets...at the last minute...OUCH! That bit into our vacation budget but oh well, we were not going to get stressed out. Why are they smiling on this snow mound? Ohhh because we are off to the sandy beaches of Mexico and the shining sun of Texas!

Our plane ended up being delayed a bit, but not by much at all...the staff at Southwest was so awesome, even though we were last to board due to not checking in on time...they had saved a row of seats for at least my children to all sit together! That is always my biggest worry about open seating plans on planes but this was fantastic.

Believe it or not, they actually agreed on an order as to who gets to sit by the window seat and I did not have to encounter any arguments!

Dallas became our home for a week before we headed off to the warm weather and delicious food of Mexico. My kids found it quite humorous that at 60 degrees, they still had their heat on in the cars and were bundled up as we were in t-shirts and sometimes even shorts!

I will be updating this blog on a regular basis but the lack of internet and the plethora of exploring have us doing so much more than blogging. The main point of today's post is to share how we will be keeping a travel journal!

One thing we love to do is color and write, so instead of buying a premade journal, I decided to buy a large package of postcard sized thick cardstock. I placed the paper in a box with markers, pens, pencils, scissors, glue sticks, decorative tape, a hole punch and binder rings. This kept everything in one place and made it easy to travel with. This is a NECESSITY as we would be in and out of over 8 hotels and 4 different rental homes as well as staying with family members.

The reason for the tape is so that we can decorate the plain paper and turn them into postcards to send to friends and family about our adventure! Each hotel front desk sells stamps and offers a mailing service, postcards and cheaper than letters and it is a great way to get our art in too! The hole punch and binder rings are for our journal! Each night before bed and before we begin to read, each child takes a card and on one side begins to write about their favorite part of the day and then on the opposite side they can either draw a picture or glue a picture we print out or glue maps, receipts...anything they have as a memento from that day! These make for spectacular mini scrapbooks to remember trips by!

Enjoy every minute my friends! We are off to the pool!

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