Vacation Day vs School Day

Last week I was reading Jamie's blog and she was discussing how we should make the first day of school a fun and different day from the usual routine. Since we planned a four-day weekend to Michigan this past weekend - and I was feeling a bit guilty for not having started school yet - I decided that we could very easily turn yesterday into our first official day of school and make it different and fun.

While in Michigan, we were fortunate to be on a lake and had the use of a boat. So, for our first day of school, we rode around the lake and studied the various architectural styles of the houses. We talked about the differences between a vacation home built in the 50s and 60s and a vacation home built since the 90s!

We discussed architectural designs such as the cantilever and how it actually works.

We looked at the topography of the lake and talked about how it is that grass can grow in the middle of a lake.

We studied physics as we looked at the reason why a pontoon boat cannot easily flip over.

We had gym class as we swam and some of the kids learned how to steer a kayak.

Not bad for a first day of school. See what a bit of thinking outside of the box can do to liven up learning! (Although some might accuse me of trying to justify a vacation day as a school day :)

When we got home from Michigan last night, we saw that our "real" school books had arrived, and so, never fear, we cracked them open today and began to expand our horizons while we study the saints, the Declaration of Independence, learn French and yes, struggle through another year of math!

I love homeschooling and the variety of ways that we can utilize to teach topics that, if learned about through reading a book, could be very boring! May God bless and multiply our efforts as we delve into another year.

God Bless!