Perfect view for a "first day" back at the books

School's Back in Session!

Us too, I suppose, since we just got back into things after our trip to Japan, but our actual excitement is that all the school kids are back in school! We have all our favorite places back! Since we're year-round learners in a variety of grades (depending on the subject and the kid), the "back to school" season doesn't mean much, but I informed the girls that they can officially tell people who inevitably ask this time of year that, yes, they are "back in school" and that they're in 4th (Lion) and 6th grades (Monkey and Bug).

Here's what our last few weeks have looked like:

For our first "official" day back into lessons, we decided to do it Hawaii style: We packed up a few books, picked up a box of Dunkin' Donuts, and headed for our favorite nearby beach! After enjoying breakfast, we spread out a blanket in the sand to do some of our read aloud lessons. Conveniently enough we were learning about the Polynesian explorers, so we filmed their history presentation on location! They also copied out their spelling words in the sand and had the rest of the morning to play and explore. (Meanwhile, I had the morning to sit on the beach, read, pray, and journal.)

We started up our standing Wednesday morning pool dates with another homeschool family! Our combined six kids are LOVING having the pool basically all to themselves. (My apologies to the sunbathers.)

We also made it back to the zoo for the first time in months--just us and a handful of preschoolers and Japanese tourists. We had a lovely, leisurely stroll through the zoo, making sure to spot some of our favorites: elephants, monkeys, and the tiger (he was up and about this time!). We even got to chat with a couple of zookeepers. One was set up for discussion with a table display of replica monkey skulls and hands, and the other was cleaning out a turtle pond and clearly enjoyed the company and conversation of a trio of inquisitive girls.

My kids are in that climbing structure somewhere!
(The zoo playground might be one of their favorite things.)

At Monkey's request we visited the bouldering gym--our first time since she broke her arm! Now that she's free of the cast and back to full strength, she had a blast and climbed hard the whole time--she came home with the blisters to prove it, but wants to go back regularly. Poor Lion was having fun until she pulled a groin muscle--fortunately, toward the end of our planned stay. Bug meanwhile decided that she's just not that into climbing and will likely stay home to work on projects next time.

The week after we returned from Japan, they had their taekwando belt test. They are officially yellow belts now! This is especially exciting because technically they were supposed to go from no belts to white belts, but they worked hard and proved they knew enough to skip a belt and go straight to yellow! Here they are being applauded by the school after Master C presented them with their belts: