Graduation Fun

One of the things I love best about homeschooling is what we call “Graduation Week”.  We homeschool all year round but usually some time in June we finish the current grade level we’ve been working on and graduate to the next level.  For graduation week we let the kids stay up a half hour later at night, we play games instead of doing our normal school work and we usually go on outdoor adventures and field trips for the week.

One of my kids favorite games is Math Bingo.  You can’t beat a game that is free and super educational at the same time.  Caleb just finished 2nd grade math and Keegan just finished 1st grade math.  I put the same numbers on each of their boards but they both have different equations to answer to figure out what space to cover up.  The first one to bingo gets to pick a sticker to put in their journals but this week we played for chocolate chips!

We are lucky to live close enough to the ocean that we usually have a gentle ocean breeze almost everyday.  Early this week the breeze got upgraded to full on wind – perfect kite flying weather.  Part of our neighborhood development is still being built and we headed up to the empty lots to fly our kites.

Someone almost blew away!

The high winds meant big waves so that evening we headed down to the Oceanside Pier to check out the surfers and watch the waves roll in.  The Oceanside Pier is the longest wooden pier on the western United States coastline at 1,954 feet.  At just about any time in the day you can find people walking the pier, fishing or surfing down below.  It’s beautiful during the day…

And stunning at night…

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We went about an hour before sunset and it was a little cool so we bundled up in our jackets and took a stroll.

We ended up going during lower tide so the waves weren’t very big but there wasn’t a shortage of surfers!

Nor is there ever a shortage of birds!

As much fun as this week has been it’s still hard to believe that my babies are moving up to 2nd and 3rd grade!  I can’t believe that my six year old is doing multiplication tables – he’s my little math whiz.  This year he also discovered that he could read words outside of books and now reads everything, everywhere we go!  I’m so proud of my little guy’s accomplishes this year and I can’t wait to see how he conquers 3rd grade.

While Caleb has done excellent this year, Keegan has by far come the longest way.  It’s hard to believe she’s only 5 years old!  Not only has she excelled at reading and spelling this year but it’s her dedication to improving her handwriting that makes me the most proud.  She worked so hard this year and it shows!

On the left hand side is her writing work from Feb. 27. Right hand side is her writing work from June 6th.

This last school year has been so fun and I’m excited to see what the new year brings.  I love watching my kids learn and seeing the excitement on their faces as they explore and discover new things.  Happy Graduation my babies!

Keegan, 1st grade graduate

Caleb, 2nd grade graduate