Father & Son Outing, Homeschool, and more...

Usually Ryan's day off is Monday, but a couple weeks ago his employer needed to rearrange his schedule due to some training.  It worked out great, because they gave him Friday off that week, which allowed Ryan and David to go to part of the stake Fathers & Sons Outing.  They drove about 90 minutes north to Jonathan Dickinson State Park.  David was so excited to be able to build a fire.  Ryan said David spent most of his time with the fire and really enjoyed cooking hot dogs and marshmallows.

Our homeschooling has been a lot more laid back since coming to Florida.  David soaks up learning, so a lot of what he does is self-directed.  I do require him to work on math every day.  Right now we are using a free online learning website called Khan Academy, which he enjoys.  I also require him to do some kind of writing.  He had been doing copywork, but now likes to write a few sentences in his journal.  I told him he can do "sound spelling" and then he is more willing to try writing even if he does not know the "correct" way to spell things.  He reads tons.  His favorite nonfiction books are about space and his favorite fiction books are the Magic Tree House series.

Lately we have been doing some science experiments.  This one you put food coloring in milk, then dip a cotton swab in dish soap, then dip it into the milk and watch the colors move.  We also made bouncy balls from glue, borax, and cornstarch.

Here we were playing a modified version of Quiddler, which helps with his spelling and at the end of each round he gets to add up points.

He wanted a new pillowcase and was super excited to find this fabric at Joann's.  For some reason, though, he says he can only use it on days he reads or watches something about space.

   One of his extra projects - train tracks all over a large box and gluing craft sticks together for various purposes.

My latest knitting project - a cowl/infinity scarf out of a silk/mohair blend.  It was like knitting a cloud out of spider web.  Last June I signed up for a surprise scarf project (I didn't know what it would look like or what kind of yarn it would use), but then all my time was taken up with the altar cloth and moving.  I finally pulled it out a few weeks ago.  I was intimidated by the yarn at first, but now I want to make another one in a different color.  It is sooo soft!

South Florida has two seasons, wet and dry.  Wet season is about to start.  The palm trees are starting to look quite brown.  During the month of May we have only gotten about 3 inches of rain (half of that in one day) when the average is 6 inches.  June's average is 10 inches and the 10-day forecast has rain and thunderstorms for each day, so we will see what happens.  Ryan went to a church meeting where they encouraged members to be ready for hurricane season - which is June through October - and Ryan's work sent out their hurricane procedure information.  Emergency prep is very real here and we have more that we need to do to get ready.