Exploring Countries and Cultures 2013-2014

I really did. I had good intentions for blogging my way through the school year with Exploring Countries and Cultures. I was off to a good start and then it happened: my hubby got an INCREDIBLE job opportunity that would not only be the PERFECT fit for him, but it would also move us back to our hometown of Nashville, TN after 14 years.

So it was a whirlwind. Packing, moving, living with my parents while the Memphis house sold and our new house was finished being built, then the move, the unpacking, the getting settled. I am just now feeling like I have my feet on solid ground. This all started the week of Halloween; we moved into our new house in March, and now it's October again. Needless to say, the blogging through the school year wasn't exactly a priority for me this past year.

So I guess I'll do a little photo-dump of some moments I captured and share them here.

We started our school year off GREAT! 

We had fun learning together.

Mom recruited Dad to stay home and help with the worm experiment. 

We talked about people from all over the world and how they looked different.

I got a brilliant idea to make a HUGE mess - I mean a paper mache Earth. 

The kids "applied for their passports" to set off on our Exploring Countries and Cultures Adventures! 

The fall is my favorite time to do school OUTSIDE!

After our study of globes and maps, we made a cake and decorated it like a map of the Earth.

We discovered our favorite pencil. 

We made our annual trip to the hummingbird festival. 

hummingbird festival

hummingbird festival

We went swimming in the middle of the day and counted it as PE. 

We hugged it out. 

We worked hard! 

and had a little fun with our spelling word cards. :) 

We made candy-corn art for fall. 

We got the final word that we were MOVING! 

I packed up our school stuff and we moved to Nashville. 

We made ourselves a little "School Room" area in Grandmoo and PawPaw's bonus room. 

And school continued as normal as possible. 

Zoe loves lying on the floor anyway, so she was in heaven. 

We had some funny moments

and some sweet ones. 

We studied about Art in different cultures. 

We read about EcoSystems. 

And we huddled up on the floor and got to work. 

We found our new house. 

And we went on a field-trip with some new friends to a Plantation Home.

We made valentines crafts. 

and practiced reading. 

We read about some great missionaries. 

And did our final walk-through of our house. 

We let it go - even when they glue the poem on upside down. 

And I went to the Teach Them Diligently homeschool conference. 

This is why we do what we do. 

I found these AMAZING Charlotte Mason picture study sets that I knew would go along beautifully with our study of Creation to the Greeks for the next school year. 

We listened to some great speakers and leaders in the homeschool community. 

And we even snuck away for lunch with just the two of us. 

We said goodbye to our first home. 

And hello to our new one. 

We piled the school stuff in. 

And started unpacking books. 

We pushed boxes out of the way so we could hang the white board. 

And things started to feel more like home. 

The kids unpacked our games. 

And made us an awesome game closet. 

They played outside in our new neighborhood. 

And took a little nap on a new rug when they wore out. 

Slowly, I started to figure out where our stuff was.

And we got our school room in good enough shape that we could resume school. 

We had our first day in our new school room. 

And Zoe did a little alphabet review. 

We found out that we like school on the back deck - but it's really bright in the morning. 

And one of our favorite things in our new house is the creek that runs through the neighborhood. 

Nature walk down the trail and by the creek provides some sweet moments of learning together. 

And we talked about this OLD stone bridge and imagined when it might have been built. 

The kids' favorite view of the creek is from this bridge. 

We attempted (without success) to grow roots on sweet potatoes. 

And we did some cool Easter art projects. 

We painted and studied art. 

And the school room finally started to take shape and look like our school room again. 

Sometimes you just say, "Here, read this to them while I unpack some boxes!" 

And we read about more great missionaries. 

We studied geography, and eco-systems. 

We counted down to the last day of school before Summer Break

And we enjoyed the new neighborhood pool. 

We went on a field trip to the TN Agriculture Museum. 

And we went strawberry picking. 

We took a little trip to the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, AL. 

And dad got to go too. 

What a great way to kick off summer break.


So that's a wrap. That's our 2013-2014 school year summary. Maybe we can manage to do better this year! :)

Blessings, 

Paula