The Power of the Beach

Those of you that know me know I'm a total beach nut. There is something special about where a continent ends and meets the vastness of the water, in this case the Gulf. Some people like to sit on the beach, some people prefer to be in the water. I like both.

I have been blessed to visit some great beaches around this country. That's a feat considering until now we lived 900 miles to the closet coastal beach. I watched porpoise swimming off the beach in San Diego, walked out from Waikiki and enjoyed the solitude of Costa Rica where seven people on the beach was a crowd.

I'm a people watcher and it's amazing what some people will take to the beach with them. When Z was young we took him to Miami Beach. He fell asleep in his floatie in the ocean, his floppy sun hat faded by the time our vacation was over. I'm sure on that trip we brought every beach device known to man. In San Diego Z was young as well. We walked on the beach, diaper bag, breakfast food, and who knows what else in our hands. I'm sure the amount of things we carried screamed "tourist". We would have missed the porpoise had not a local stopped to point them out. He was jogging with a towel and water bottle in his hand, thats it.

Last week when we visited Holly Beach we didn't have anything with us. We took off our shoes, soaked our pants and walked up and down the beach. We were unemcumbered by stuff. It was a beautiful time. We planned to go back last weekend, however storms kept us away.

There is power in the beach, in the water that slams into the continent. Each wave pulls at the sand as it deposits more of it upon the shore. I stand in awe of that power and am reminded every time I take it for granted. I've been slapped by jellyfish, stung by the waves slamming me into the bottom and snorkeled where just beyond us sharks were known to make their habitat. While we were in Costa Rica and I was pondering the beauty from the deck of my room, a man lost his life at the beach. It was a reminder that life is precious and even in paradise there is death.

Holly Beach was wiped away in Hurricane Rita and yet people are rebuilding. The satellite photos of the before and after are a keen reminder that we are not fully in charge.

Yet I can stand on the beach and all seems right in the world. To quote Louie Giglio "We are small". I feel small when I stand on the beach. I feel balanced knowing that I am truly not in charge of everything. I feel renewed, refreshed, and re energized, ready to face life.

I don't even mind the sand that seems to follow us home in my shoes. It reminds me that at those times I am overwhelmed I can go stand on the beach. I can know that I truly have power over very little and I am only riding the waves.

Wordless Wednesday

Scroll down to Holly Beach entry for more details.

If you were a food what would you be?

This question was posed on the WTM boards today. Very interesting discussion. Here was my response.

I would be a cashew.Cashews are not for everyone (I can't please everyone)

Cashews come in bits and pieces but are best enjoyed whole (kind of like me)

Cashews are nutty (no comment needed there)

Cashews are crunchy on the outside but soft and sweet on the inside (my hard exterior only hides my sensitive interior)

Cashews are natural plus a little salt (what you see if what you get, I'm a little salty as well)

I might also add the cashews like to hang around other nuts as well.

Holly Beach

We finally went to visit the beach yesterday. My beach withdrawl has now subsided. I was one happy camper. We didn't know where we'd up when we started our journey (kind of like life), so we didn't even have swimsuits. Z and I ended up with soaked pants, but that was okay.

We visited Holly Beach, Louisiana. If you followed any coverage of Hurricane Rita you know that this town was essentially wiped away during the storm. I had not been there before the storm, but rebuilding is happening.

It reminds me of what a beach should be. You park right on the beach. There are no asphalt parking lots, no hotels, and no rows of fancy white beach chairs. It is simple, a little rough and exactly the spot where land meets the Gulf. Waves happen, there is sand, and all is right in the world.

For the first time in weeks my sinuses cleared up, I got a nice sea salt scrub on my feet, I held hands with Tigger and Z played in the sand. Here are a few pictures.

Look we found Wakefield Road! Since our school is Wakefield Academy, I had to take this picture.

The boys waiting for the ferry. The boys on Holly Beach. Despite the lack of smile, Z had a great time.

Okay, I smiled enough for both of us.

Looking back from the beach.

Nature Study: Welcome to my Front Yard

This week we planned to return to Barb's Nature Study. We normally do ours on Wednesday morning. We totally skipped the lesson this week, nature again came to us.

Last weekend I opened my mailbox and found two surprises. One my Rainbow Resource Catalog, Yeah! I'll bet you didn't the special bonus with your catalog, I got a frog.

I let the critter go near the woody area of our yard and ran inside to enjoy the RR catalog. Tigger immediately mistook it for another phone book. Our town is not huge and we receive no less than four phone books, why I don't know.

The other part of nature that came to us is described in the post below this one. Lightning struck two of our trees. While scary it is an awesome site to behold (said with the most respect for the power of lightning). Here are a few additional photos. The first one is a close up of the destructive power of lightning. The second was a charred piece of bark that was on the ground. Bark flew off the trees in at least a ten foot radius.

The third wonder of the week happened last night. I took the dog out in the front yard after dark. She about ripped my shoulder out wanting to go after a creature in the yard. I thought it was a rabbit. No! It was an Armadillo. I knew they lived around here, usually because you see them squished on the road, but had never encountered a live one. I called the boys to come out and they missed it. He scurried quite quickly.

This also answered another nagging question we had. We had found a burrow hole in the yard several weeks ago. We were unsure what animal had made it, now I am certain it was our little armored friend.

So if you want to view some nature, just come sit on my porch, you won't have to wait long, it'll come to you.

Not so Wordless Wednesday

This is what happens when lightning strikes a tree. This happened last night. It was so loud, Z and I screamed. This is actually two trees that have grown together.

MEP mathematics

This is my disclaimer: We are only starting to use this program and I am beginning to learn about it. I am excited about it because of its similarity to Singapore Math. Therefore I do not claim to be an expert on this curriculum, but would refer you to their website for any additional questions.


What is it?

MEP is a mathematics program available from the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching.

"Mathematics Enhancement Programme (MEP)This has been the Centre's main focus over the past few years. The Mathematics Enhancement Programme set out to implement in UK schools the findings of international research. As well as detail of the philosophy and style of teaching advocated, there is also a full set of curriculum resources for Primary and Secondary schools, including pupil texts, lesson plans, classroom resources, assessment materials and on-line interactive resources"

http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm

I have reviewed this programs scope and sequence along side that of Singapore and find it similar, but different. Clear as mud eh?

Z is very math minded and with Singapore he is able to do most of the work on his own. MEP is supposed to be more teacher intensive.

MEP is downloadable for free. That makes it an attractive option, but the cost will not be a deciding factor in our use of this program.

There is also a yahoo group to join for further support in this program.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mep-homeschoolers/

So we will be giving MEP a trial run over the summer. I'll reserve all opinions until we have gotten through several lessons. I am crossing my fingers, it looks very promising.

5th Grade, How did that happen?

It's hard to believe that we just finished our 4th year of homeschooling, and 4th grade. I recommend all homeschooling parents start in first grade, it makes is so much easier to see how long you've been homeschooling. (insert tongue in cheek)

We've been off totally for the last two weeks. We've been reading "The Hobbit" in the morning and trying to not get this song stuck in our heads. Who knew Mr. Nimoy was so diversified in his talents (raising one eyebrow here). After we finish "The Hobbit" I have promised Z that we will have a LOTR (Lord of the Rings) movie marathon. He's been wanting to watch them for ages, but we have not allowed it as of yet. As I have the extended versions we will spread the marathon out over three days. Otherwise we might be as bug-eyed as Gollum.

Monday we are starting on our summer session. We hope to accomplish a few things.

1. Finish our Easy Grammar book
2. Complete one level of Singapore Math or MEP math (I'll post another entry on MEP)
3. Continue our nature study
4. Continue reading
5. Do a copywork book on the Declaration of Independence

I have a good majority of items I will need for 5th grade. I still need to do a few orders and that should be happening soon.

The Outdoor Hour Challenge #4

This is a little late in posting as these are the activities we explored last week. We are on a two week break for summer and will resume our nature study next week. This first picture is of a lovely beetle that we found in the house. Ironically we had just listened to a CD about ancient Egypt the day before. I believe this to a type of scarab beetle. We ushered said beetle onto the front porch where he disappeared into the foliage.

This photo is of Z checking out the holes that show up on our sandy area, which is a carport next to the shed. We are unsure what makes these holes. There is an abudance of wildlife in that area including lizards, wasps, bees, and snakes.

This photo is of a young tree attempting to grow in our yard. We pulled a leaf and drew it as part of our journaling this week. Our yard is a glimpse of untamed nature and this is part of its new growth.

These two photos are of bushes and berries growing in our yard. I have noticed in our studies that if we wait, nature will come to us. We generally do our nature walk on Wednesday and by Friday we have something unexpected happen. One week it was an owl feather, the next a snake in the garage, and this week a beetle in the house. I even encountered a spider in the yard the other day. He was crawling up a large blade of grass. I let him be, he was in his element.

We watched the movie "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" the other day. As magical as that toy store was, our yard is just as magical. I sometimes walk through our yard with the same wonder and awe as was apparent in the store. Albeit, I know where the magic in our yard comes from. We enjoy studying as said in the movie "Evan Almighty"....in it's original design.

This one is for my Daddy

As an early Father's Day gift for my Daddy, who saved me from spiders for over twenty years.

For more information on this creature click here and here.

Wordless Wednesday