Homeschooling update

Last week the boys did standardized tests. We met with other homeschool families and did the tests over 3 days. It was a bit of a challenge to be up and out of the house by 8:15am everyday. We tend to not start our day until about 10am (I get up at 8:30am to walk, Josh comes with me, but Jason stays sleeping.) The boys did great with actually doing the tests, but I will not know the test results until maybe June.

I am not really concerned with the results. I would like to see their strengths and weaknesses, but my overall homeschool goals can't really be measured in test scores.

To recap my homeschool goals:

-my boys hearts towards our family and the Lord (if they do not grow up to have Godly character than all else is worthless)
-teach my boys how to learn (I can't teach them everything, no one school can either)
-that they love to learn, that they are passionate about education
-that reading is a part of their daily lives

Honestly it is a daily struggle to teach them Godly character. We all struggle with this one.
I think at this point they both know how to learn, and enjoy learning most of the time (no they don't enjoy everything, but especially enjoy it when they are looking up topics they are interested in.)
Fortunately, we all enjoy reading so some of that gets done daily.

We also have been to the Franklin Institute in Philly, PA six times since Sept. These have been very fun, educational field trips. We also went to the Natural Science Museum in Philly, PA. We got to see and hear about real dinosaurs bones (the ones displayed in museums are castings.) The bones we saw are from a new dinosaur not even named yet.
This month we are going to the Natural History Museum in New York City.
I love field trips, as do the boys. They get to socialize with other homeschoolers (we do most trips with other homeschooling families.) They get to see some of the things we are learning about (like the mummy exhibit we saw while studying mummies in history.) And they get to learn about things that spark interest in them.

We also spend time outside daily, do physical stuff (the boys are jumping on the trampoline as I type this) and enjoying / learning about nature. Yesterday at Jason's horseback riding Josh, Kaiden, & I sat in the clover and grass. We were relaxing, enjoying time together, and examining the rocks and clover. We even searched in vain for a four leaf clover. Being close to the bay we frequently walk down to it to examine tides (which we learned this year are controlled by the moon,) check out the wildlife (seagulls will steal any and all food you leave out,) and check water temperatures in all seasons (even though we had a mild winter that bay water was still really cold.)

I still feel incredible blessed that God has called me to homeschool. Better actually get back to doing it instead of writing about it. Lol.

-Becky