“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” —Alexander Graham Bell

Spring is here! Yet before the urge to put on your swim goggles and head to the beach or off to the mountains on a family retreat strikes too hard, it is best to think ahead a bit toward the upcoming school year. Remember that it will help to reduce any mid to late summer panic attacks as fall approaches, or some critical mistakes in curriculum choices.

The decision for your family to adopt the homeschooled learning environment for your children may have been difficult – or it may have been quite simple. According to the National Home Education Research Institute, more than 2.04 million students were being homeschooled in 2010 – it’s a recognized and valuable educational format that is increasing rapidly with each passing year. And with such increases come a fresh wave of choices in curriculum – which although is both exciting and full of promise, can be a bit confusing and doubt-inducing for parents.

The snow is falling outside while the level of excitement inside is rising by the minute. There is curriculum work to be done – there’s no escaping it in the end – but the pull of the white stuff has the kid in all of us chomping at the bit. So what’s the final verdict? School-Marm or Cool-Mom?

One of the marvelous benefits of homeschooling is that a love for creative learning cannot be dampened by the constraints of a traditional classroom. First, we’ll begin with a very simple equation that won’t leave you stumped: CREATIVITY = FUN. Next, we’ve come up with some fab-u-lous activities for you to experience right from your living room, and they are chock full of A-rated learning potential.

Days Ten to Twelve
We pulled out of our campground early on day ten to head for Yellowstone Park.  In my mind’s eye, we were heading for a large forest with Old Faithful somewhere inside.  Was I wrong!  Not only was Yellowstone enormous, but it had such a variety of terrain that we could have easily spent a full week and left feeling like we had only scratched the surface.  The park touches three states (Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming) and includes beautiful mountains, a huge lake-Yellowstone (as well as a number of smaller lakes), breathtaking canyons, vast plains, forests, geysers and hot springs.

Day Two

Today we discovered that our kids really are quite talented when we visited the Focus on the Family headquarters and Whit’s End.  It was there that they had the opportunity to record their very own episode of Adventures in Odyssey and they were amazing!  In fact, the sound tech commented that they were the best he had heard in a long time because they added their own personality to the script rather than simply reading it.

Forgot to add some of the other lessons we learned while hiking Pike’s Peak.  These were the lessons the kids wanted me to share.

So, what did we learn today (other than some fascinating history about Pike’s Peak)?

I did it!

My eight year old learned that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and that when she puts her “I can’t do it” attitude away and puts her mind to it, she can do even those things which seem impossible!