Back to School

Another school year has begun. We hit the books (running!) mid August. There is never a dull or slow moment when homeschooling three boys. Joshua is now a sophomore in high school. This will be Seth's first year of middle school and Noah is in the 4th grade. I am learning so much!

like i should've paid more attention in school!

Two of my favorite subjects at the "Ryals Academy" are Fieldtrips and Service Projects! Our first field trip was to a local Alpaca farm.

Alpacas are members of the camel family. They are indigenous to South America. Alpacas are raised for their soft fleece.

I think we caught this guy still eating breakfast.

kinda looks like me before my morning coffee!



It was so hot, this guy decided to skip the fanfare and hang out in the tub.



This was a fun beginning to a new school year.

Once a week the boys go to a class with other homeschoolers. This is the highlight of their week. One thing I love about the class is that every week they have to do a 2-3 min. presentation. This week their presentation was on poetry. They were instructed to find and present on a funny poem or story.

We found the poem, "Friends" by David Harrison online. I thought it would be great for Seth and Noah to present together, because I am always talking to them about being best friends. We added a little something to make it even more entertaining. (if you are viewing this from your email, you will have to click the link at the bottom of this email to go to the blog to view the video.)

I didn't realize I hadn't turned on the camera, so I missed the first little bit, but it's still really cute!

What We've been up to lately

End of year TESTING... Ending another school year... TESTING... Visiting friends... TESTING... swimming... TESTING... Gardening... Oh, did I mention TESTING!?! YES!, Last week the boys officially finished their school work for the year, AND we made it through testing! (barely!) It's usually not a big deal but this year for some reason it was. Let's just say I have never been happier to send that puppy off in the mail than I was this year. Even though it can be challenging at times I really do love homeschooling our boys and am so thankful God has blessed our family with the ability to do so... Just don't remind me that I have to do the "T" word again next year!

Okay... I'm over it. Now let's get on to the good stuff we've been doing...

We went to visit a good friend. We had a great wild-animal-filled day. Let's see... we saw chickens, huge dogs, (I can't remember what kind they were, but believe me, they were HUGE!) goats, cats, more dogs, hummingbirds, a horse and last but not least this.....

S-N-A-K-E !!!!

Thankfully one of my friends dogs (not one of the HUGE dogs) attacked and killed it for us. We put the snake on the table to get a closer look at it. While we were trying to determine if it was a baby Copperhead or not, "IT" decided to not be dead anymore and it opened its mouth and started moving. Now, I know that it probably was dead and that was probably just reflexes, but just to be sure we had the man of the house do this....

And this...



Just to be sure!