I thought for sure I would get completely caught up before Christmas... HA! Home school this year has really thrown my holiday schedule (not to mention my everyday schedule) into a whirl!! It's Christmas eve, baking has not been done, Christmas cards have not gone out, presents have not been wrapped... In fact I have not even sent out all of our holiday packages. Being this out of sorts makes me CRAZY so my one piece of mind is that I will be able to send out the link to our blog and know that SOMETHING was done on time!

Have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a blessed 2010!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Sedona with 60 degree weather hiking, biking, Grand Canyon Polar Express and lots of time with family. However, my holiday started with a broken heart :( My sweet ornery Akira had gotten very sick and we had to make the decision to say good-bye. She would have been 13 on Dec 18th and will be greatly missed.

We had two end of summer adventures this year! We took the boys on their first cave trip to Hubbard's Cave and our final hike was up to Hanging Lake. I took Keagan on the Hanging Lake hike last year as a special trip with just the two of us but this year he suggested we go as a family, so that we did!

Summer quickly rolled into fall and so begins the home school experience! If you had asked me about home school about 13+ years ago I would have told you all those families were NUTS and I would NEVER teach my kids at home... Let me post this settle reminder: NEVER SAY NEVER! It has been the learning experience of a lifetime. I chose to home school not because I wanted to but because I felt it was the best circumstance for Keagan in particular, for the time being. Will I home school next year? Ask me today and I will tell you that you could not pay me all the money in the world to home school again, tomorrow may be a different answer. The trials and triumphs have been amazing and I wouldn't trade them for the world. I have learned more about the boy's personalities in the past 5 months than I have in the past year. I have learned to stretch myself when I think there is nothing left. I taught Skyler to read!! I love to hang out with Keagan and learn history, he loves history! Math, well, that is a different story. I love that I can use everyday living to supplement our curriculum. I even used sorting laundry for one of Skyler's math lessons! FANTASTIC!! Here is a link to some of our home school adventures: http://picasaweb.google.com/mayesfamily4/CreativeHomeSchool?authkey=Gv1sRgCN2Wh_2s1MKndg&feat=directlink