On To Canada/Kanadaan!

At KOA campground in Maine

We spent two nights at the KOA campground in Mount Desert Island (they have Airstreams to stay in!!), had a delish lobster dinner with friends (with s'mores for dessert!), and drove around the island admiring the sights. Got a fair amount of work and school done too, thanks to the great internet connection at KOA.


Taking a break on our way to Canada


Mount Katahdin in Maine

We could have spent a lot longer there, and will definitely return to explore the Acadia National Park, but Prince Edward Island was calling us... So we packed up again, and continued our trip. We had to make a little detour to Bangor (to pick up the passports a friend FedEx'ed to us since we were originally just going to Portland, Maine..), so we actually didn't make it to PEI until today.




Fortunately the campground we stopped at in Fredericton, New Brunswick, had a great pool area. This morning's Physical Education was swimming ;-)



It was an hour well spent, although that water was freezing!! Pool was not heated, and it was cold last night - probably low 50's!! Brrrrr!!!!!!



We had a good drive to Prince Edward Island today. Enjoyed the scenery (similarities to Finland!), the smooth drive & the comforts of our home on wheels. Got some roadschooling in too! The Confederation Bridge over to PEI was quite impressive, also - and a bit scary!




I hope to download photos from our camera to Flickr one of these days to make into slideshows of various places visited, but for now all I have handy are these iPhone pics. And only two from Prince Edward Island. Beautiful rolling hills, fields, forests and lakes, and then the ocean.. Breathtaking!! Hoping for a day of driving around and enjoying PEI tomorrow!!



If we get up in the morning, that is... Even Little Miss is still awake, watching Anne of Green Gables...

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Lauantaiaamulla lähdimme sukulaisten luokse Portland, Maineen. Parin päivän pikareissusta tulikin kunnon asuntoautoseikkailu! Sunnuntaina lähdimme ajamaan pohjoiseen, ja vietimme kaksi yötä Acadia National Park'in vieressä Mount Desert Island'illa. Eilen lähdimme ajamaan kohti Kanadaa, ja tänään pääsimme perille Prinssi Edwardin saarelle. Niin kauniita paikkoja molemmat, pohjoinen Maine, Kanada ja PEI-saari... Ihan tulee rakas Suomi mieleen!

Driving Like A Maineiac

Greetings from Maine! We had been hoping to take one last roadtrip North in the Mothership before heading back to Florida, but kept being delayed by things like water tank in our house needing to be fixed, a migraine that just wouldn't go away, and once it finally did - a back pain came to prevent sitting in the RV for hours at a time, work issues etc. Anyway, on Saturday we finally hopped in the Mothership without much planning (and some of us still in pain). We were headed to see family near Portland, so I told the kids to pack for three days and take their sleeping bags.




We had a really nice (although very short) visit with family, then decided Sunday morning to head to Rangeley for a day (something on our to-do list before FL). On our way up we had to make a stop at the laundromat, as we had discovered to our horror mice had gotten in the Mothership, and there was "evidence" of them on our BED (you are welcome for the lack of photos!)! Fortunately we had some extra sheets for Saturday night, but on Sunday our first stop was to get several loads of laundry going.




During the washing we did some brainstorming, throwing out all kinds of wild ideas out. Canada? Yes, no, maybe? Passports? Yes, no, maybe? Rangeley? Now or in a few days??
We settled on a loose plan of going to Rangeley for the day, as planned, and then possibly continuing our trip on.

After laundry some of us took the opportunity to rest while the Captain kept driving on. When we woke up, we discovered ourselves - not in Rangeley - but near Bangor! The Captain had revised the plan, and we ended up driving to a campground in Acadia National Park. Which was a great plan, because (I didn't mention this yet, did I?) we needed to empty the gray water tank and refill our water tank. Yes, we were going on day 2 with no running water.
We will hit Rangeley on our way home, that's the new plan :)

We arrived at the campground with flair: Son T said his head was hurting and he was going to go outside to get some fresh air. Within a minute he was upchucking left and right - right out there in front of the registration building, rangers and other visitors. Lovely. Turns out he had a pretty violent migraine attack :( (This runs in our family - my dad in Finland spent last night in the hospital with what looks like it may have been a migraine - which is good news - it could have been something more serious.)







Today after we get a bit of work and homeschooling done, we are planning to explore Acadia National Park. This is our first time here, and we can't wait to get out there!!



No s'mores yet, but we are planning to have some tonight. Last night's dinner was late - we had some (more) disinfecting to do before dinner. Plus we found the bag of jackets at bedtime (so glad those were accidentally left in the RV), it is 60F outside & we didn't really come prepared with cold weather clothes... Brrrr!!!!!



The view from our bedroom this morning - it is good to be mothershipping!!! Stay tuned - with our nutty crew, you never know where you'll find us!

Low Bridges & High Jumps

In case you haven't met her yet, here she is! The Mothership. Our home away from home. She is of nice size, measuring about 35 feet and hmmm.. more than 10 feet in height. Not sure of the width, but she is big. Which is good, as there are seven of us..



However, the bigness of the Mothership can pose some problems. Like the one above: "One Lane Overpass", followed by "Low Bridge". Yup. Encountered these railroad bridges left and right yesterday, trying to find our party house.



Finally got to one we were able to squeeze through! Had a sharp left turn immediately, but the Captain maneuvered it beautifully!



And we got to the party. I think 18 kids were counted and six couples. Had a blast!

2nd Day/Toka Päivä!

Love the pajamas on Little Miss? Homeschooling is great :) Mr. T on the bottom corner was reading in his bed after school.

We had a great second day of school! Yesterday was ok, but slightly frustrating as there (always) is a learning curve to a new program (I'm sure we'll continue to struggle a bit with this..), and we got such a late start since we went hiking (I added hiking pictures to my previous post!). But today we started first thing in the morning.

My 6th Graders did 5-6 lessons each (our Monarch curriculum has Language Arts, Science, Math, History & Geography and Bible, plus Mr. T is taking 7th Grade British Literature elective), and it took them about 4 hours each to complete a full day.

The surprise of the day was our preschooler! Or rather the mommy of the preschooler. Little Miss loves doing schoolwork and just wants to learn. She wants to know how to write everything, and practices hard everyday. She is actually asking to be homeschooled! It's the mommy who has a hard time being a preschool teacher. I'm lacking that homeschool mom gene of loving being a teacher (it's true - it's not my calling). Plus Little Miss could really use the structure and peer (also other adult!) interaction a preschool group provides.

However, last night The Captain & I got to go on a date (yay!), and after a yummy Indian dinner we ended up at Barnes & Nobles. I started browsing the homeschooling book section, and found these preschool books on sale ($5.98 each!). They looked like something Little Miss would enjoy, and since we don't know if she will be attending preschool or not (b/c of The Move), I picked them up. Today Little Miss was flying through them, and we BOTH had fun! Amazing!!





Maybe the Captain & I will have to go on another date, and go back for the rest of the books!

PS. No worries - I won't be posting about every single of school day :)

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Toka kotikoulupäivä takana, ja se meni paljon paremmin kuin eka päivä eilen (alkuvaikeuksia)! Kuudesluokkalaisilla kesti noin 4 tuntia tehdä 5-6 oppituntia (englanti, matikka, tiede, historia&maantieto ja raamattu + yhdellä pojalla myös Englannin kirjallisuus). Meidän pikku kerholainen teki noin 1-2h kerhotehtäviä kirjoista, jotka löysin eilen illalla treffeillämme. Minun kutsumukseni ei todellakaan ole olla opettaja (tämä kotikoulu vaan sopii tämänhetkiseen elämäntilanteeseemme), mutta yllätyksekseni meillä molemmilla oli hauskaa näiden kerhokirjojen parissa!

First Day of 6th Grade/6. luokan eka päivä!

We did it! We went on a hike, then started our 1st day of school! We'll see how it goes.. Still a little bumpy at the moment. More pictures to follow later! Here are a few more pics from our hike:






Before you are too impressed at our hiking abilities, we actually drove most of the way up ;) The path up was just perfect for mom our 4-year-old, maybe 30-45 minutes of hiking? Coming down was a lot faster as Little Miss had to go to the bathroom!! (Or rather the smelly outhouse.. Ew..!!!)



And if you are here from Hip Homeschool Hop, welcome! This is my first time joining in, and I am still trying to figure it all out. We are a homeschooling, travel-lovin' family of seven from the East Coast (handy to say, as we are in the process of relocating from New England to Florida). Blog posts will appear very randomly about very random stuff. Enjoy!

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Aloitimme koulun! Saa nähdä kuinka oikein tulee sujumaan. Menimme kiipeämään vuorelle aamulla, joten aloitimme koulun vasta lounasaikaan. Vähän takkuja vielä, mutta josko tämä tästä.. Lisää kuvia tulossa myöhemmin!

Last Day Of Summer Break?/Vipa lomapäivä?

We had two games of bowling: the boys and the girls. On the girls' team Little Miss became second on both games!! Missy & 5ennie need some serious practice after getting our behinds whipped by a 4-year-old!!!

One of the reasons why we choose to homeschool is the flexibility homeschooling offers us. We can set our own school calendar and even modify it as we go along. Tomorrow will be our first day of school. Or maybe it won't. We'll see ;-D We are set-up to start tomorrow, but tonight got invited to go on a hike, and I think we'll do that as PE in the morning. And if we'll feel like it, we'll continue school after it.

We have had two months of summer break already, and this year I am setting school up to be a four-day week (with possible co-op classes once a week), so I wanted us to get an early start to our school year. The beauty of our online-based curriculum Monarch is if we don't get to schoolwork tomorrow, I can just go to my computer and switch the first day to be Wednesday. (Or Monday. Or after Labor Day.)



Just in case today was our last day of summer break, we made sure to do some fun things: bowling with Missy's friend after lunch, and after dinner our family went to a corn maze at a nearby farm where ice cream hit the spot after running around looking for clues in the maze. Fun ending to our Summer (if it is the ending :)

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Yksi syy miksi päätimme pitää kotikoulua lapsillemme, on vapaus suunnitella oma koulukalenteri. Tarkoitus olisi aloittaa koulu huomenna (aikaista täällä Amerikassa), koska tänä vuonna aiomme pitää neljän päivän kouluviikkoja (+ yhtenä päivänä mahdollisesti käydä kotikouluryhmän tunneilla). Mutta saa nähdä pääsemmekö aloittamaan, aamulla on jo suunnitelmia mennä kiipeämään läheistä vuorta ystävien kanssa - liikuntatunti tietenkin :) Varmuuden vuoksi vietimme oikein hauskan päivän keilaamisen ja maissisokkelon (sekä jäätelön!) merkeissä - jos se koulu oikeasti alkaa huomenna...

Coming Home, Mini-Golf & Go-Carts

As I am typing this, the Captain is flying back from Australia. Finally. It has been a long two weeks. Yesterday we were able to catch him on a video iChat (love our macs!!!). Funny how tired we both look - the Captain is probably dreaming of coming home to rest after a crazy trip, and I am looking forward to having him come home and take over the household so momma can get a break ;-)

Actually, it has been a fairly quiet week here, the older kids had picked up colds from camp, and needed a few days to recover. Yesterday we had a fun outing and went mini-golfing and go-carting with friends. Mini-golf was surprisingly challenging (and the course very long!), but everyone had a great time. We'll have to do it again some time!









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Kapteeni on parhaillaan lentämässä Australiasta kotiin - vihdoinkin! Kaksi viikkoa on ollut pitkä aika. Meillä on ollut hiljainen viikko kotona tämän viikon, isot lapset tulivat leiriltä nuhaisina ja tarvitsivat muutaman lepopäivän. Eilen lähdimme ystävien kanssa minigolfaamaan ja hurjastelemaan go-cart-autoilla (mikäköhän suomeksi?). Hauskaa oli!