To Skagway, Up the Hill, and Back

We made it to Skagway on the ferry from Juneau with no mishaps, meltdowns, tantrums, or scares (either from us or the girls) so I give that section of the trip a gold star.  Especially since we all took a nap for a portion of the ride.  For anyone who knows me they will understand the happiness this brings.

Once we got off the ferry we headed straight for the nearest fuel station which happened to be two blocks from the dock and the only one in town.  Of course we didn't realize this until we had drove all the way through town, checked google maps, and realized our little blue arrow (symbolizing our vehicle) was pointed in the wrong direction.  As you may have guessed, that did not make Mr. Trail very happy having to drive back.  However, on the positive side, Skagway is not that big of a town so it only took a few minutes.

While Anthony topped off the truck and filled the 7 or 8 gas cans we have, I went in and got a couple maps showing our route to Hyder and where some of the fuel stations were on the way.  The lady (named Candy) was really nice and let me know exactly what she thought of the gas prices driving through the Yukon.  I could tell it was one of "those" kinds of subjects with her because I didn't ask anything about the gas prices through there.  However, that did not dissuade her one bit from jumping up on her well-used soap box to let me know all about it.  Nice lady.

Once we were filled up and settled in we started down the Klondike highway to travel the 14 miles to the Canadian border.  I had my paperwork for all of us, including the dog, ready to go for when we hit customs.  We started climbing the first hill through the pass and things went well for the first 2 miles.  We were all ooooing and ahhhhing over the scenery and I had even tried to trick Katie into watching out for giraffes.  But she was way too smart for me.  She said, "Mommy, there are no giraffes in Alaska.  It's too cold."  Schooled by a 4-year old. 

Unfortunately, after about 2 miles we started noticing this little cloud of smoke starting to form behind the Excursion.  At about 3 miles it had turned into quite a spectacle.  We pulled over and Anthony informed us that we were leaking transmission fluid onto the exhaust (insert heart-sinking and panic-attack moment here).  We continued another mile and then stopped to let the truck cool down a little, and repeated this process a few more time.  At this point it was really bad and when Anthony checked again he yelled at us to get out of the truck and get away.  Apparently, something had caught fire a little but soon extinguished.  We knew it was no use at that point.  Anthony and I looked at each other and I said, "Well, at least we're not in the middle of Canada."  So, back down the hill we went to find an RV park.  This particular portion of our trip got a big, fat thumbs down.



Yvonne

Sand and Homeschool

The girls have spent a lot of time on the beach near our campsite building castles, digging like dogs, finding seashells, rolling down the dune, and anything else they can think of.  I think they secretly have a bet going of who can bring the most sand back on their bodies.  I'm not sure who's ahead right now, I just know that I'm losing - and the vacuum cleaner is getting tired.

 

When it's not "sand time" one of the things that we're doing is homeschool stuff.  Alexis has started her 2nd grade curriculum and is doing very well.  Kaitlyn has started her 4-year old preschool curriculum and likes it for the most part, except when she has to color something yellow - she does NOT like coloring with the yellow crayon.

What our second grade looks like:

Explorer's Bible Study

We love this bible curriculum.  It's called Beginnings II - God's Promises and does a good job going through the Old Testament in 150 lessons.  We're about half-way through it right now and it presents the scripture very well for young readers.  Alexis either reads the lessons to herself or aloud and then answers the questions that follow. I highly recommend this curriculum.

Horizons Math

The math curriculum that we use is from Alpha Omega Horizons curriculum. We love Horizon because it does a good job of introducing math principles and building on them, and then reviewing.  Being able to really understand something has a lot to do with repetition and occasional review.  This curriculum does that very well.  It doesn't just move on to a new subject and forget about what had been learned previously.  It all builds together.

Horizons Phonics and Reading

We also use Horizons for our phonics and reading curriculum.  We had previously used LifePac for the language work in 1st grade, but it didn't really meet our needs.  This curriculum is more comprehensive and better laid out.  Also, the readers are much more interesting.

Evan Moor Daily Science

 This is not my first choice of science curriculum for Alexis.  However, it is a good overview of general topics such as: How do butterflies turn into caterpillars?, Life cycles, How is a fox different from a wolf?, How does a seed turn into a plant?, etc.  Next semester we will be digging a little deeper into topics using the Apologia curriculum.  You must check out Apologia if you have never heard of it.  It's wonderful!

All About Spelling

This is a jewel in the land of spelling curricula.  We're working on level 2 right now (finished level 1 last month) and it explains everything so well.  The student learns why words are spelled the way they are.  They learn the rules of word structure and are drilled on phonograms.  Everything is thoroughly reviewed.  As soon as we started using this Alexis's reading level jumped up.  It's wonderful. It's multisensory with magnetic letter tiles, flashcards, word banks, writing exercises, readers, and other manipulatives. Love it!

¡El Español Fácil!

We will be ordering this in June.  You have to check out their website and read about the program and their statement of faith.  There are different levels for different ages.  The K-3 is a three level course that makes Spanish really easy to learn.  We can't wait to start it.

Tapestry of Grace

We will also be purchasing this in June.  I'm really excited to finally have an excellent history curriculum that is biblically based and chocked full of resources, activities, projects, and much, much more.  You just have to go to their website to understand how amazing this program really is.


We've also started to do some typing lessons - learning the "home row" and getting comfortable typing the home row keys without looking.  I didn't purchase any curriculum for this.  All I do is bring up the notepad on the computer, type in approximately 20 3-letter "words" using the home row keys and have Alexis copy it right underneath.  It works out really well.  I'm able to keep track of the characters missed and time her progress.
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One of the things that is really important to me is documentation of our schooling efforts.  I have found the ultimate tool for that and am completely in love with it.  Homeschool Tracker Plus is a lifesaver for homeschooling moms.  You just enter your schooling data each day while the kids complete their work and all the various reports, analyses, and schedules are right at your fingertips.  There are so many tools you can use in this program that a single person would probably never use absolutely everything that it offers.  But, trust me, you'll want to try.  It's awesome!

If you have any questions about the above curriculum or tracker program, don't be afraid to ask.

Yvonne

Off Again

I have to say that the sunset in Juneau is pretty amazing.  Of course the picture doesn't do it justice at all.  However, this is the view from the beach in front of our travel trailer.  We get to enjoy it for two more days until we leave for Hyder, AK.  It's been fun watching the cruise ships come in and out, especially the ones that run at night.  It looks like Christmas floating on the water with all their lights ablaze.

 I finalized our ferry reservations yesterday for our trip over to Hyder.  We will be ferrying over to Skagway, AK and then driving the rest of the way.  It's more cost effective to do it this way than to ferry over to Prince Rupert.  So, that's what we'll do.

This is the ferry we'll be riding on.  It's called the Matanuska.  Alexis isn't very excited about the fact that we're riding another ferry.  She keeps insisting that we need to fly to wherever it is we're going.  Poor thing gets bored out of her mind with the Alaskan scenery.  She just asked me if the ferry has a waterslide on it.  I guess you know what she's wanting to do.

Once we get to Hyder, this is going to be our first view of the town.  Isn't it just the bees-knees :).  I have been informed that there are more than 100 people there now.  Oh, and we can drive 2 miles over to Stewart, British Columbia and get some Canada tourism in.  We haven't been told where exactly we're supposed to be staying, but the superintendent from Secon told Anthony that he would be finding us something.  I guess it's one of those "come on over to the middle of nowhere and we'll figure out where to put you" kind of trips.  Woohoo!  Can't wait.  (note the slight sarcasm)



Yvonne

What Our Drive Looks Like Today

This is an image of what it looks like in front of our garage today.  Anthony decided that he couldn't stand the way it looked anymore and so brought some equipment home and started making piles and leveling things out.  Just a few minutes ago he headed out with the dump truck to get a load of rock with a very-excited Alexis in tow.

I'm a little excited to see what it's going to look like when he's done.  He's even attacked the side area as well.

Do you see that cute little picnic table in the yard?  My Uncle Bill made that and the girls are really enjoying it this summer.  They eat their snacks out there as often as possible.  It's so cute.

I should have some pictures of Anthony's finished project on Monday.  Can't wait!

Yvonne