On Monday we headed up to Lake Powell as a treat for Audrey (age 8) since she finished her phonics program. Celebrating my children’s successes is very important to me. Why not celebrate and make the most of our moments with the kids?

We were only a year late in going. We weren’t able to go last year and promised we would do it this year but we were almost too late since the weather is starting to cool down.

 Our phonics graduate, Audrey.

This was Serenity’s trip when she was 8 and this one was just for fun and this one was Justus’s special trip when he was 8.

We felt a little silly driving up to the lake with a big boat behind us when the weather was only 54°. But thankfully it warmed up during the day sufficiently that the kids did not get hypothermia but instead thought the water was warm… until they got out of the water and then the teeth went to chattering.

Lake Powell is absolutely gorgeous with almost 2,000 miles of shoreline and is not only in the state of Arizona but Utah as well. I find the sandstone cliffs completely fascinating as I told you about once before.

But because I think they are so amazing, here’s yet another picture of a little sandstone outcropping at the top of a butte. Sand that has become sedimentary rock.

Everything went pretty well this trip. No boating problems.  The biggest issue we had were crows and what a nuisance they were! We left one day for some fun in the water and as soon as we pulled away we saw a crow walking in our camp. We wondered was there anything that it could possibly find to eat?

There was. When we arrived back we found they had eaten every single one of our hotdog buns…

…pecked their way through the zip-loc bag and ate all the cashews and then tried to start on the almonds but ran into some trouble there…

…and to top everything off, for dessert they thought our UNO card game would be tasty…

So we learned to put everything away when we left — into the tent.

To wrap this post up here are a few family shots and etcetera.

And just like that (snap!) the time has passed and my last child has finished her phonics program.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. –Psalms 90:12

My sister has her atlas on the table with a clear protective cover over it.  She then places pictures of missionaries who live in the country/continent they are studying onto the map and during the week the children pray for them.

I approached the map idea a little differently.  Next to our dining table we have a wall big enough for me to tack up a map of the world.  We do a great deal of entertaining and have had guests from all over the world.  So, I’ve started to print out the pictures of those who come to visit from other countries and tape them next to their homeland.

Do you see Trinidad & Tobago there in the center of the picture?  We recently had some visitors from there.  I had never heard of Tobago and although Trinidad was very familiar to me I had no idea where it was located.  Because our map was right at hand when eating with our guests or visiting with them, they were able to show us right where they lived and how they sometimes travelled down to Venezuela in South America.  Their picture is now on our wall right next to Trinidad & Tobago.

Many times we’ve had visitors over who would discuss a location that they were quite familiar with but was not as clear in my children’s minds (mine too, but I wasn’t the one talking to them at the time ) so they would walk over to the map and show them just where they were referring to.

Other times it has been useful is during dinner discussions.  We’re not sure where a certain place is and so the kids will go to the map and we’ll have a quick race to see who can find it first.  At one time the map was in the boys’ bedroom but now it’s much handier being located in our dining room.  When reading aloud to the children we’re usually in the living room so I’ll send them to the map to find the country, river, sea, etc. that  I’m reading about. 

Overall, it has been a great learning tool for our family.  There’s one problem though.  I just wish I could figure out how to keep those tacks that hold the map up from falling out. 

What do you do for geography?  Are your studies more formal than our approach?