Field Trip Friday - Diamond Head

This week, I wrote about our hike up Diamond Head, which is a crater left by the erupting volcanoes which formed Oahu. You can read the post here. For more field trip adventures, visit Live the Adventure.

We Made It!

Phew, we remembered to pack him!
Hi Everyone! We made it to Hawaii! And we LOVE it! The trip ended up going incredibly well. Crumpet and I enjoyed our many visits with friends and family, and we got to see and do lots of fun things in the Northeast. Then we picked up Daddy and drove cross country. Everyone did great - even the cats. We stopped at a few good spots along the way, and added lots of new states to the list of places we've been. I need to sit down and count how many we've visited!

It was very exciting to watch Crumpet's knowledge and understanding of the world around him explode on this trip. He was able to remember and use what he has learned at other times and places to explain all of the new things he was seeing. I couldn't believe the facts he was pulling out of his memory... He was great to have along too, because he notices everything and I would have missed so much without having Crumpet point it out. Also, Crumpet has started using what he knows to formulate plans to solve problems. Any time we had a dilemma, Crumpet would yell from the back seat, "It's okay, I have a plan!" And usually, they were quite reasonable, helpful plans! (Right now, my favorite plans are his solutions to the problem "How do we get the large, see-through geckos out of our house?" I have to say, I prefer Hawaii geckos in my house to Georgia scorpions though, so the fact that none of our plans have worked doesn't bother me too much...)

We arrived in Hawaii a few weeks ago, and we are in love with our new home. We spent a week in a hotel, and then accepted military housing. It was quite difficult to find affordable, nice housing out in town, and they offered us a great house on base, so we took it. We live on Ford Island, which is an island inside Pearl Harbor. We drive over a bridge to get home everyday, and we drive right past all of the World War II memorials. It's really cool. It's too bad Crumpet isn't older and ready to learn all of the history here... Our neighbors are nice and there are lots of kids around. Not that we've spent a lot of time at home - we have spent almost every spare minute exploring the island. There is so much to see and do here, and the weather is phenomenal - it feels like we are on a 3 year vacation. Already, we've done lots of incredible things - hiked a volcano, ridden a submarine to the bottom of the ocean, snorkelled with hundreds of beautiful fish... I'm in the process of starting another blog for my family to read. It will chronicle our trip cross country and then our travels around Hawaii. I will link this blog to it on Field Trip Fridays so all of you can see what we've been up to.

I have not even begun to unpack the school room here, but I hope to get to that soon. I'm not too worried about it after seeing how much Crumpet has learned over the last few years, while just living life. It has really put my mind at ease to know that he seems to pick up everything he needs to know, whether I'm officially "teaching", or not. Lots of things seem to have clicked while we're on hiatus too, like numbers and telling time. I think the break gave the ideas time to gel in his mind.
We have already been to the military library here (I think we lasted 2 days on the island before we HAD to have new books). It's much better than the library on base in Georgia, and it sounds like their story hour will be great. They also have an online link to a thing called 'culture grams' which I'm excited about too. There are bits of information about various countries and cultures, including reading suggestions and recipes, etc. We were planning to start our virtual tour around the world this year, and it will be great to have so much information in one place.
Another neat thing is that the State of Hawaii has a public charter school which is actually a free homeschooling program. They give you all of the curriculum materials and access to online info and teachers, and you teach your child at home! I haven't looked into it much, and I'm guessing that I'll end up going with the mish mash of teaching materials I've already chosen, but still, what an amazing resource to have access too!
We're already signed up for swimming lessons in July. But other than that, we're planning to stay relaxed and unscheduled so we can explore and do lots of this:

New Year's Reflections

It's time for a New Year, and I'm seeing lots of great blog posts reflecting on what's important and planning ways to go forward in 2010. There are wonderful ideas and thoughts out there, and I thought "Oh, I should do that!". And then, my head promptly started spinning in circles!

You see, the Navy is moving us to Hawaii in May! This is wonderful and exciting news! And also, a huge undertaking! We will be moving from Georgia, where we have a 4 bedroom house with a garage, attic, and yard full of stuff, to Hawaii where we expect to have a 2 bedroom apartment. The thought of weeding through all of our junk makes me nauseous! We will be bringing cars, cats, and a little boy overseas. The Navy helps with some of this, and sometimes that's good, and sometimes, they make it more difficult!

In the months before we move, we must get rid of the junk, fix up the house, find someone to rent it, plan Crumpet's birthday party (he's been talking about it since his last party, so there's no skipping it!)... and we will drive many thousands of miles around the country visiting loved ones and saying goodbye. This is the hardest part of being military - we are always missing someone who is far away. This time we will be away for 3 years without a return visit, and I'm afraid that there are some people, especially grandparents, that I will never see again.

It's going to be a hectic, challenging, exciting time! So, on reflection, my goals for the next 6 months are:

• Survive!
• Try to shelter Crumpet from as much of the stress of moving as possible. So far, he's excited about living near the beach and seeing a real volcano. I worry about him losing all of his friends though. Crumpet is very shy and starting over will be difficult.
• Try to continue with some preschool work for as long as possible before we start packing. I'm thinking April-June will be our summer break this year. All of our stuff will be in boxes!
• Try not let diet and exercise go completely out the window. After all, I'll be spending a lot of time in a swimsuit soon!
• Try to keep a sense of humor about it all, and remain excited about the new adventure we are being sent on.
• Survive!

I will still be blogging throughout the chaos. This is my place for keeping track of Crumpet's progress, and also for keeping a log of all the exciting,crazy things we experience. So stay tuned...