We've just returned from several days in Florida.... probably our best day of vacation was our beach day. In the area of SW Florida we visited the beaches are gorgeous - crystal clear blue water, lots of shells, and even dolphins close to shore. Being a native on Florida I grew up around all of this, and I think I took it for granted for the first seventeen years of my life. Since that time I have lived in Texas and Georgia, and I still miss the beach.

Of course, being a homeschooling mom I see everything now through a learning lens. The minute we arrived at the boardwalk leading to the beach I was scoping out learning opportunities. As usual, they were everywhere.

I knew the names of all of these shells from little on, but my children don't - we learned the names and found several of them at the beach. The kids spent literally HOURS combing the beach for shells - there were so many.

Miss B arranged all of hers to see what she had gotten:

The thing that made me so happy was the pure JOY on their faces. We have had a long winter (by Georgia standards!) and it was just great to be barefooted and free to explore.

We have bags full of shells. I'm going to purchase the Download N Go "Sunny Seashells" for us to do this week - have to strike while the iron is hot!We saw several dolphins swimming so close to the shore - I did not get a picture because that would have required me running back to our things to retrieve the camera, and then I would have missed seeing them.

My husband, who has a long commute each day and works in a demanding IT job, enjoyed the vacation. He read his book (he NEVER gets a chance to do this - by the time he has time to read at the end of the day he usually falls asleep!)

and took a LOOONG walk with the kids down the beach. I watched them growing smaller and smaller down the beach and thanked God out loud for the gift of my family and for His beautiful creation.

I brought along a great beach read - Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult. You MUST read it... I love her books and this one did not disappoint!

So yes, we had school at the beach, but wait until you see the next place we had school on our vacation! I'll tell you about it in Part II of School on Vacation?!

*This post is linked to Kris' Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Visit her site to hear about other homeschoolers' weeks.