I’ve been asked about surfing competitions – so I thought a few pics from this weekend might give you a tour.  This is our 5th competition, and they have all been a bit different. As with any event in life – what you get out of the event will be what you put into it. Watching your expectations, being ready to help, keeping the focus on fun, and seeking to improve your skills by watching and learning from others – will leave you satisfied by the end of the long day.

An online friend, Kelly Halldorson, posted a graphic that had a quote in it by Ayn Rand. “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.” This is best played out with the surfers. Those that are there to increase their stoke – leave with their endorphins full – those that come just to win – leave frustrated and angry. We’ve seen all types of parents and competitors, it is like any other sport.

We are not out to be sponsored, or go pro, or tour the circuit or what have you. We just want to have fun and meet other surfers. It gets a lil lonely for a grom in the PNW. One amoung few – Unless – You attend the Otter Rock and Roll !!!!

You show up early to help set up – dance to some tunes, grab your t-shirt and swag bag, and stake out your spot on the beach.

Then you head out for a lil dawn patrol. You can’t tell here, but in the middle to the left of the water is a black dot. That’s Jon. Here’s a lil zoom:

Finding his focus and calm before the crowds gather, as you see below. The blue flags on either side of the beach show where the competition boundaries are in the water. At every event we’ve been to – other sufers show up and crowd this area. I’m not sure what they are trying to do – be seen? Be a pain? Protest competitions? It’s annoying to the kids who are there for a purpose for sure – and a bit dangerous to always be on the lookout for a swimmer in your path.

The crowds show up, mostly parents and children. Otter Rock and Roll is an 18 and under Surfrider event. Almost 60 competitors – Three heats today with the parent and child, two heats with the 12 and unders and two for the 13-15, then one heat for the 16-18.  I’m not sure how many heats the girls had in these age ranges, at least one each. For Otter Rock – every child advances to the second round.  Usually, the top two of each heat moves on to the second round for the top score. Here, everyone surfs twice and gets a combined score from the two heats. There is a lot of information / instruction given for the times, flags, how to compete.

The kids are each given a color jersey to wear in the water.

You have 5-10 minutes to paddle out, then a heat which lasts 15 minutes.  The top scores from your two best waves credited to you. Some competitions have wave limits of 10. Being patient to wait for the best wave of the heat, dropping in, turning, footwork, barrel, etc all give more points for your heat. Jon is pretty far out on this one – to the outside of the sets, the waves were really low, I did NOT have patience on the sand. I wanted him to take the bad waves just to get up. I’m glad he waited it out.

Runners carry the scores from the judges to the score keeper. The first heat scores are usually posted, the second heat scores are kept secret for the placements. Jon got first in his heat, but second over all 12 and unders for the first round.

This is the timing station. The guy in the hat kept excellent to the second timing. Heats every 15 minutes, One green flag means your heat is on, two horn blasts and a red flag gives a five minute warning, another blast says your heat is over and the next one starts. It is handy, especially on these foggy days, to wear a waterproof watch. If your heat is from 9:45 – 10, then you know, to the second, to keep catching waves. You check in at this station 10-15 minutes before your heat and grab your shirt.

These are the judges today. The tide was out so far they were not able to sit on the scaffolding. See how far back the tents are?  Ya. Visibility was pretty low – surfers had to stay where they could see the judges, so that the judges could see them! ha!  An equalizer for the go getters who want to get out of the pack.  I really appreciate these guys for sure. 9am til after 3, heat after heat, with a break for lunch. Sometimes there is  a one minute gap between heats –but not today – 10:00 means that 6 kids are getting out and 6 kids are starting. You’ve got to sort out the contestants from the wanderers and those in the dark blue jerseys are pretty hard to see on a day like today. Wildly applauding the judges!

Surfing is a pretty individual sport. You can have a variety of boards, gear and surfing style. If you snowboard or use a skate park, the bowls never change, mogals are pretty much the same.  You can work a bowl over and over to figure out the speed, curve, etc to use.  On a wave? Each wave can have a different core power. Mushy swells. Each set is different and comes on it’s own time. In the PNW, we rarely get nice long tubes that are exactly 10 seconds or so apart. We get a close set of waves that are a few seconds apart. Each swell is a challenge.  Here, we have two best friends competing in the same heat with a little brother giving pointers and a coach looking on. These two surfed together, encouraging each other, and the other 4 in the heat to do their best and have fun.

The mom, coach and spectators are the ones with the ongoing narratives on the sand. Go left! Move over! Catch this one! Wait! Go! I want to invent waterproof ear walkie talkie so they can actually hear what we want them to do. Some dads stand at the water line and scream the whole time. Reminds me of baseball. I don’t want to be that mom. All the training and instruction come on training days. These 15 minutes? Just rip it and have fun.

Nothing beats a great heat!  Nate is in red, his friend in blue, and that’s Jon in the ripcurl wetsuit.

Surfrider Foundation wants the kids to grow with their love for the beach with  beach cleanups, ocean education, and encouragement to pass on the desire to keep our beaches clean. The photo below is the start of the beach clean up. They make it fun with a scavenger hunt – find the most, heaviest, biggest, most tangled, most colorful, farthest traveled, smallest recognizable – etc. Little prizes are given to each participant – that gets them super excited!

Oh – this sign reads “Beach Trail” but what it really means is “Stairs of Doom”. About 3 flights of wickedly steep stairs – all the gear goes down – all the gear goes up. Bathrooms are at the top. The first time I walked back up – last year – I thought I. Would. Die.  Now, I get winded on the last 10-20 stairs, but I don’t have to lie down on the pavement anymore by my car. Ha.

There is time to rest during the day – have some snacks, meet other families, enjoy the ocean. The surfers get to know each other, families around town and those that travel get to recognize each other. Feels a bit like a surfer reunion each time.

One thing that has happened at each event – no one can control the swells.  Sometimes the swell gets too large for the younger competitors in the afternoon, a bit to dangerous. Sometimes, like this day – it flattened out for about 3 heats. There really wasn’t any ‘outside’. Just before and after that tiny ripple there. Waiting for that one set, the one swell of the set – that would create an actual wave – takes patience. Nate shared some of the conversation and joking going on while waiting – what a nice set of boys these are!

The older boys, most of them able to put on a pretty amazing show of surfing skill, had  a disadvantage today.  You have to be able to get up – which took a pretty stable longboard – and you had to stay up enough to call it surfing to get even a single point. Scores were in the 7-9 range in the morning and the 0-5 range in the afternoon.

Most of the people at the event want to pass on the stoke to the next generation. The man on the left travels to many events and holds free beginner clinics with all of the equipment. he gave the boys their first real lesson last year. The gal on the right is one of our founders of our surf club in town. She is all about the fitness and getting our club sponsored with enough money so that every child in our county that wants to learn to surf, has the opportunity. Lots of networking goes on at these events for sure. Without people like these, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did this year.

So after setting up at 6:30 for some, 7:15 for us – surfing and playing all day – 4:00 is time for awards. Beach Clean up awards, surfing awards and raffle tickets.

In the end, Jon got a good wave in the second round, and gathered a couple of extra points. Combined with the first round, it put him on top.  We heard 3rd and 2nd called, and the surfer that we thought was best was not among them. We expected a different name to be called for first, and had resolved that Jon was 4th. We were all stunned when his name was called!  Pretty exciting!  1st place 12 and under.  A good win today since the other surfers were so good.

And then there is the drive home, a long night of rest.

Thanks for walking through the competition with us. All 5 have been a bit different, but the vibe is pretty much the same. My thanks goes out to the companies that sponsor this event, the people who put them on, and the families who participate!

We have been learning quite a bit about the Middle East this spring, thanks to Memoria Press and their Geography I bundle.

Memoria Press assumes that you just finished the Modern American States and Capitals, so it bundles a Workbook, Teacher Key, Quizzes and Tests for the States and Capitals.  We are going to save this for later next year to practice with some of our States games.

We focused on the Geography I Text and Workbook and started in the Middle East. This worked well with our timeline this year since we have been studying the Ancients.  We are moving into the Renaissance through the Age of Discovery (1910ish) so I am looking forward to continuing this through the summer to go through North Africa and Europe which is the territory that comprised the Ancient Roman Empire.

We started, or rather I started, by looking over the Geography I booklets.  They are fairly thin, Black and White, and simple. I started reading the Teacher Guide and honestly, didn’t feel very inspired. Read some text, look over a map, fill out a worksheet.  Blah. (Just being honest.) 

We have approached geography through crafts, flags, lapbooks, games, puzzles, art and history lessons, throwing the globe around – and now I’m sitting at the table staring at a worksheet.  How am I going to pass this off on my 6th grade son – in the Late Spring session of learning during Majors Youth Baseball and the beginning of a new Surf Team Year?  I must confess, I was a little doubtful.

The first lesson, all three of us sat down I with the teacher’s guide, Jon with his Text and Workbook, and Nate (9th grade) with his paper and pencil.  I thought we’d read through it, then work on the worksheet together. This part of the 5th grade package for Memoria Press, the text, once we got into it, was fairly simple to read, though filled with fun details.  The lesson went quickly, 10-15 minutes, and we were done.

Nate is working, and finishing a pretty intense school year with Algebra 1 left to finish, and the the Workbook is meant to be consumed, non reproducible, and for one student to use, so we let him skip out of this part of our day rather than order a second workbook.

Jon (6th grade) took off with it. He really liked the map work. He liked that the lessons were simple and clear and quick. 

He liked that the text went back and forth from Ancient to Current. He enjoyed learning what biblical characters were doing in these countries in years long ago. I heard him puzzle over how the countries were divided and changed throughout the years since. He delighted in the detail of the map making.  I can’t tell you, based on our past above, how shocked I was that after one lesson, he was hooked.

The worksheet asks them to find the Ancient and Current name of the country, Capital, and look for a few fun facts. I, personally, found a fun fact that was new to me every day.  I think Pakistan was my favorite – I had NO knowledge of the history of this crazy country. My only vision of Pakistan is war, and the images from a movie where someone gets stuck when hiking and they have to carry explosives up the mountain to blast a whole through the snow, and they have to stop to pray so often it drives people bonkers?  Anyone remember that? Anyways. . . . I learned a bit more about Pakistan.

Jon starts his Geography when he wakes up, and then proudly passes me his work.  He’s now been trying to label the map in some artsy detailed lettering. It’s getting pretty fancy. He hasn’t honestly written the fun fact part down each day – sometimes our mornings are short.  I take time to read the passage myself, and I’ll ask him what was his favorite parts, orally/verbal/narration.

The only part we didn’t understand, is that it looks like it wants you to write down the country name and capital 3 times in one section. If Jon misspelled the words in the top of the form, we’d have him practice in this section. I’m thinking it would be more of a spelling memory of how to handle these crazy names.

And so – More Homeschool Parenting Advice than you’re probably asking for –

Don’t judge what your child can or wants to do for them. Living a relaxed Charlotte Mason Lapbooking/Notebooking  – can and should move into more excellence and diligence as they get older. Their work should challenge and inspire them.  Yes, I do believe that the years of geography made this easier than I thought it would be, and the year of learning about these countries gave him points to refer to in our History studies. He really enjoys the challenge of these workbooks.

That said – I wouldn’t recommend them used alone,  for a 5th grader, outside of any historical or fun reference, to fill them out for the sake of learning geography. This is part of a 5th grade total Classical Education style set – please keep that in mind.  Wonderful living books are included that will create a visual picture of what people are doing in these places. “A narration should have the child’s unique stamp on it as evidence that the material has been assimilated and gone through some processing in his mind. Narrations that are nothing more than rote memorizations are of no value to the child.” Ambleside Online – I would recommend this geography course as a wonderful addition to your literature and history studies as intended by Memoria Press.

We will use this product to meet one of our current goals for the summer: To have Jon be successful at independent study. To be able to have the discipline to start his studies, read the directions and complete the requirements on his own, with little help from mom. So far – this has been a perfect resource to meet that goal. 

I am excited to see how quickly the map work has become as he no longer needs to ponder so often of what/where the points of interest should go – rivers, seas, countries, towns, etc. Each day of learning – builds on what he learned yesterday – and the familiar – quickly goes down on paper! 

Oh – And we have not quite used the Teacher’s Guide as much as I thought we would. We have used to read side by side. I have used it to reference and see if we were on track in the beginning. It is basically the Workbook filed out – although the Fun Facts will be up to the student. Since the Workbook is intended to be consumable, I would recommend the Teacher book and an extra workbook for any other student in your family.

Geography I, for grades 4-8, Bundle $48.00
or Individually Sold For:

• Geography I: Middle East, North Africa, and Europe – $14.95
• Geography I: Middle East, North Africa, and Europe Student Workbook – 11.95
• Geography I: Middle East, North Africa, and Europe Teacher Guide – $12.95
• United States Student Workbook – $5.00
• United States Teacher Key, Quizzes, and Tests – $7.95

Samples of the Text, Workbook and  Table of Contents, their Geography I bundle Page.

Scratching your head at where to start? Advice given to me, that we followed, and have passed on to many. 

Sit Down. 

In a Quiet Spot.

With a Notebook and Pencil.

And Wait.

Ask yourself, and the Lord, what He / You want from their education. Have you stopped to wonder if your kids should go to school? When they should start school? When formal lessons should begin, and why? Or is your child 3 or 5 and it’s ‘time’ because everyone else is in the pick up line at elementary school – or boarding that yellow bus? All your friends are talking about and ordering curriculum? If your answer starts with ‘someone else’, then it isn’t your plan.

Ask the Lord – What do you want for my children for learning?

How do you want them taught?

What do you want me to teach them?

How do you want me to be involved?

What resources should I use?

Guide me to scriptural truths to help me build a foundation.

What Lord, do you see at the mission for our family?

And wait.  And breathe. And Rest. And have your pencil ready to move with the words and ideas that start sifting through your mind.

Tie a shoe. Ride a bike. Shake hands firmly. Look adults in the eye.  Smile while in Worship. Wipe a table. Make clay soft enough before trying to use it to form an animal.

Now you’re sitting with your pencil wondering if these are just your thoughts or the Lords.

You know one crazy idea that came to me during one of these planning sessions? Teach Jonathan to safely climb a tree. I didn’t write it down. He was about 4. I let it go.  A couple of months later? I found him in the top of the tallest tree in the back yard crawling from branch to branch to get to the next tree top. #ScariestDayEver.   #Drat those neighbor kids who taught him that.

I was expecting the Lord to lay out an academic educational plan that would rival the east coast prep schools.

Each family is going to be different, each child is an individual. Your goals and the way you meet your goals will be different than mine. Parents work. Kids have special needs.

Ask God how He is going to provide for Your Individual Needs. Write that down. And then Trust Him.

As you can probably tell, I have two completely different boys. I can’t really do the same things for them. I pray about their character training. I try to listen to the Lord to hear what He wants to work on next. Usually, the boy himself will have an easy enough time sharing/showing me where he needs some guidance. Ha.  I’ll work on a post sharing how we work on Character.

My biggest piece of advice, as mentioned above, is to be careful when your thoughts move to ‘someone else’. During this pencil to paper, You and God, You and your Husband, Your thoughts and your Child – just write what comes to mind.

Throughout the years, I have spent countless hours learning how to teach. Learning what is recommended to teach. I’ve read just about every book in the genre of “What your child needs to know when”.  When they were younger, I used my findings as a loose outline to let me know if we were on the ‘right’ path academically. I still do that at grades 7 and 10. I keep a notebook of milestone that they cross over. It was a very detailed account in a 5 subject spiral bound book when they were in Kindergarten. Now, it’s a small 5×7 single subject cute book of an  outline of the year.

We move along – doing the next thing, but I still get doubts. Wonder if what we are doing is right, especially if the whole town seems to be doing it a different way. And that’s when I pull out my paper. From when they were 2 and 5. And read what the Lord put on my heart. And pray over those words again. And ask if His direction has changed. So far – it has only been strengthened.