Thanks to our newest sponsor, graphics designer Dan Bernardo, we now have a logo!  You'll soon be able to show your support for homeschooling by sporting your very own D2E gear.  The logo is exactly what we had hoped for...the image represents a road winding through an area near both water and lush vegetation.  The red dot represents us, in the RV rolling down the road.  The image as a whole spells out D2E, for Driven to Educate.  We love it!  Dan was quick and clever and very easy to work with!  If you need a great designer, he's your man!

During our travels we’ve been learning the capital of each state that we travel through.  To help us remember, we’re using “movies” in our minds.  Here are the movies to help your children remember too:

Tennessee - Picture a tennis player smashing a large pill over the net, instead of a ball.
Smash+pill=Nashville, tennis = Tennessee

Virginia – A very rich man asked a cute girl named Virginia for a date.
Rich+man=Richmond, girl’s name=Virginia

Maryland – You see a woman dressed as a bride dangling an apple from a fishing pole.  She’s trying to hook her groom, not a fish.  She really wants to land this one and get married.
Apple+pole=Annapolis, married+land=Maryland

North Carolina – Think of the North Pole and carolers.  These carolers aren’t singing Christmas songs.  Instead, they’re cheering, “Rah, Rah, Rah!”
Rah=Raleigh, North Pole Carolers=North Carolina

Pennsylvania – You’re a cartoonist and you’re using a pencil to draw a cartoon of a hamburger with weird punk-rocker hair.
Hairy hamburger=Harrisburg, the cartoonist’s pencil=Pennsylvania

New York – Picture the Empire State Building in New York City (New York is the Empire State).  Now picture a bunch of bunnies hopping all over it.
All bunnies=Albany, Empire State Building=New York

New Jersey – Your favorite football player took off his brand new jersey and stretched it out on the ground.  Then he put a tent on the jersey.
Tent+on=Trenton, football jersey=New Jersey

Connecticut – Picture a giant heart flopping around in the back of a Ford truck.  What keeps it from bouncing out of the truck?  It’s connected with a rope.
Heart+Ford=Hartford, connected by a rope=Connecticut

Rhode Island – Picture a small island that you can hold in your hand.  On the island is a tiny road.  You see a professor walking down the road searching for evidence of a lost civilization.
Prof+evidence=Providence, road+island=Rhode Island

from Kids Learn America! by Patricia Gordon and Reed Snow

My boys are about to graduate from the 1^st and 2^nd grades and I’m upset.  We're messing with tradition.  This is how it’s supposed to look…

At the end of the school year I make a scrapbook of all of the things they’ve seen, made, participated in, accomplished and experienced that had anything to do with school in the past year.  (I take LOADS of pictures throughout the year because you just can't keep everything.)  Then we invite all of our friends over for a huge Open House to celebrate graduating to the next grade.  The kids act as guides, explaining everything to their guests.  We put the scrapbook out for everyone to peruse.  We make appetizers and desserts.  The boys also alternate giving a presentation every year to practice their public speaking.  They have to research a topic, make a presentation board, memorize their “speech”, and then give it to the group (without fidgeting), which is usually between 20 and 30 people.  We've done it the same way every year for the past three years.