While the school kids were taking SOLs…

I keep driving by our local elementary school where they have posted that the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests are happening this week. This time of year makes me doubly glad that we are not in school. Jason would be in 3rd grade…which means that SOLs would have been a really big deal this year (I think that for some reason 3rd, 5th and 8th are important years leading up to high school where every year "counts"). I remember my friends' daughter's 3rd grade year…she took "SOL prep" classes 3 afternoons a week and her mom would swing by and pick her up at 5pm on her way home from work. Otherwise the daughter would not get home until 5:30 on the bus. I do sometimes feel like we have dodged a bullet! The emphasis put on standardized testing in schools nowadays drives me nuts.

But enough about school…this is what we got to do on Wednesday: Shark Tooth Hunting at Breezy Point Beach!

Breezy Point is a regular field trip for a couple of the homeschool groups I belong to and is only about an hour away up in Maryland. This is the first year that we made it and I am so glad that we did! You could not ask for a nicer place…the first thing that Jason said after he got out of the car was "Mommy…it is so quiet here!". And it was. Our group of 9 families were the only ones on the beach.

There is a great playground right off the beach, bathrooms, showers, and of course the beach and an enclosed swimming area on the bay. Oh, and did I mention the shark's teeth? They are all over the beach! The kids (and moms!) had fun sifting through the sand to see what they could find. We found many, many sharks teeth (way cool!), lots of neat polished stones and even some sea glass.