The beauty of homeschooling is being able to look at the first week of school in your area and decide to go to Hawaii instead. Despite the risk of two unusual hurricanes, the weather was amazing and DJ had an awesome time.

This was our first vacation that DJ pulled his own weight. No strollers, no car seats, no parent’s carrying extra luggage. Yay!!

DJ spend most of the week in the hotel pool where he made lots of friends. He can’t swim yet but with his turtle puddle jumper he has the freedom of the pool.

The hotel was directly across the street from the beach and DJ was decked out for fun!  The beach at Waikiki is awesome because it has a wall to break the surf several yards from the beach which creates a calm swimming area for little ones.

Yes, that is me, despite my general camera aversion. DJ enjoyed burying me in the sand like a mermaid. We don’t have sand like this in the Pacific Northwest so this was a lot of fun.

We also enjoyed catching the sunset on the beach while DJ frolicked back and forth in the sand. And yes, before the sun was below the horizon, DJ’s clothes were soaked in salty water.

DJ (and his parents) are not adventurous eaters, but DJ did enjoy all the exotic fruit juices. I believe this photo is guava juice and he also really liked passion fruit juice. And he loved getting a little paper umbrella in every drink.

DJ enjoyed some of the local flora and fauna. The camera doesn’t do it justice but the red on this bird was stunning. DJ particularly like these flowers from plumeria trees. He carried them around and put them in his hair. We also saw some wild chicken which was a unique experience for me.

During our vacation we visited the USS Arizona Memorial, USS Bowfin Submarine and USS Misouri Battleship. Montessori Primary does not include history lessons because children at this age live in the here and now, so DJ has no real understanding of World War II or Pearl Harbor but he was immensely impressed with the submarine and battleship tours. It was a memorable experience for him and I hope when he does study the history of this place it will help to make it real for him in a way a textbook cannot.

It was a magical week for all of us. I’m so glad we were able to go but we’re all happy to be home again as well.