Summer is gone but the memories aren't

 So we made a trek down to Hilton Head this summer and stayed at our beloved Disney Resort. Did you even know they had a Disney Resort there?  This year we were joined by my parents and one nephew. It was a large crowd but with a 3 bedroom villa we had room to spare.

Of course the beach is wonderful but there are so many other things that we love to do when we stay at this resort. The main pool is great because it has a fabulous slide. 

It  also offers many great activities for the kids. Wildman and Chickie opted for a wildlife tour out in the marsh to see some nature close up. Wildman turned out to be a pretty darn good fiddler crab catcher. We also got some real crabbing accomplished out on the dock. This little guy needed a little direction to find his way back to the water and he was not happy about the suggestion made with the shoe! 

One cute little craft the girls made were these "seashell in my pocket" things. Super cute and now holding a place of honor on my kitchen windowsill.

All in all I would say it was another memorable summer vacation that add to all the other fabulous ones we have had on Hilton Head!

Crazy School Days

School is fully underway and we are off to a productive start. I have the girls helping with the younger boys although Mini Monster is the most interested in do "projects".
Here he is with Chickie and Big Mac doing calendar.

Wildman is working hard on his writing, controlling his grip, and is finally beginning to get sounding out. His tendency toward being auditory has made it a tough road as he sounds out words WITHOUT staring at them like most kids do. One glance and then he has to pull his eyes away. Phonics Road 1 has been working for him very well!! We have a ton of vowel teams in our vault(ee,ai,aw,au,ow,ou,ay,oy,oi...) and he is beginning to pick up speed decoding. I use some laminated sentence strip pieces to create a word walk that he has to travel and read. In there I have included sight words that are useless in terms of phonics. Have, from, some, where, there, have, and others.

For Nature study I have opted to go with a Simply Charlotte Mason approach in addition to what Oak Meadow offers. He would do nature all day if he could. I LOVE these books but sadly our library only has 2 and I will be paying dearly to get more as most are out of print. Crinkleroot is the cutest character ever!

They are always interested in flowers and when Grandma's cactus did its once a year bloom we had to go over a look!