Our Ocean Shores camping trip has been a tradition in the Smith family for around 30 years. Since I was just 6 months old my parents brought me out to this family friend owned campground. We all had our same spots we set up our tents, we had the same families join us, we had the same traditions of what food we brought and games we played. Well, 2020 strikes again. We were told by Code Enforcement that we need 1 tent per RV, apparently its been a rule for 16 years? We have no RVs, so our tradition comes to a crashing stop. What makes me most sad is that this was the place I made some of my favorite memories growing up. All of us that were kids when this first started, now have kids of our own. We were going to start bringing "the next generation" out and letting them create their own memories. Now we can't. We still plan to figure out a way they can make their own memories, but as for Ocean Shores, it won't be here. I honestly cried when I found out it was over. We will still be out for a beach day here and there, but it will never be the same. 1992-2020.
We planned on Riley starting Preschool this year. It would have been the first year she could do it, so she still has 2 years until kindergarten. Hopefully that means she can have at least one year of preschool in the classroom. But as for this year, we felt uncomfortable sending her due to COVID. Especially since we live with my parents who are higher risk. So, what do you do when your kiddo can't go to school and you are a stay at home mom/former teacher? You homeschool, of course! This vlog is very jumbled because most of the time I am trying to be a good teacher and not have my phone in the "classroom", but here are some clips of my smarty pants starting to learn her ABCs, 123s, and a lot of other things! So proud of her!
*This was just the first week of our learning back in July. Since then, she has currently learned how to write Aa-Ee, her numbers 1-6 (she already knows up to 20 but we are really practicing it and her writing each number). She has also learned her days of the week, months of the year, different weather, and how to read some words! We do a sight word a week, so she has learned "I", "a", "the", "to", and "you". I am so proud of her and how much work she puts into school! She works very hard and powers through so well that our three hour school day really got cut in half because she puts such an effort into her assignments. We decided to do three weeks on, and a week off, so as not to get too burnt out. Hopefully she continues to show this love of the classroom as the years go on. I can't wait for next year and her be able to grow her social skills in an actual classroom as well as use all the knowledge that she has gained from our homeschooling. Way to go, Roo!
This year was such a strange 4th of July. Not only because the Freedom Fair and big fireworks shows were closed due to COVID, but there was so much negativity this year. However, even with the strange 2020 year, we had a great holiday! We were able to spend a really nice day at home with my parents and Paul came over. We made a lot of food, watched fireworks from our backyard (we seriously had a 360 degree view) and just enjoyed each other. Riley is getting better about fireworks, not great, but a lot better than last year. Tyler just enjoyed all the food he was able to finally eat. We hope you all had a great day too!
