Here I am moving on through the month of May! :)

I wanted to share a little about the reading program I found for Red. He is a very auditory learner and didn't really respond well to the traditional Saxon Phonics program like Bug uses, so I did some hunting, tried lots of different stuff and finally found something that seems to be working well for him. We also use the Explode the Code books (Thanks Angela P!) but this goes very well with Red's auditory learning style. We have been using it for about a month now and it is going very well.

It's laid out very simply - each lesson includes any materials needed (like making a few index card pieces - see below), and includes what to say, etc.

The lessons are quick and simple - we've gotten into a few sight words now as well as reading a simple sentence. The book includes copy work ideas. I have done a of few of these with Red as well.

I am so happy to have found something that he seems to be taking so well too!

Here is a sample of the cards that I mad to practice the words ending in the "ap" sound. It makes it something like a game and Red does really well with it!

Here you can see Red's depiction of "The Beach". The boys were so excited about the beach trip we took with Memaw and Papa to Matagorda Bay. During school, Red was drawing on the board and came up with this. The blue is the ocean, the brown is the beach and the black is the beach house, we are the various circles you see are us on the beach.

More from before the beach trip.

Here is one of our opossums - we call this guy Great Uncle Bob.

Unlike Fred who just dumps the bucket and eats from the side Uncle Bob climbed up and hung himself over the edge. It gave me quite a start to open the backdoor and find him hanging there eating. But the funnier part was that he didn't seem to hear me, I got the camera and came back and he was still there. LOL

After several minutes he seemed to get his fill so he waddled off under the porch. What a cutie!