24 Hours on the Coast: Fort Frederica and the Beach!

We had a choice between Fort Sumter and Fort Frederica, both about equidistant from our hotel, both in interesting spots to explore for the day. Fort Sumter is more historically important, but you have to have a reservation for the access ferry, which you have to also pay extra for, and Fort Frederica, although relevant, is further south, so just that much warmer on this just-at-the-cusp-of-spring day, and it has, I discovered during my research, an award-winning Junior Ranger program.

An award-winning version of our favorite family vacation activity?

We drove south to Fort Frederica!

Check out this bagatelle game. We studied this during our History of the Video Game unit years ago, and even made a DIY version, but this one looks even more DIY-able than the one that we made. I want it!

What's that in the shelter behind the younger kid?

It's a soldier lying down on the job!

Are you wondering what the kids are wearing in these photos?

Along with their Junior Ranger book, they're requisitioned a uniform hat and haversack equipped with necessary supplies--

--as well as important information necessary to the completion of the Junior Ranger books:

This Junior Ranger experience was just as awesome as I'd been led to believe.

We also found another historical garden that I felt jealous about--

--and yes, I did get the older kid to sneak me another lavender cutting. It's sitting on my desk right now.

Speaking of the older kid... you are not going to believe what that lucky girl found here:

Another painted rock! We're going to have to set up a little rock painting station here at home next week, so that she can create her two replacements and set them off into the world.

On this day, our first really, truly beautiful day in Georgia, the kids began talking about how they wished they lived in Georgia. It took just four hours of nice weather to get them wanting to immigrate from Indiana! To be fair,  it snowed TWICE in Indiana while we were gone, at the same time that it looked like this down in Georgia:

Heck, I was ready to move, too, especially to a nice little beach house under a tree covered in Spanish moss, but I told the kids that before we moved, we had to come back to Georgia in August and see how much we liked it then.

Wanna bet that we'll still want to move down there from Indiana then?

Fort Frederica had a much smaller and recreated fort, far different from Fort Pulaski--

--but the older kid still claims that forts are her favorite places to visit. And even without a giant for to explore, we still had a fabulous time wandering the grounds:

Creepy old cemetery is creepy.

Before and after Fort Frederica, we hit a couple of beaches on the coast, because even though the water was freezing and sometimes so was the air, obviously nothing was going to keep us from the beach!

Heck, we barely got our stuff in our hotel room the previous night, before we headed back out to explore the beach that it faced:

Her favorite pastime is chasing seagulls.

On these Georgia and South Carolina beaches, we found a lot more critters than I've ever seen on a beach before. And not just critters in their shells, although there were plenty of those--

We observe them and then put them back, so they can carry on with their little critter lives.

--but also plenty of these!

dead cannonball jellyfish

There were SO MANY dead jellyfish on the beach! We were flummoxed, but apparently it really is just a thing that happens.

To a kid, though, you know what a bunch of jellyfish on a beach means?

It's time for jellyfish funerals!!!

Here's one I got a picture of before the jellyfish was interred. Each memorial reads "Jellyfish 2017-2017. Good jellyfish."

I mean, surely my kids aren't the only ones who like doing this...

Weirdly, though, the dead horseshoe crab that we found the next day on the beach of St. Simons Island did not get the same treatment:

This inscription reads "Seagulls eat here," and there's an arrow pointing to the dead crab. Okay.....

The best critter sighting, though, happened on our first night at Hilton Head. We were walking along the beach near sunset, and we stopped to examine someone's abandoned sand castle. Everyone had turned away from the water to look at it, but I happened to turn back for a second, something in the waves caught my eye, and I pointed and screamed, "DOLPHIN!!!!!!!"

We raced to the water's edge, me hoping the dolphin would surface again so the kids could see it. We stood there, eyes peeled, and then...

Dolphin!

It was a busy dolphin, making its way north up the beach, never more than this far from the shore, never waiting more than a minute to surface again. We chased it on foot, pacing it at a jog, sometimes stopping to have to look for it again, sometimes discovering that it was suddenly way ahead or suddenly way behind us, sometimes discovering that it was surfacing right in front of us. I even managed to take one short video of it:

We must have followed that dolphin for two miles, at least. Eventually, the older kid and Matt fell behind and the younger kid and I kept on for nearly another mile before we noticed how far back they were, how dark it was getting, and how much farther back our hotel must be, and sadly let the dolphin go on its dolphin business without our escort. 

Oh, my goodness, it was a long walk back to Matt and the older kid--

--and it was a long, long, LONG walk back to our hotel, and pitch dark by the time we finally made our way there, but everyone knows that things like that are just the welcome price that you pay when magic finds you.

A Few Hours at Fort Pulaski National Monument

After our pilgrimage to the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, I had planned for us to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening in Savannah--walk around, steal some Spanish moss, perhaps eat another meal of Southern food--but as we learned after the crazy traffic caused me to do some emergency Googling, Savannah is SUPER into St. Patrick's Day, and although the holiday wasn't even until the next day, there were a million people on the streets and in their cars ready to freaking celebrate. It took us about ten minutes to be completely over it.

So instead of coming back to Fort Pulaski on a different day, we headed straight there after our birthplace visit, and spent the rest of the day peacefully in the sunshine (although it was still cold, grr!):

This place is amazing, by the way--by FAR the best fort that we've ever been to for this one reason: it's still there!!! At Fort Smith, you can follow the outline of the ruins. At Fort Frederica,  which I'll show you later on our trip, you can do the same, and with the earthworks, and see one small recreated building from it. Those are impressive enough, but at Fort Pulaski, the entire fort is extant. And the moat around it. And the maze of the underground ammunition store that is like wandering a labyrinth to explore:







Fort Pulaski is maybe as close as you'll get to an authentic castle in North America, with its genuine moat (in which there was a genuine alligator that the National Park warned us to be on the lookout for!), and genuine drawbridge over the moat:

You could walk on top of the walls of the fort to see its turf roof and explore the offensive structures--

Just after I took the following photo, a Park Ranger screamed at me FROM THE PARADE GROUND BELOW to get off the cannon. Sorry!

The lower level had barracks and cruel prisons and even crueler prisons for the officers, as well as interesting hallways and lots of nooks and crannies to explore and windows to look out of to search for the alligator:

We all knew a LOT more about 19th century forts by the time these two took their Junior Ranger oaths!

Now, let's go to the beach!

Work Plans for the Week of April 10, 2017: The Three-Day School Week

School last week went well, although it felt really busy--well, it WAS really busy. Syd prepped daily for the Trashion/Refashion Show, which was last night. It was perfect, we had an awesome time, and Syd's garment and modeling were a hit! I'll talk more about it another time, after I've caught my breath (and caught up on my sleep!), but here's a little preview of Syd's original design, Supergirl of the Night:

The other activity that the kids worked on ALL last week was preparing for the party that our Girl Scout troop threw for a preschool class--this morning! This was the Take Action Project for Syd's Junior Agent of Change Journey, so she had an especial lot of work to do, including sewing the favor bags for each of the small guests, but both kids were on numerous committees and had several jobs that took the entire week to complete. I think the whole troop was a little nervous about this party, but they did amazing work, the preschoolers loved it, and I think that all of our Girl Scouts came away with that awesome feeling that you get when you work hard for someone else and are surprised by how great the experience turned out to be for you, as well.

All of that on top of a full academic schedule made for a very busy school week! The kids' favorite subject turned out to be our Story of Science curriculum--building the Platonic solids did not go so well, as dang, those nets are tricky to put together, but drawing models of the celestial spheres turned out to be a HUGE hit:


The kids loved the silliness of the concept of the celestial spheres, but I think they really took to heart the understanding that without experimentation to draw from, observation and logic were really all the tools that the Ancient Greeks had to help them understand how the universe works. Without science, logic and observation can get you many places, but they cannot get you everywhere, including to an accurate model of our Solar System.

We're taking this week a little easier, as thankfully we have nothing to frantically work towards for this weekend. That will change next week, when we need to start preparing for a Girl Scout camping trip the next weekend, but for this week--easy does it!

I've taken advantage of our three-day school week (the kids have an all-day nature class on Friday) to skip our more consuming subjects, our history and science curricula. We'll hit them again next week, when we're fresh.

Daily work this week includes journaling or writing from a creative prompt for ten minutes (I've finally gotten Will to agree to do this--woo-hoo!), typing practice on Typing.com, more reading from their MENSA reading lists (Syd generally reads a chapter from her current book, while Will often reads an entire book in one sitting), Wordly Wise for Will and a word ladder for Syd, SAT prep on Khan Academy for Will, and cursive copywork for both kids.

Books of the Day this week include some selections that I'm really excited about--Kids of Kabul for Will, a re-read of Marvelous Math for Syd, a book of folk tales from Iraq for both kids, and The Tail of Emily Windsnap for Syd.

And here's the rest of our week!



TUESDAY: Math Mammoth this week is more fraction calculation for Syd and more solving equations for Will. Each kid hit a bit of a wall with their respective units last week, so we may have to take some more time with them if it's not feeling any clearer this week.

Poor Syd also loathes Junior Analytical Grammar, perhaps because, for us, each exercise is a multi-step process. She parses the sentences in the exercise, then hands it to me so that I can mark the words that are incorrectly parsed, then tries those words again, then gets my okay to diagram the sentences, then hands it to me so I can mark the parts of the diagram that are incorrect, then tries those parts again, etc. It's nearly impossible to get every single word and every single diagram correct on the first go, and if there ever was a person who hates to get even a single, tiny thing incorrect, that person is Syd! Nevertheless, the kids are learning English grammar, so there you go. Will follows the same procedure for her Review and Reinforcement worksheets, and although she doesn't love them, either, she is more resigned than Syd and more willing to muscle through to the other side.

This day is Home Ec day, which means that I won't have to make dinner! We're using Your Kids: Cooking, which I'm happy with even if I don't always love the recipes (Matt theorizes that this is because the books author is an educator, not a chef). The kids ARE learning how to cook independently, and they seem happy with how their food tastes, and that's enough for me.

The first school day of the week, the kids take a new keyboard lesson from Hoffman Academy. Will LOATHES these lessons, but since she's already admitted to me that she only wants to learn history and science in our homeschool, I'm neither surprised, nor do I care other than about how annoying it is to make sure she puts in her five minutes of half-hearted practice each day. But when she's grown, I want her to say not "My Mom didn't bother to give me music lessons," but "My Mom got me music lessons and I blew it." Syd enjoys the keyboard much more, but insists that she does not want "real" lessons; she likes the low-effort, low-expectation, fun-for-her system that we've got in place.

After starting her dog house this weekend, Will should, with daily work, be able to finish it this week and earn her Girl Scout Cadette Woodworker badge. And when she's finished this dog house, she should be able to build anything! Syd, as well, should be able to finish up her Junior Gardener badge. She's tried the step that requires her to complete a seed-related science experiment numerous times, until I finally decided that it's the experiment that's at fault, and not my kid, and planned out a different one for her to do. That experiment, plus regular work setting up her sister's old bee and butterfly garden for the season, will complete her badge work.

In math enrichment this week, I'm going to show the kids how to key the decanomial square to symbols so that you can use it for algebraic reasoning. They don't love the decanomial square, although I find it fascinating, so every time we pull it out is another chance for me to share my love of it.

WEDNESDAY: The kids have really been enjoying working on a new Junior Ranger badge by mail every week, and they're getting a lot out of the experience, as they always do with Junior Ranger programs. This week, they'll be doing the Hot Springs National Park badge--my entire childhood, I lived less than three hours from there, and yet I've never been--and I've also found a documentary of the park to show them.

At Syd's request, she works on a new baking project every week. Sometimes she looks up recipes and sometimes she makes them up, and sometimes, as in this week, she doesn't actually bake at all. Will's grandmother gave her a cotton candy maker for her last birthday, and Syd wants to use that appliance to make cotton candy out of Jolly Ranchers, and perhaps also pop rocks. We'll see how that goes!

Surprisingly, Will is interested in earning the Cadette Budgeting badge. It seems like a dry badge to me, but I guess tweens and teens are naturally interested in learning more about money. Unfortunately, Will rarely has any (by her own accord--I have plenty of lists around the house of ways that an enterprising tween might earn herself some pocket money), so I've had to modify some of this badge's requirements. For instance, instead of tracking her own spending for a week, and coming up with one dollar spent on a candy bar from the vending machine at the library, beginning on this day and carrying on until next Wednesday, Matt and I are going to hand her the receipt for every single thing that we buy (must remember to do the Easter Bunny purchasing before Wednesday!). Will is going to be responsible for logging these expenditures, tallying them, organizing them into categories, and then evaluating them. We'll discuss her findings with her next Wednesday.

THURSDAY: Will has been complaining lately that she doesn't understand Biblical references.  Shame on me for that, but at least it's easily remedied, especially this week, when there are so many seasonal celebrations to enjoy. Sometime this week during our family time, I'll read them the story of Moses and we can watch Prince of Egypt on Netflix, and on this day I'll read them the story of Jesus and we will analyze Leonardo Da Vinci's Last Supper, then make a model of it with an egg carton, of all things. We may also have a feast, since it will be Holy Thursday, after all. I'll have to plan for a more comprehensive Bible study for next semester, though if Will was just a couple of years younger, I could have gotten away with just enrolling the kids in Sunday school, dang it! That's where I got all of MY Biblical references, as well as learned some pretty terrific songs and did some frankly astonishing craft projects.

Syd is just almost done with the Girl Scout Junior Scribe badge--as always happens, she's completed the fun activities, and now has just the couple of ones left that don't sound so fun. She does love creative writing in general, though, so I think this spot on the work plans will be enough to encourage her to push through.

Syd covers vocabulary and logic with her word ladders, so Will and I do a mind bender once a week. I loved these at her age, but I've either forgotten how tricky they are, or this is exactly the kind of mental stimulation that my poor, aging brain needs. Last week I even had to cheat by peeking at the solution!

FRIDAY: The kids have an all-day nature class that they are LOVING, and I get to spend five hours getting tons of stuff done!

SATURDAY/SUNDAY: Ballet for one. Chinese for the other. Will has a Girl Scout program with the fire department, and I think it's going to be freaking incredible. Both kids have been invited to what sounds like an epic Easter egg hunt sponsored by the church that a couple of their friends attend--can you believe that my kids have never gone to an Easter egg hunt?!? They have only done hunts at home, the poor lambs. They're going to have a fabulous time.

And then on Sunday, there will be the traditional Easter Bunny clue hunt (our Easter Bunny makes the kids solve riddles and run all over our property and the drive-in to find their Easter baskets), ham and yeast rolls, maybe some sweet potatoes, and lots and LOTS of chocolate.

What are YOUR plans for the week?

A Google Map of the National Parks

So this has been done before, but not just the way that I wanted it to be. When I plan a road trip, I like to look for all the national parks that are near our destination or on the way there. I like not just the national parks, themselves, but also the historical sites, the memorials, the national battlefields, the national recreation areas, the scenic trails... you get the idea. If our national park service owns it, I want to know about it. And I just kept not finding the exact kind of map that I wanted, or if I found a good one, it was made by another individual, which means that they could take it down whenever THEY wanted and then I'd be back in the same boat of not having a good Google map of the national parks...

...So I made one:


Here's a pretty little pic of what it looks like when you zoom in:


It's not  a perfect Google map of the national parks, because I had to put in the office of some sites to get a street address, and that may not be exactly where the park is located, and I couldn't mark the entire length of a scenic trail, just a couple of waypoints, but this is enough that, when I'm planning my next road trip, I can simply reference this map instead of Googling eighteen different things like I had been doing.

That's not all, though, because THIS map is only step #1. You know what I really want? I really want a Google Map with only the national parks that offer a Junior Ranger program marked, so that when I'm planning a road trip, I can easily see which itinerary offers us the best access to the most Junior Ranger badges. So you know what I'm gonna do?

I'm going to make that map next!