salt kissed school

George Town, Bahamas

March 5, 2015 by Carly Filed Under: bahamas, kids on board, salt kissed school

If you’re headed for the Bahamas it won’t take long before you hear the question:
When are you getting to George Town?

All cruisers eventually hit George Town, it is the prime destination for all cruisers. Beautiful beaches, great grocery store, good spot to fly in and out off and of course there’s the social aspect of it.

For us being in George Town was like being a cruise. We arrived during Regatta week where there were 370+ sailboats. Everyday there were scheduled activities for both kids and adults. Carl is more of a social butterfly than me, I’m happier chilling out on the beach chatting to other mums.

In the week we were there Carl played volleyball, poker, competed in downwind dinghy race, blind rowing race and we all did the poker bar run. The kids had a Spanish class and participated in kids day. There was also a pot luck for cruising families one night and the Regatta concert too. We were busy everyday, we officially needed a break from George Town, we were exhausted.

We met some great families there and bummed we had to leave them behind.

Thanks to Chrissy and Sean on SV Paisley for hanging with us and giving us some hand-me-down winter clothes for the kids.

Thanks to Chad and Marsha on SV Free Spirit for some good beach hangout time. Thanks Abby and Jeff on SV Mojo for the mumma advice and beach fun. Also thanks to Shelley on SV Shelle Belle for the extra kid toys, Carl is especially thrilled with the Ikea bag. Trip and Lisa on SV Piper, we hope to see you again.

We had such a great time and have never seen so many boating kids, we would get to Volley Ball beach and our two girls would literally disappear for a couple of hours playing with all the other kids.

George Town is a must in the Bahamas, especially if you have kids. Just don’t stay for too long, it sucks you in and before you know it you’ll spend the whole winter season there….. or longer!

Above is the group we mainly hung out with, this was the day of the poker bar run.
Above is a bunch of kids got together to be taught Spanish for the morning, boat schooling at its best!

Farewell George Town and our extended family.

lots of lava

November 28, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: salt kissed school

Homeschool volcano from Carly on Vimeo. Here’s a volcano we made today.

finding some critters

November 28, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: bugs, homeschooling, Kids, salt kissed school

Pri and I went to the beach and collected some leaf littler and sand. We also took advantage of this one on one time to swim and chat about girl stuff – princesses and mermaids.We came back to the boat and with Wag’s help we checked out the leaf litter for some creepy crawlies. If we had gotten the leaves from further inland there would have been some better bugs but there were some steep rocks where we were. We talked about how the critters make the leaves their homes and help them decompose back into the earth.

We then put the leaves, sand, coral and shells in a cut up water bottle, soon to be paint container to see how all the different pieces react. We’ll check it all out in the morning to see what parts float and what parts sink.

We also love a bit of homemade play dough action.

homeschooling

November 28, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: salt kissed school

I’m starting up a page dedicated to our homeschooling / boatschooling. I love teaching the girls, we don’t really do any full on text book work but we do read a lot, talk and do projects together. They love the thought of school so I call it school.

I was really afraid to dig in and get my hands dirty at the start so I ordered a package from Sonlight. Initially we went with the pre school package which was basically a selection of really fantastic books. It came with a guide of what to read first and discussion questions. I tossed that guide out the window and started reading from which ever books we felt like. It was easy and the girls really enjoyed it. After we had completed all the books I jumped up to the Kindergarten level which included books, projects, math, science and language. I follow the day by day guide and slowly knock it out. I change some projects up to suit us and what I have on board. I love this program because it’s not internet based and I can go as fast or slow as I want. It’s either a 4 day or 5 day plan. Our girls are close in age so I add some easier worksheets for Wags to help her along.

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We do it everyday knowing that some days when we decide to lift anchor and leave we forfeit school that morning.

If anyone has any boat schooling ideas please email me, i love hearing from other mummas.

salt kissed school

November 28, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: salt kissed school

boat schooling

October 9, 2014 by Carly Filed Under: homeschooling, Kids, salt kissed school

It’s funny when we meet new people on the dock or in our dingy the first thing that always comes up is: “do you homeschool?” Some people look at us like they are ready to report us to child services. Our kids are all below school age but yes, we homeschool. I follow the Sonlight curriculum for Kindergarten. Both girls learn at the same time, when needed I supplement Wag’s worksheets with more age appropriate ones from Kumon or other PreK books. We’re not a religious family but I do like we have the opportunity to teach our kids about God with Sonlight, we will also be teaching them about other religions so they can make their own decision’s on the subject

I was so scared of taking the leap into homeschooling but now that I have started I’m so glad. I’m such a proud mumma when my girls take something we’ve learnt in school time into the outside world or include it in everyday conversation.

Wags: “mumma the vacuum is a potato (tornado), it sucks everything up!”

Pri: “yeah but it doesn’t spit it out, so it’s not really a tornado”

Even though our girls are only (almost) 5 and 3 they are extremely interested in learning and LOVE “school time” in the mornings. I want to ease them into learning so we do 1-2 hours every morning. I know you must be thinking they’re way too young to be forced into structured learning but I’m no strict school mistress. If they aren’t into it or tired we skip it or pick out some fun stuff and leave the more technical sections, like handwriting for another day. I also follow through with the rest of the day pointing out letters and having the girls tell Carl over lunch what they learnt today. We also do field trips to museums and take the classroom outside to the beach. Everyday and every moment is a learning experience onboard Salty.

Helping Dad sort screws and bolts

Our homemade tornado

Check out my 2 toothy pegs!!!

Being a geek at the Museum of Science, Boston MA