When I was a kid, Carowinds was the place everyone wanted to go. It had all sorts of cool rides perfect for thrill seeking adolescents. I didn’t get to make it as often as I liked, but when I did I had a blast. I’d ride rollar coasters and eat junk food until I thought I would throw up. And then I’d do it all over again.

As an adult, Carowinds has a completely different feel. Just looking at the rollar coasters now is enough to give me the spins. Luckily my two kids aren’t old enough to ride yet, so that was one battle I didn’t have to fight yet. I did bring my niece and her friend but they were old enough to ride on their own. And yes you read that right…I took FOUR kids to Carowinds!

Not only did I travel to Carowinds with a 2, 5, 11 and 13 year old in tow, I also did it without the help of my husband. How did I survive? Luckily I had the help of a good friend who also happens to be a veteran Carowinds enthusiast full of tips and tricks for visiting the park.

Continue reading →

If you’ve seen our Great Wolf Lodge series, you know my family and I are huge fans of water park fun!  We knew we wanted to add a new adventure to our summer Bucket List, and found the perfect destination just an hour away.  Wet ‘n Wild Emerald Pointe!

When I was a kid, we visited Emerald Pointe usually at least once during the summer. As adults we hadn’t taken our own children yet, as we were waiting for them to get bigger. However, after my oldest learned to swim last summer, we knew we had to make visiting this year a priority!

Continue reading →

At last, we reach our final strategy in our reading strategy series.

I think we’ve pretty much covered all the bases when it comes to problems your child may encounter when decoding a word.  All except for our last friend, Tryin’ Lion.

I wish I had some cutesty story to introduce him, but I’m all out my friends.  However, don’t let that undermine this guy’s important.  As you’ll see, he plays a pivotal role in our collection of reading strategies.

Continue reading →

Chameleon’s are one of nature’s marvels. They have the unique ability to be able to camouflage themselves to match the appearance of their surroundings.

I remember reading about it as a child and being super jealous of this amazing adaptation. I even wrote a paper about what I’d do if I were a chameleon. I’d blend in with the wall paper and listen to conversations. I’d sneak in the closet and peak at Christmas presents. I was even as scandalous as to slip into a movie theatre and watch a PG-13 movie. Gasp! The horrors.

Much later, as an adult, I was trying to come up with a character to represent this strategy when the chameleon’s super power’s occurred to me again. I likened his ability to camouflage into his environment as being almost the same thing as a base word hiding before an inflected ending. I mean almost right?

It may be a stretch, but for whatever reason, it worked. My kids got it and used it, and the Cover It Chameleon reading strategy was born.

Continue reading →

My sweet Mama has always had an odd obsession with owls. Her house is covered in little knick knacks with an owl theme and for many, many years that was all anyone gave her for birthday or Christmas gifts.

She told us she liked them because they represented wisdom and wisdom was something she aspired to continuously acquire as she grew older.

I never told her, but I actually found little evidence to back up the intelligence of owls. Rather I discovered that their perceived wisdom comes from folklore and their regal appearance. Owls were once thought to be signs foretelling of either a coming blessing or misfortune. However, they’ve been proven to be no smarter than any other bird in existence.

Despite this, due to their reputation and depiction in the media, owls make the perfect representative of my next strategy. So we’ll just ignore everything that tells us that in fact owls might not be so wise, and pretend they are, if only for the sake of teaching children to read.

Continue reading →

Who didn’t love Dr. Seuss as a kid?

His books contain casts of colorful characters and tongue twisting tales of fun and imagination. His silly antics have been bringing giggles to home for decades.

However, his books aren’t just fun to read. They are also extremely important as a beginning reading resource as they contain something incredibly helpful for young readers.

Tons of rhymes.

His books are in fact, partially the inspiration behind this next reading strategy that does not typically appear on classroom walls.

Continue reading →

Do you remember the game from the eighties, with the frog leaping across traffic, trying not to get smushed?

Maybe I’m just showing my age, but still, I find the game Frogger a great analogy for the next reading strategy.

You see much like that little frog, our young readers are trying to successfully make it to the end of a sentence, and will perhaps encounter many unknown words in their path.

These words can be barriers in their mission to to get to the end of the sentence, or they can be stepping stones. The difference lies in this strategy.

Continue reading →

Other than visiting Sea World when I was eight, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dolphin in real life. We’ve visited many aquariums and I don’t think any had a collection of porpoises.

I’ve read it’s due to the fact that dolphins are such social animals and that keeping them in a tank is total torture to them.

I find this fascinating. In fact, I find everything about them fascinating. One of my life’s dreams is to one day go swimming with dolphins and meet one of these majestic mammals face to face.

Until then, I suppose I’ll have to settle for seeing their friendly faces on the next reading strategy!

Continue reading →

This is the strategy that makes me sentimental.

My youngest baby was and sort of still is, quite the chunk. One of her nicknames as a baby was Chunky Monkey. So, when I think of this strategy, all those adorable baby rolls come to mind and I just about melt.

I mean, is there anything cuter than a chunky baby?

However, her supreme cuteness and adorable leg rolls truly have nothing to do with this strategy. This strategy is yet another piece of the puzzle that unlocks so many words for new readers.

Continue reading →

If you know me, you know I am TERRFIED of snakes. If I see a snake in the woods, I panic.

My husband thinks I’m nuts, because I don’t want my kids playing in the woods. Even though, I great up playing in the woods.

I’m not even sure how or why my phobia developed, but it’s horrible.

So much so, that I even have a slight aversion to the next reading strategy. Like I tried to think of ways to rename it and make it so it still flowed. This one almost became stretchy snail, but that didn’t quite work, so I stuck with the tried and true.

Snake phobia aside, this strategy is super important.

So read on dear friend and learn how Stretchy Snake has charmed decades of children into become fluent readers.

Continue reading →