School Lunch Toddler Edition: August

School days are in full swing around here. Our 3 year old began preschool this year and is loving every minute. With three of us needing to leave the house by 7am so that I can drop off baby boy at the sitter and G at her preschool, I needed to find a way to shave off some minutes in the morning so that we aren't running frantically out the door. My friend was telling me how she has started prepping her kids' meals for the week. The week! I typically try to do them each night, but if I'm too tired, I convince myself that I can just get them done in the morning. This clearly has not been working...so I decided to give this weekly meal prep thing a go.

I try to carve out about an hour of time on Sunday evening to compile all of the meals. It does not typically take this long unless I need to make muffins or something else that needs to bake so that it can be frozen for future meals. We are going on week 3 and I like the way things have been playing out. The prep takes a little time but it is well worth it. I have chosen to rotate out the same 5 meals each week for the month. G eats breakfast at home before heading to preschool and N eats at the sitter. Their breakfasts vary but are quick (and I try to keep them generally healthy-protein packed and full of whole grains- as much as possible.)

Here are the meals that I've been rotating out for August. I hope this will help you save a little sanity in your crazy, beautiful life.

The Pumpkin Muffin recipe can be found here.

Linking up for Mommy Moments

Back to Class

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Well our Teacher Work week was not as productive as I had hoped simply because of obligations that required us to be in other places besides our classrooms (e.g. in-services, trainings, etc.) I am glad to say however that I had a pretty successful Open House. 14 of my 16 students showed up and most of those came with their supplies. This allowed for me to get everything put away prior to Monday morning.

Thanks to Reagan at Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits, I came up with a new system for my families. For the most part, the parents complied with my instructions and the sorting and structure worked fairly well. Of course you'll always have those who choose to do their own thing and well, I worked around that.

I altered a couple of her stations, but overall kept the same idea. I believe I'll learn from this experience, tweak the system and use it again next year.

Here was my setup:

Station 1: Student Folder
Parents picked up their child's folder, filled out the remaining forms, and compiled all of their signature pages into the folder. (Most parents did this...some had to be redirected despite my GIANT sign.)

Station 2: Supply Drop Off
This worked pretty well. It was an easy way for me to get the new students involved while their parents filled out paperwork. The students seemed to enjoy sorting their supplies and for me it was a big help. A couple of parents wanted to simply put all of the supplies on the counter or their child's desk...::sigh:: However, once redirected, this was corrected.

Station 3: Backpacks
Students found their backpack hook. It was here that they left their backpacks and placed their binders.

Station 4: Meet the Teacher
At this station the parents asked any questions they had, handed in their folders and were offered a little treat.

Overall this was a successful evening. Like I said, I have a few tweaks to make but ultimately I'd say it was a positive experience for everyone.

I'm always trying to make improvements. As a parent/guardian, are there any particular things you like to see at your school's Open House? Any ideas for making a "meet the teacher" night more successful?

Thoughts for Thursday

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It's very probable that I'll be preparing for and/or in the swing of today's Open House at the time you're reading this. It's the day when I meet my new little ones and meet the families of those I'll be interacting with throughout the year. I'm very blessed to work for such an amazing school. While I know you'll think I'm biased (and quite frankly I am), I can't help but feel I work with one of the most wonderful groups of people that could possibly exist. Our administration is unlike any other and the sense of family and community are felt from the moment you walk in the door. It's this feeling of pride that gets me heated when our ability to educate is attacked. The saddest part is that we're not even battling the national politics. The damage is being done on the home front.

This evening we've been asked to attend a very important meeting where we'll find out the results of an exhaustive Efficiency Study requested by our town's board of supervisors. I am still in awe of how little some of the members and some of our own community think of the importance of education and the funding that is necessary to ensure that our children have what they need.

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I don't know what this evening's meeting will bring but I've prayed for our county and our school system. It's hard to see something I'm so passionate about being 1. taken for granted 2. underfunded and 3. under scrutiny. It's as if these people have forgotten that these children are our future and it's quite evident that they have no regard for the fact that someone, at some point in their lives, took the time to teach them, guide them, and encourage them to become something.



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I apologize for the rant...it just hurts my heart. However, I will proceed on. Come what may we are educators. Our hope lies in the future of these little faces that enter our doors. Our joy comes from revelations and the smallest of successes. We are blessed to play such an important part in the lives of those that have the potential to go on and change the world.

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I want to thank those of you who are invested in your child's education. I thank you for supporting your community's schools and teachers. Thank you for promoting, advocating, and hoping for a future. (And thanks for tolerating my vent session.)

I'm linking up today with Natalie and Annie for Thoughts on Thursday. I hope you'll join us!

Mid-Summer Reality Check

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It's true. I spend many days of my "summer vacation" planning for the upcoming school year. While some of this does include adding to my Teaching board on Pinterest, it also includes many other school related activities. For instance, I work on various classroom projects, organization, school open house materials, etc. This year I decided to tackle a project that I've been contemplating for the last couple of school years...a personalized planner. I've purchased several different types of planners over the years and none of them have had exactly what I want. This year, I decided to invest a little time into making one of my own. I was inspired by several types of planners on TeachersPayTeachers but didn't really want to put out additional money for them, especially since I would have to pay for the paper and ink. I thought surely I could come up with my own, design a layout that works specifically for my needs, and then have the ability to revise it as needed.

 

Thanks to free clip art from MyCuteGraphics, I was able to get a design I liked, and aside from what I have invested in time, paper and ink, I have a wonderful, inexpensive planner that I am super pleased with.

 

 

 

My planner includes a place for lesson plans, monthly calendars, parent contacts, and grading. I've already begun putting together some lesson plans.

 

 

 

 

It's crazy to think that the summer is half way over. I really thought I would have accomplished more by this point. We have countless home projects that need to be tended to. Maybe July will be more productive in that area. Despite not having accomplished many things on my "to-do" list, I am glad to say that I've made many memories with my daughter. She is growing up so fast and the school year will begin again very soon, and truth be told, a teacher's work is never really done...

 

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