MAD SCIENCE Monday # 1

For our very first themed day, I chose something simple, but that I knew would hold their attention at least for a little while. I always loved playing with GOOP as a child, so I knew the kids would too. I've also heard this called oobleck. All that you need are cornstarch, water, and food coloring if you're feeling brave.

To make this seem like more of a science experiment, I gave each of the kids their own plastic bin, a box of cornstarch and filled up a pitcher of water for them to share. This way, they could each attempt to make their own goop, testing out different mixtures to see what made the best goop.

Amazingly, this kept all of their attention (including my not-quite-two-year-old AND my 9 year old!) for at least an hour. This makes such a fun consistency; is it a solid or a liquid? They had fun trying to figure it out between bouts of mad scientist laughter and cries from my 6 year old that she is "going to take over the world!"

This little project carried them well into the afternoon as I had the girls spray off the patio (it easily rinses away), which turned into the first water fight of the season. Now it really feels like summer!

Summer Schedule

 

My year serving with AmeriCorps is basically over as I have completed all of my required hours. In order to continue my living stipend for the next month I just have to log 5 hours a week of volunteer time. So that means I am now officially home with my kids again! I took the summer semester off from college courses, so I went from working 40 hours a week and having additional homework, to being able to focus on my beautiful children and (unfortunately) housework.

So now that I am home, after used to being on a go-go-go schedule, I thought it would be a good idea to come up with a plan to keep our summer going smoothly. Past summers have gone by so quickly, much of the time in front of the TV, leaving most of us feeling that we missed out on a lot of opportunities. So, for starters, we decided to extend our screen time rule to the summer with a bit of a change. During the school week, we would allow a half hour of screen time for each child, with weekends essentially being free, within reason. This summer we are allowing one half hour of computer and one half hour of television time, but they may be combined either way. We do this only Mondays through Thursdays and the rest of the weekend is free. What I love is how much time this opens up, and since it is a concrete rule, they don't even try to weasel more time out of me! Amazing....

Our summer schedule, as seemingly opposite as those two words seem to be, consists of very loose "themed" days that basically just the kids get excited about something to look forward to. My girls helped me name them; they are as follows:

Mad Science Mondays.....these started out as Magic of Science Mondays, but after our first experiment of messy goop and crazy kids, we all decided MAD was much more fitting!!

Artistic Tuesdays

Water Wednesdays

Take-a-Trip Thursdays

Free Fridays....which basically means that I just don't want to plan something for every day of the week.....kids need to be bored sometimes, right?

Before school was out for the year, I had the girls help me brainstorm and searched the internet for lots of ideas we could use and categorized them for the different days. I bought most of the materials ahead of time, much at the dollar store, so it would be ready in advance; because after all, I want this to be EASY and enjoyable for ALL of us! Now, on those days, we decide in the morning which project we feel like doing and have at it. We are halfway into our second week, and I'm still going and not even feeling sick of it, so that's a huge success for me!

I will post some of our activities very soon so you can see what we've been up to. In the meantime, here is the link to my Pinterest board that has some of the ideas we'll be getting to soon.
http://pinterest.com/traciedawnlee/this-summer/

Enjoy!

 

Responsibility....

This is a poem I wrote awhile back. I was feeling like we needed a break from the fast pace of everyday life and was longing for relaxed summer months. This doesn't seem as fitting now that we have been enjoying the laid-back schedule of later bedtimes and sleeping in (if 8:30 counts as sleeping in), but it's certainly a reminder of why lazy summers are so important.

Responsibility; like a five-ton bag of bricks

 

 Hits you over the head

 

Sneaking up like mist on a lake on a cool night

 

Slowly adding up

 

Accumulating until you can hardly look out

 

From between the mass of to-do's

 

and the dont's

 

From the must's and the should's

 

From the demands and the needs

 

Until you can hardly breathe

 

Suffocating amidst the rules and the expectations

 

And discover a way to just let us be

 

To love and to laugh

 

and to finally

 

BE FREE!

An Experience of a Lifetime

 My year serving with the Minnesota Reading Corps has provided me with so many benefits that I could not have foreseen before I began this journey:

 I have gained a growing knowledge base in reading strategies from the wealth of information provided daily by my internal coach and reading specialist.

I have learned so many discipline strategies I never would have thought of; practical application is so much different than reading about them in class!

My heart has grown ten times larger! I was able to form wonderful one-on-one relationships with amazing children who have taught me so much.

 I was given the ability to pass on my love of reading; to see the growth these students have made since the beginning of the year is almost incomprehensible. What is even better is that so many have gone on to find books that they enjoy and are going out of their way to share them with me! I of course wanted to help these students get to be better readers, but more importantly, I wanted them to learn to ENJOY reading!

 The ability to meet so many diverse, yet like-minded people has been such an added bonus. I have formed so many friendships through Reading Corps that I know will last a lifetime.

 I was expecting this would be a big year for me; I was not expecting how much of an impact it would truly have in my life. This year has clarified my thoughts on the future. Before, I was sure I wanted to go into education and I was sure that I wanted to work with kids. Now, I am absolutely certain that I want to do this and that I can do this…..and also that I need to do this. There are so many students out there who need someone on their side; someone who can find their individual uniqueness and draw that out of them to help them succeed.

As the end of my year as a literacy tutor is quickly approaching, my students have begun to ask if they will get to read with me next year. With a sad heart, I tell them that no, I will not be back next year, but that another great person will take my place. Someone else who is ready to be the difference in dozens of children’s lives, willing to provide essential reading skills while remaining a bright spot in many of their days. Please take the time to consider a truly rewarding year of service with the Minnesota Reading Corps. You will change so many lives, and in the process, you will forever change your own.

 

Six Months In

Obviously the past six months have been a busy time around here. It has been a strong mixture of exhausting, guilt-ridden, freeing, fulfilling and ultimately rewarding feelings! I have barely kept my head above the water with so many challenges we have faced this year, yet somehow I've managed to extract so much happiness along the way.

I have never felt such a purpose as I have this year helping students become better readers. There have been so many moments that have caused me to pause and think this is what I'm meant to do....this is what it's all about! My goal for myself this year was to not only help kids advance their reading skills, but also to teach them to LOVE reading. There have been so many ah-ha! moments with different students who have made that shift to truly enjoy reading. There is no better feeling!

As for the challenges: I think we're finally coming out of our roughest patch....knock on wood.

Our little boy, who is 18 months old now has suffered from severe asthma; he was hospitalized six times in the past year for respiratory distress, each time for a couple nights. Looking back through his notes, his doctor averaged it out to a hospitalization every six weeks. There is nothing scarier than your precious baby not being able to get enough oxygen. Our world ceased to exist each time the skin around his ribs began to suck in. In fact, he had a partial lung collapse on two separate occasions. We grew fearful of public places and anywhere germs gathered; wiping down shopping carts, never allowing anyone over with the slightest of colds, hardly ever going anywhere. Add in that I have been working full time and along with our daughters, carrying incessant germs home from the cesspool that is school.

My little guy was also officially diagnosed with a milk allergy this year....on a 0 to 5 scale, 5 being severe, his severity rolled in at 4.96. This has led to a total shift in food shopping, food preparation, eating out and expectations. We were steamrolled at how much of our common foods contain some kind of milk ingredients. It has taken time and is still a process, but we have found some good substitutions. There is hope that he may outgrow it by the time he is 6-8 years old; we will have him tested once a year until we have a definitive answer. For now, we always carry his epi-pen and our routine involves a lot of label reading and packing safe foods anytime we go anywhere.

Finally, after his last hospitalization, we were referred to a pulminologist, a lung specialist. After listening to the cutie drinking his coconut milk he began asking a lot of questions about his gurgling sounds after eating and drinking. He felt a test to check for reflux would be a good idea. Turns out he doesn't have reflux, but he has dysphagia, which just means that he has trouble swallowing properly and he was aspirating every time he drank something. So this whole time he had been inhaling liquids into his lungs! No wonder he kept getting respiratory infections. No wonder he cried so much as a baby. No wonder he was so small. 

So now he is on a daily corticosteroid inhaler, a completely milk-free diet, and thickened liquids. After we started using the thickener, the gurgling stopped, he has gained weight, and has even gone through a cold with only nebulizer use at home. We have not visited the hospital since Thanksgiving! It is amazing the sanity that is slowly creeping its way back into our household. We still have a long way to go, but with the end of my 11-month commitment looming ever closer, it seems there is hope for us after all!

This school year has left me feeling drained yet superbly fulfilled, as both a tutor and especially as a mom. I will end this year with a bittersweet concoction of relief and sadness. I am truly going to miss my students and they will always have a special place in my heart. I am so looking forward to being home with my little man next year, and to have the ability to help in my girls' classrooms will be such a blessing! I have come to know so many amazing people over the past year that I would never have had the opportunity to know without my service with the Minnesota Reading Corps. I will forever be grateful.

End of the School Year Craziness

                It has been insanely busy around here the past couple of weeks. My oldest daughter is apparently preparing for a lifetime in the spotlight. On the 19^th, she had a performance with the acting class she was in on Saturday mornings. It was her first experience with theatre, and she received about four lines in a sweet and short show, and she rocked every single one of them! (Not biased at all, of course). Then her and her best friend decided to try out for the talent show, in which she played piano and they both sang. Surprise, surprise, they made it! So we went to that last week, and then were back again today for the 2^nd grade music program. Oh yes, and she had her piano recital on Wednesday!

                Ah, but don’t forget my other sweet little girl! She just finished her last week of preschool, and today was the last day, which involved a very special visit to the fire station. She was thrilled because she had been wondering if there were any girl firefighters, and what do you know, the firefighter leading our tour was a girl! I think Mr. Hubby and I enjoyed the tour just as much as she did, and our little guy was completely content looking at all the bright red trucks.

                The past week was also spent winding down our Girl Scout year. Last week, we took them (all 13 of them!) to the local bounce center, as was their request with their cookie earnings. You don’t often think of girls being sweaty creatures, but I was certainly proven otherwise that day. And today was the final meeting of the year. I have really enjoyed this year, and am going to miss them all over the summer. I think I am actually looking forward to next year! Hopefully I can hang on to some of that enthusiasm…

                Oh yeah, and on top of all that, my summer semester classes started up a couple of days ago. I am taking two three-credit courses, condensed into one month. It is a brutal schedule, but it gets me ahead so much faster, and when they’re over I will still have a whole month to truly enjoy the summer. I can’t wait!

PANIC

Okay….so now that I have gotten past the initial thrill of getting this wonderful position, and being accepted not only by the Minnesota Reading Corps, but from the public school staff as well, panic has officially begun to set in. How am I going to handle working full-time, taking classes part-time, be a good mom, take care of the house, keep everyone fed and clothed and fairly clean, but most of all….how am I going to leave my baby?!?!?

When I agreed to this it somehow seemed so far away; next school year. We always refer to it as “next year,” and this school year hasn’t even ended yet. But next year doesn’t seem so far away when you realize that preparation for it begins in less than three months! My little guy is still breastfeeding exclusively (thanks to a formula allergy) and is heavily dependent on Mama….as he should be. I can’t help but have this conflicting feeling of doubt nagging me about whether or not I am doing the right thing.

Yet I know that I not only want to do this, but essentially I need it as well. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s more than I’m making now (nothing), and I could really use a confidence booster. This is something I can feel really proud of and it is certainly worthwhile. I also know that my husband and I cannot do the opposite shift thing again; it’s so hard on our relationship! I just hope that I can come to terms with the guilt before too long. I just need to figure out our daycare situation and have everything set up to the utmost degree of certainty before my start date looms much closer. Hopefully then I will feel prepared.

But even despite all this heavy guilt (and fear), I still feel twinges of excitement when I think of the year to come….wish me luck!