Sick Day #2

I stayed home again with Elijah today. Much like yesterday, he's running a fever but shows no other symptoms of sickness. After a dose of Tylenol, he's as good as new.

I have no idea what to make of it, or if we will be able to send him to day care tomorrow. I guess I should just be happy that he is feeling well otherwise.

I was really needing a break from playing with toy cars and "Thomas the Tank Engine" trains. Elijah is a lot more independent outside, and not so demanding for someone to sit right there and play with him. We took advantage of a non-rainy window in the morning and were able to play outside for nearly 2 hours before the rain began again. Our baking project for today was cupcakes. Remember what a treat it used to be to lick the spatula? Some things never change!

I didn't really have ingredients in the house to make the frosting, so I sort of improvised with butter, confectioner's sugar and a secret ingredient- Ghiradelli's hot cocoa mix! The "frosting" came out more like icing, but it was delicious!!! I think I stumbled onto something awesome with the Ghiradelli's!

After baking, Elijah played for a while in the bath tub.

After bath we had lunch and then Elijah took a really long nap (over 3 hours). I cleaned up around the house, pushed through some laundry, graded papers, and set up for today's craft-a couple of Easter crowns.Finally, watching a little "Word World" on the computer.

"Modeling" one of the crowns-

As you can see, no silly fever holds us back!!

Sick Day

Home with Elijah. Again. This time it's a strange, non-descript fever with no other symptoms. Weird. Oh well...We made the most of this rainy, dreary day.

First, we had eggs for breakfast, made dough for sugar cookies, and washed the dishes.

Next, it was time to make Easter cards for Grammie, Nana and Grampy.

The finished products:

THAT was exhausting! Time for a big, fat nap.

I decorated the cookies- Elijah decorated his face. The cookies actually look better than they taste.

But Elijah thought they were delicious!

Quick trip out to the pharmacy, the post office and the video store...Tonight I think I'll do our CostCo run- just to get out of the house!

Warning!

Warning! This video is for dog-lovers only! Only people whose dog is part of their family would be able to appreciate this, without viewing it as some type of child neglect.

In our defense- both the dog bed and the dog got a bath last weekend!!

p.s. In case you missed it- Tyler and Aimee's engagement announcement was in this week's Chronicle!

Honors Biology

Yikes! Due to the way students have signed up for next year's courses, I have been asked to teach Honors Biology (grade 10). Six years ago, I taught an Honors Environmental Earth Science (grade 9) class...the kids were great but the parents were a bit overbearing. Hopefully, the parents of 10th graders won't be so anxious.

I am both nervous and excited. Nervous about the prep that I will need to put into the course (the material is covered much faster and obviously in greater depth than the regular Biology)...excited to have the opportunity to teach the real "Top Guns."

I think I will enjoy this challenge...especially because next year's sophomore class doesn't have the best reputation for academic excellence. I will still see plenty of those kids, as I'll have 3 "regular" level Biology classes to contend with. Maybe the Honors Bio will be a nice break from the complacency of the other groups.

I am sad to lose my spring semester Environmental Biology class next year. I have really come to enjoy that course...especially because a good deal of it is conducted outdoors! But we were short a semester class for me, so there had to be a shift somewhere. I'm so glad it didn't translate into my having to teach Environmental Chemistry again!

Simplicity Parenting

Friday night, I attended a lecture with my friends Liz and Beth titled "Simplicity Parenting." The lecturer was Kim John Payne, an Aussie psychologist who has researched the effects of technology and pressure on child development. Here is the workshop description:

"As the pace of life accelerates to hyperspeed—with too much stuff, too many choices, and too little time—children feel the pressure. In this lecture Payne will share ideas for helping you reclaim for your children the space and freedom they need to allow their attention to focus and their individuality to flourish."

Dr. Payne gave a 2-hour lecture on the need for parents to be the “climate controls” for our households, to simplify our lives and those of our family in order to hone in on the truly important qualities that promote love, health, safety and trust in our children.

Here are Payne's 5 Steps to begin Simplicity Parenting, and my interpretation of each:

Step One: Simplify your environment
This means going to your child's room with a trash bag and removing 50% (!!!) of the toys and books, to be put away and rotated back on through in a month or so. The idea is that by simplifying his toy options, he will delve deeper into these book and toys and won't be "bored" with his stuff because you're always rotating in new things.
Step Two: Simplify food and mealtimes
The discussion here was focused mostly on routines and schedules around meals...The expectation that the whole family will sit down together for the whole mealtime "X" number of days per week.
Step Three: Simplify your family's schedule
Over-scheduling kids with activities takes away from the "creative play" time needed to develop all parts of the brain. It's good to be bored. Creativity and meaningful play arise from boredom. Don't jump through hoops to always make sure your child is always entertained...
Step Four: Simplify the amount of information and involvement about the adult world
Children don't need to know everything about everything! Children do not need to be a part of every adult conversation,sometimes there are things they are better off not knowing. Dr. Payne's 3 rules here were, "Don't say it in front of your kids unless it is:"
1. True
2. Kind
3. Necessary
Step Five: Step away from the screen
Including school, the average child aged 8-18 spends at least 9 (NINE!!!) hours per day, 7 days per week in front of some type of media screen (TV, computer, GameBoy, cell phone, etc). This is considerably more time than most adults spend at work. For children, this is precious time lost from creative play, reading, writing, etc.
That just speaks for itself!

This was an interesting lecture and certainly provided me some food for thought...

Burlington Free Press...

http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20103090304

Pretty cool to see this in the newspaper this morning- I still cannot believe that anyone thinks they ahve the right to just take something that's not theirs! Maybe this article will bring in some leads and will help poor Tyler and Aimee get their fishing shanty back-

Feelin' Groovy

Right now, I'm feelin' pretty groovy. I'm at one of those rare crossroads in the life of a teacher where I'm all caught up with my grading and even (gasp!) planned ahead a couple of days...Even my photocopies are made! Rare, indeed! Of course, it's all going to hit the fan towards the end of the week, when I give tests in 4 of my 5 classes. So I guess I should enjoy it while I can!

At least it's supposed to rain next weekend! Perfect for grading tests at the McDonald's PlayPlace while Elijah plays!

I caught Elijah's cold toward the end of last week. So even though the weather was stunning for March in VT, I wasn't able to really enjoy it as much as I'd have liked to. This morning I awoke feeling much, much better (not 100%, but SO much better!).

Ed left school early today to attend Rollin Strong's funeral in Hinesburg. I will be picking up Elijah and then attempting to coerce him into a stroller ride so I can get out for some exercise. It's 42 degrees and sunny on March 9th, might as well be 75 degrees, it's so tempting to be outside!!!

We are planning on staying in Boston for 3 nights/4 days during April vacation (24th-27th). Hoping to be able to connect with a lot of friends and family while we are down there. We're really looking forward to our little family mini-vacation- enjoying the pool, the museums and the aquarium! Mark your calendars to come spend time with us and sit poolside while the children play!

Negotiations meeting tomorrow night (we are still working without a contract- going on 3 years now!), NEA meeting Thursday and then a Simplicity Parenting lecture/workshop with Beth and Liz on Friday night (after dinner and drinks of course!). BUSY week...!

"Springy" Weekend

Well, after a wild start back to school (Ed stayed home with Elijah- sick again- Wednesday, and I stayed home with him Thursday and then had a field trip on Friday), we are blessed with a gorgeous "early Spring" weekend- mid-40's and nothing but blue skies today!!!

First , here are the only 2 pictures I took on my field trip Friday. I planned on taking lots more but we were just so busy having fun that I only got a couple of classroom shots. My Environmental Biology class spent the day at the Jericho Research Forests with a wildlife tracker from UVM. It was an excellent field trip, although it started out a little strangely. I wasn't informed until we boarded the bus in the morning that the bus driver wasn't "allowed" to take the bus up narrow Tarbox Rd. Having never been to the JRF before, I had to make a snap decision about which end of Tarbox to have the bus drop us so we could begin the hike up the road until we found the forest. It was all fine,the kids were prepared for the hike, but I felt bad because we arrived late. I certainly would have accounted for a 20-minute hike by having the bus leave early, if only I had known we needed to! Oh well, we had a great time out in the woods on a gorgeous day!

Today we spent a lot of time outside- this morning we went for a little walk and then Elijah played nicely in his sandbox (!) while Ed and I sat with our faces in the sun, enjoying the day as though it were July. After Elijah's nap, we hit the playground for an hour & a half. Fun day, but not much got done around the house, as you can see from this pic of our kitchen:Yes, that's Chinese take-out for dinner. Good in the moment, kind of feel full, yucky, and a little gluttonous afterwards. Similar guilty feelings about all the Girl Scout cookies and jelly beans I've been eating this weekend. The Girl Scout cookies at least were purchased for a good cause. The jelly beans...well, I have NO idea why I HAD to buy jelly beans. And now they're here, so of course I have to eat them.

And our living room. No cover on the futon, as the first thing I did this morning was spill my entire mug of coffee all over myself- and the futon.

Finally, some practice with "faces." Here's Elijah's self-proclaimed "Happy Face." Also showing off the new haircut, which was 30-minutes of pure torture in our bathroom this morning. Thankfully, we don't have to give Elijah haircuts very often, because they devastating events for all parties involved. Elijah is screaming at the top of his lungs, I'm barking orders at poor Ed, Zoe's hiding someplace in the house to get away from all the noise...You get the picture!His "Sad Face":And this one he said was his "Angry Face." Which surprised me, because I always thought it was his "hamming-it-up-for-the-camera" face. Maybe he's angry when I try to take his picture?!Finally, a tender moment with Daddy:

More Vacation Pics...and Back to Reality

We've gotten so little snow here in Vermont this winter- so of course it was fitting that we'd get the season's biggest snow storm on the eve of my anticipated trip down to RI. This here is the reason why Elijah and I could not travel to southern New England this vacation: But we did get to do a lot of fun things anyway. We went to play dates, tumbled around the playground in the snow, and did lots of sledding. When the weather was a little nicer, we ventured into Burlington to ECHO to see the Contraptions exhibit.
This exhibit was a little boy's DREAM. Gears and levers and shifts- all about cause an effect. I kept thinking about how much my nephew Kyle would probably have LOVED it! Immediately, the drum machine caught Elijah's eye. It was this giant machine filled with dozens of drums and cymbals. When you changed the position of the levels, different drums were beaten and the noise changed.

Here are some of the other cool "contraptions." For this one, you use a lever to help the frog flip a pancake.
Pushing different buttons on this one makes the bear "play" different keys.

Turning the crank makes the puppet dance:A puppet house with a 2-way mirror.

This was by far the greatest exhibit I've ever seen at ECHO. We had a blast- it was really hard to leave!!!

On the final "real" night of vacation, we hosted a potluck dinner with our friends and colleagues Jon & Linda, Kathy & Craig, Gail & Dick and Dan and Rebekah. No pictures to share, but tons of delicious food followed by an intense game of Trivial Pursuit!

Alas, school was ready to begin again...And Elijah gets sick! Elijah's fevers seem to be a common theme on my blog this winter. We think this one's just a cold, but whenever he gets sick he spikes a fever- that's just the way his sicknesses manifest themselves- and fever means no daycare. So Ed had to miss the first day back at school to stay home with a feverish little boy...and I will be staying home with him tomorrow.

Look at those flaming cheeks...trying so hard to ham it up for the camera.

We're all thinking that summer just can't come fast enough!