END OF SUMMER SCHOOL FAVES

What a week!!

It was crazy busy and wicked hot and humid here in eastern NY but I'm pausing to find FIVE blessings from all the craziness.  Join in with me in giving thanks for the special things or people who made you smile and link up at Susanne's site.

FIVE FAVES

• MUDDADDY FLATS! Friday evening, around 6:30 pm we all decided to order online from Muddaddy Flats and we all chose a different quesadilla for dinner.  It was awesome. My husband had to be online for a call so he ate inside.  I ate on the deck and the girls ate in their rooms as both just wanted to relax with Netflix after their work days.  I loved the quiet time on the deck to eat a delicious dinner and read for a bit.  I'm thankful for online service and Grub Hub for delivering!

• NATURE PEDAGOGY COMPLETED! I completed an online course I had started about 4 weeks ago and it was excellent!  I learned a lot about bringing nature inside the early childhood classroom and learned the agency I work for needs to do a bit better with our outdoor space.  If you can see the models above, the first one is what most American preschools follow.  The middle one is where my agency is at......(we are just a special education agency with one integrated (half typical peers and half special needs) classroom per site) and the last one is the ideal nature based classroom/school.  Many preschools in Europe follow the Integration of Nature model.  I'm thankful I took lots of notes during this class and that it gave me a 1 hour credit hour towards my NYS Aspire profile. 

• CLASSROOM FUN!  This week has been so hot and humid that we've only been able to take our early morning session students outside to play on the playground.  So we planned a ton of fun things to do in the classroom and we've had a great time.  I've been the head teacher all week as the regular head has had to have some surgery. Yesterday was our last in-person summer session day and today we have a "car parade" for saying goodbye to our  students who are off to public school/kindergarten in Sept.  I'm thankful I get to work with such a great team of educators.

Town of North Colonie
town park
9 August 2020

• EARLY SUNDAY MORNING BIKE RIDE:  by early I mean 8:30-11.  I WISH I had left at 7 as by 9 I was dripping in sweat.  Dave's bike is still broken so I went solo across the north part of our town (our town is huge and contains a North and South section with 2  different school districts and several hamlets that make up each section). My goal was 10 miles and I went just a bit over that. I rode across one of our major highways and down the country road past where my daughters attended elementary school.  It was lovely. At the end of the road there's a turn into the town bike path so I took that for another mile or so into the old town park.  It has a covered bridge leading down to the marina (on the Mohawk river) and a picnic area with a children's playground and a hiking trail.  I spent some time meditating and praying by the stagnant pond you see in the photo and drank a lot of water!  I then biked on another mile of the bike path heading north and then turned around to head back to home.  I'm so thankful I did the ride even though it was so hot and humid.  It felt great!

• HUGS, PHONE CALLS, SAFETY:  It was a bittersweet week full of special phone calls from old friends I haven't seen since our oldest daughter graduated from high school in 2011, a good conversation with my boss regarding an issue I've shared with her, hugs from 2 special students whom we said "good-bye" to yesterday (I didn't get permission to post the pic of my fave student on here but if you're on my FB list, you will be able to see it there as the mom gave me permission to post to that venue), and safe travels for our youngest who had to drive most of her college apartment stuff to UNH Wednesday (a 4 hour drive) and then move it all in and then drive all the way home.  She made it safely home by 8:30 pm after leaving at 6:50 a.m. I'm so thankful for special friends, my boss who is like a friend, and hugs from special preschoolers.  I'm also thankful for safe travels!

That wraps up my week.

I'm officially on vacation for the next 3 weeks and it is sorely needed since we didn't get our spring break! I will be away to the cottage we rent in the mountains and hopefully will have some blogging time.

I hope you all have a happy weekend. Once I'm settled into the cottage I will try to read some FFFs.