I AM a work in progress...

Just Keep Running.....
I seem to be racking up the personal bests in RunKeeper and working hard at losing this baby weight, but the fact of the matter is, no matter how many times I see that little RunKeeper star or hear "Wow, nice job", I don't think it will ever be enough.
I am just that kind of person, always pushing to do better, be better and learn more.
So I will just keep running!
For now, I am up to 3.1 everyday, except Sunday which I ran 9 miles today and plan to add 1 mile every Sunday until I reach my first 1/2 marathon in September, then up again until my second 1/2 in September, then leveling off at 15 for a few weeks until my third 1/2 in October.
I would be lying if I said "I'm ready" or "I'm not scared"... I am down-right terrified, but I need to do this for me. I was always that girl who would try anything to skip out on running the mile in school, but I'd lift weights like mad.
Now,  I am embarrassing the run, enjoying really... It's my thinking time and I'm going to keep on keeping on...

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To Mini-Van or Not to Mini-Van....

I am torn between the space I could have and the comfort I have gotten used too.
I enjoy some of the options available in a mini van, but I really don't know if I want to be one of those mini van driving moms.

A great number of my friends have converted... to the dark side. They have become moms of two or more and subjected themselves to mini-van-dome.

I have always sworn I would not convert to a min van driver, but with three kids and two jobs that require loads to transport ... I just might have to.

The sliding remote-controlled doors, the ample storage space, the captains seats (far away from siblings)... ugh, what is happening to me?!!?

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NOT just another pretty face

I have been feeling discouraged lately.
Well, in all seriousness, I feel like a down-right failure!

I know, I really do that I should not compare one child to another, but I cannot help it.
As a mom, I fear I am not doing everything I can to help my beautiful girl succeed.
As a teacher, I fear the information I have been throwing at her just. won't. stick.

I am at a complete and utter loss. I know she is smart, she's brilliant, she's beautiful and she's perfectly capable at learning all the things all the other children are learning. I know we will get there. I am struggling with searching for different approaches to break-through, to see that AH HA moment in her eyes.

I have had those fleeting moments in desperation when I look at her, not identifying a letter after we have gone over and over and over it for an hour, and I think 'things could be worse, at least she's pretty'. And that's the thing, I am getting caught up in the expectations of the typical world, and teaching through typical approaches and losing sight of what's really important, she is learning, just not displaying that knowledge yet, she is smart, and she has gifts and talents in so many areas, so what if her letters take a little longer... she's happy, shes healthy and shes all  mine!

As a mom, we always look at our children and know in our hearts that they are perfect, the smartest, the funniest, the prettiest... and they are.

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Summer for the Kindergartner

Kindergarten is a year of highly visible progress in reading and language arts. The major milestones in kindergarten reading and language arts are:

• Developing an awareness of letters
• Recognizing that letters have specific sounds
• Awareness of the relationship of “letters to words” and “words to sentences”
• Developing a basic vocabulary set by listening to and identifying unknown words in stories
• Recognizing basic sight words in text

The lessons are organized into a series of chapters that introduce and cover:

1. "Print Awareness" - Teaches the alphabet, parts of a book and the fundamental concepts of print.
2. "Active Listening and Sound" - Develops active listening skills while teaching the concepts of rhyme, rhythm, pattern, and syllables .
3. "The Sights and Sounds of m and s" - Uses the nursery rhyme "Mary Had A Little Lamb" to teach the letters “m” and “s” using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
4. "The Sights and Sounds of d and a" - Uses the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" to teach the long and short sounds of the letter “d” using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
5. "The Sights and Sounds of p and "i" - Uses the nursery rhyme "Pease Pudding" to teach the sound of the letter "p" and the short sound of the letter "i" using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
6. "The Sights and Sounds of l and n" - Uses a retold version of the nursery rhyme "Little Red Hen" to teach the letters “l” and “n” using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
7. "Phonics and Phonemic Awareness Review" - Develops the understanding of the sounds of the letters “m”,“d”,“s”,“p”,“l”,“n” and the short sounds of the letters “a” and “i” through exercises that target recognition, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics.
8. "The Sights and Sounds of t and h" - Uses an authentic piece of nonfiction titled "Busy Baby Animals: Tiger" to teach the letters “t” and “h” using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
9. "The Sights and Sounds of o and b" - Uses a retold version of the nursery rhyme "There Was an Old Woman" to teach the short sound of the letter “o” and the sound of the letter “b” using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
10. "The Sights and Sounds of e and r" - Uses the nursery rhyme "It's Raining, It's Pouring" to teach the sound of the letters "e" and "r" using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
11. "The Sights and Sounds of k and f" - Uses the nursery rhyme "Ride A Black Horse" to teach the sound of the letters "k" and "f" using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
12. "Phonics and Phonemic Awareness Review 2" - Develops the understanding of the sounds of the letters “t”, “h”, “f”, “r”, “k”, b”, “d” and the short sounds of the letters “o”, “a”, “e”, and “i” through exercises that target recognition, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics.
13. "The Sights and Sounds of Hard g and Short u" - Uses the classic fable "The Lion and the Mouse" to teach the hard sound of the letter "g" and the short sound of the letter "u" using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
14. "The Sights and Sounds of Hard c and w" - Uses an authentic piece of nonfiction titled "My Cake" to teach the letters the hard sound of the letter “c” and the sound of the letter w using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
15. "The Sights and Sounds of y and qu" - Uses the nursery rhyme "Little Girl and Queen" to teach the letter "y" and the sound of the letter combination "qu" using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
16. "The Sights and Sounds of v and x" - Uses the classic fable "The Fox and the Crow" to teach the sounds of the letters "v" and "x" using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
17. "The Sights and Sounds of z and j" - Uses an original story titled "Jake and the Zany Zebra Show" to teach the sounds of the letters "z" and "j" using vocabulary, fluency, reading comprehension, phonological awareness, and phonics exercises.
18. "Phonics and Phonemic Awareness Review 3" - Develops the understanding of the letters "c", "z", "v", "w", "j", "g", "x", "y" and their sounds, the letters "i", "a", "u", "o" and their short sounds, and the letter combination "qu" and its sound through exercises that target recognition, phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics.

Kindergarten is also a year of exploration and discovery of numbers. Major milestones for kindergarten math include:

• Developing a strong number sense
• Identifying numbers up to twenty
• Expressing different ways to represent numbers up to twenty
• Ability to sort and organize objects based on different attributes
• Recognizing basic shapes and units for measurement, time, and weight

The lessons are organized into multiple chapters that introduce and cover:

1. Tutorial - Teaches students how to use the math program. It teaches the functionality of buttons and shows students how to interact with and complete practice questions.
2. "Under the Sea" - Teaches how to sort and categorize based on similarities, differences, patterns and common attributes.
3. "Playtime in the Park" - Introduces shapes and basic concepts of spatial sense while reinforcing categorization skills. Students learn how to use positional words to describe locations and manipulate shapes from different locations.
4. “Let's Go On a Safari" - Teaches the numbers 1-10, the concepts of quantity, counting objects, reading numbers, basic graphing and equivalence.
5. "What's Cooking?" - Teaches the basics of time, temperature, calendars and basic units and tools of measurement.
6. "Numbers in the Neighborhood" - Teaches the numbers 11-20, number patterns, counting by 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s, basic graphing and addition and subtraction.

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