Home

The coach is home, I am home, the teenager is home and #3 is home along with the 2 dogs and the class hamster. #3 is the only one moving around as his job at the hardware store is considered "essential". I feel incredible guilt over being sent home from school while my assistant (and future daughter in law) is considered "essential" and must report to work every day or use her accumulated leave (of which she has none). As she lives in the next county over, she was given a piece of paper to show to law enforcement if necessary that states that she is allowed to travel between the counties for work.
We have been trying to support our students at home by sending home packets of things to do and maintaining contact via our messenging app (Bloomz.net) but with Pre-K it is difficult.
Our county and the surrounding ones are under a "stay at home" order. This means restaurants, schools, churches, non-essential stores, parks, gyms, vet offices, etc. are closed. There should no groups of people larger than 5, social distancing is a thing and all athletic events are also canceled. To say that this has put a screeching halt to #3's senior year would be an understatement.
#2 son, like #3 also works at a hardware store and is considered essential, however he lost his parttime gig as a host at a restaurant and all festivals and music venues are shut down so no drumming money is coming in either. #1 is still reporting to work as a coach at the local high school, but could receive the order to stay at home any moment, his girlfriend works insurance and has been cut back to 3 days a week I think.
This is an unusual time. Perhaps we are being called to stop, rest ourselves and enjoy our families. Time will tell.

Snow day + Bob Ross tutorial = too much fun!

So #4 and I were bored and gathered our supplies, turned on the TV and made these gorgeous (insert sarcasm here) paintings!!    It was fun but I better stick to my day job.

Dragons, dinosaurs and dolls......learning through dramatic play

I love dramatic play!  The housekeeping/dramatic play center is my favorite out of all the ones in my classroom. In that center, children can be anything that they can imagine. I probably enjoy watching the children interact and investigate in this center because my imagination took me so many places when I was little.
I had the most social and active imaginative life when I was young that my mother said it often sounded like I had 10 or 20 kids in my room with me.  I would play out intricate and long-running scenarios with dolls, stuffed animals, paper dolls, really anything I could find.
Observing my students engage in play without instruction, electronics or interference is delightful.

These three are using capes, scarves and hats to be superheroes.

Loose Parts

I love giving my preschoolers loose parts and then watching what they create! I found these great items from Kaplanco and the kids can't get enough of them. I added the stones (aquarium rocks) and the tray for storage and then just observed and recorded conversations and creations. I'm thinking of watercolor painting some of the pieces, but can't decide if they need color or just to leave them alone. What do you think?

Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah

New Year, Same Me

I have never been a huge fan of resolutions and end of the year lists, greatest hits, the top 10, 30 or 100 of whatever and all the hoopla that goes with the changing of the year. I am, however, nostalgic, sentimental and am very cognizant of the passing of time.
When my grandmother became involved with researching her family tree, and then passed the bug to my mother, I dutifully spend time scrolling through documents with them at the public libraries. Many years later I copied their hard work on to ancestry.com where more than a few people have used it to complete their family trees.
History has also been intriguing for me, not dull. I would imagine how life was during a time period, what the women did, how location, connections and sometimes just luck could make all the difference in someone's (and the future generations) life.  I always wanted to know more about the person than just their name, location of birth, birthdate, and date of death. I want to know what they believed, did they like their work/life, what was their story?
Maybe that is why I like stories. Reading is vital to me and so is writing. I was writing stories in the first grade on the back of coloring sheets because I was bored. I would sit in round-robin reading groups moaning in my head as the other children stumbled over words. I would often read several stories ahead and then get into trouble because I didn't know where I was supposed to read when called upon. I cannot recall a time when I didn't know how to read or wasn't reading a book. I often read books that were way over my head in several areas but I had run out of things to read and I would raid my mother and grandmother's stacks of novels. My mother eventually caught on to this and wisely began to put classics into her bookcase and I would read them thinking I wasn't supposed to.
So with all that being said, I vow this year to continue reading, hopefully learning and teaching and sharing with those who are interested.