Eye to Wonder

      So happy to be writing from Southern California after our road trip out from Colorado. It has been so nice to see family and enjoy cooler weather and time at the beach. This was far and away the longest Avi has ever been in the car, and it was definitely less relaxing to drive long distances with a toddler, but it actually went better than I thought it would.      I love road trips, so I'm happy that this is something we can look forward to lots more of as a family.  In case anyone else is planning to travel with their little one(s), I thought I would share a few things we did that helped, and a few things I wished we did differently. Tips:  *Bring various activities that can be easily done from a car seat. I brought some of Avi's favorite toys including: a toy she could buckle and unbuckle, a chunky beads and thread kit, and a paint with water set from Melissa and Doug's . I also brought bubbles which were a big hit although we left them in...

            I love summertime, and it's been awesome to have time with Avi at home. I love my job and working with students, but especially after this school year with so many changes, it's nice to slow down and focus on my own little one. My coworker had really good advice of picking sort of a theme for each day and while I haven't quite gotten that specific, I definitely have taken the idea of having one particular activity or outing (library, splash pad, lake, errands, friend's house, etc.) planned for each day and a loose structure of meals, time playing at the park and downtime at home.       That said, the lovely part of summer break is that the plans are flexible. If Avi is playing independently or absorbed in finger painting, we can stay home. It just helps me mentally to have a sense of what the day will bring instead of just having a twelve hour block of winging it.      Big Events this Month:   ...

            One of my favorite features of my planner is that it has a month in review section for each month. I like having the prompt to take a look back on the month and remember some of the highlights and big events as well as favorites (anything ranging from books, tv shows, games, music, and food).      May was a very full month. It was Joel's birthday, we had family visiting for a bit, and it was the end of the school year. I definitely felt spread thin for parts of the month, but overall, I'm really proud of how I ended the year at work. There were lots of fun end-of-year projects like Wonder Week, a memory book, and our beach day! Hopefully these projects felt like a good way for students to look back on the year and celebrate how far they've come.  I feel lucky to have had such a wonderful group of students in such a strange school year that ranged from virtual to fully in-person and everything in between.    ...