Fighting the Summer "Slide"

This summer, I was determined to give my almost-first grader and almost fourth-grader a daily routine that included academic activities to beat the Summer Slide.

Are you familiar with the "Summer Slide?" It is the concept that students forget valuable information over the summer, causing the teachers to re-teach concepts in the fall that were already covered in the spring.

Our daily routine combined academics with the opportunity to earn electronics. I asked my boys to complete 30-minutes each of math, writing, and reading (at appropriate levels) and in return they earned an electronic activity, such as a YouTube video or video game time. Each day they could also complete either the math (using IXL Math or ABCya) or the writing (using Scribblenauts) electronically. We went to library weekly to replenish the selection of books for reading time.

Overall it went well. My oldest would occasionally complain that summer was for "relaxing" and not doing school work, however the routine of the plan worked well for him. He's they kind of kid who would happily watch TV, play video games, or watch YouTube videos all day if we did not give him set guidelines. The youngest happily followed the routine and would often go to the schedule posted on the fridge to check "what's next."

School starts in just a few days for my kids, so we will see how much of the Summer Slide we prevented. How about you? What works well for you to prevent the Summer Slide? Comment with your ideas below.

Summer Goals - FINAL WEEK!!

It is officially the last week of summer break. Technically, it is the last few days since teachers officially report back on Thursday. As always the break has gone by fast. Even though we were fortunate to have 10.5 weeks of summer break in my district this year, time moves fast since I try to cram as much in to that time as I can.

Time to reflect...

Week One: I was super successful with setting and achieving goals the first week. It also helped that I was the only one home!! My husband and children still had one more week of school.

Week Two: Successful at setting goals, but not completely successful at achieving them. The house was full (everyone home), so distractions were constant!!

Week Three: Successful at setting goals, horrible at achieving them...

Week Four: Successful at setting goals...

Week Five: Oops!

Week Six: Doh!

Week Seven: Sort-of successful at setting goals, did not completely achieve them.

Week Eight: Completely successful at setting and achieving goals! Of course, this is simply because I was on vacation and the goals were beach and family oriented :)

Week Nine: Completely successful at enjoying every minute visiting my BFF/sister in California.

Week Ten: No goals set, however I did start a new fitness/meal plan with my husband which should help us both feel more fit and energetic. The challenge will be to keep up with it once our "normal" schedules begin again.

Week Ten and a Half: That would be this coming Sunday through Wednesday, the final days of my summer break.

• I need to paint the front railing. It is mostly prepped; I guess I should paint it :) 
• I need to convince my brain to focus on work tasks since there will not be enough time in the day to complete everything if I wait until the 4 days before students walk in the door! 
• I need to get my oldest son ready for First Grade, which he will start in 2 weeks (this just involves reviewing what he learned in Kindergarten and checking supplies).

I will start that list tomorrow. For now, I will enjoy the view out my front window:

Summer Goals - Week 9

We had a fantastic summer vacation at the beach last week (Week 8 of my summer break). Following family tradition, we rented a house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My maternal grandmother grew up in Elizabeth City, NC, and the tradition began for her family when there was not much of anything except the sand, the sun, and the ocean. Although there are all the modern conveniences now readily available, I still love it for the sand, the sun, and the ocean.

My goals last week were about enjoying the beach as much as possible and spending time with my family creating memories... both of these were achieved.

Since we take our vacation towards the end of July, I always feel that it marks the end of my summer. August 1st is usually when I face the fact that I need to start focusing on the new school year: making plans, editing documents, making lists, etc. However, I get to slightly extend my "mental" summer break this year:

I AM GOING TO SEE KIMBERLY!!!!

Kimberly is my best friend and sister-from-another-mother. We met on the bus in 6th grade, and have remained best friends to this day. Although we are only 3 months (to the day!) apart in age, she was one grade level ahead of me. We were constantly together through our middle school years, living at each others houses since we lived across the street from each other. When she moved to a different neighborhood, we remained friends. When she moved to California, we remained friends. We have lived 3000 miles apart since 1996, but that does not dampen our love for each other.

As our families grow, it becomes more challenging to afford and find time to visit each other. It has been FOUR YEARS since our last visit (she traveled to the East Coast for her niece's high school graduation). I have not met her 2.5-year-old son and her 5-month-old daughter, and she has not met my 3-year-old son. When her daughter was born in February, I pledged to find a way to see her... I can only afford to send myself and not my family, but that's enough for now.

So my only goal for this week: enjoy every moment with my sister.

Taken at my wedding

I AM SO FREAKING EXCITED!!! I will see you tomorrow, Timmie!!!

Summer Goals - Week 7

WEEK 7?!?! What happened to 5 and 6?

Life happened, that's what.

Some updates for you:

*Chore Charts: so far a success! The boys went shopping for the first time using their spending money. CT saved up to get a Lego set, which we spent quality time assembling. IG bought more Buzz and Woody toys to feed his obsession; check this post to see how his obsession is ruining my household.

*Cost Cutting: thanks to the internet, I have found 2 more methods for helping with grocery costs. Although I have not crunched the numbers, I hope that making my own Gummy Fruit Snacks and Granola Bars will lower my grocery bills. Of course the trade off is spending more time in the kitchen, since my boys (big and small) eat through these incredibly fast.

*Music Camp: fun, successful and exhausting! I had 9 campers between the ages of 6 and 9. We spent 3 hours together every day for 5 days, learning to play guitar and piano, as well as singing, dancing, crafting (yes, that's a noun now), and having a great time! As soon as the PR director of the School of Music posts pictures, I will update this to include a link :)



Week 7 Goals

Personal - Hmmm... no clue. Maybe reading for pleasure. Maybe finding 10 minutes of peace each day (not sure that is possible). Maybe taking a walk each day, which will give me at least 20 minutes of peace and a work-out.

Home - Paint the front railing. I have finished the prepping process, however I refused to paint with the temperature over 90 degrees. The weather was finally accommodating last week, however I was then busy with Music Camp.

Work - I have a PD session to attend on Tuesday. I think that is enough for this week. I usually try to push off most work tasks until August 1st, which is coming all too soon.


Week 8 will be spent on vacation. No goals, other than to enjoy my family and try to relax.

Granola Bars

Thanks to Pinterest, I have more recipes I want to try than I have time to actually try them. But it was time for the granola bars recipe. Yet another snack that my boys (including the big boy) inhale faster than I can purchase them. 30 bars gone in a week.

So yet again I used on online recipe to make some bars; no tweaking required... yay!! Well, a little tweaking, but only in the process, not in the ingredients. And it takes slightly longer than 3 minutes... maybe 5, but definitely less than 10.

First tweak, I line my pan with parchment paper. My best baking friend is parchment paper. Whenever you want to be able to lift your item out of the pan to easily slice, use parchment. Oh, yeah. When I tried to "push" the mixture into the pan (by the way, the pictures involved a doubled recipe in my big jelly roll pan), the mixture stuck to the spoon and my fingers. So another sheet of parchment paper, my best baking friend. Now it was super easy to push the mixture really well into the pan.

The hardest part of the recipe: allowing the batch to rest on the counter for 2 hours WITHOUT my boys eating it.

When they are set, I just lift out using the parchment paper and slice. If I had been a little more exact with my sizing, I could have sliced this batch into 36 bars (3 x 12) but instead I only got 3 x 11 with the bars all the way to the left a bit wider than the rest. I place them in a plastic container, using the parchment (hurray for reuse!) to layer between levels, and leave them in the snack drawer to be devoured.

The flavor is reminiscent of rice krispie treats, but so much better since there is no marshmallow; I am not a rice krispie treat fan.

*If you need an invite to Pinterest, let me know :) I will need your email address to send the invite through Pinterest. But be prepared: IT IS AN ADDICTION!! Therapy may be needed in the future.

Gummies

I started a quest a few weeks ago to find a recipe for Gummy Fruit Snacks. My boys LOVE gummies and my budget can not afford to keep up with how quickly they eat through them. So I found this recipe online and began the experiment.

I followed the recipe exactly and used my mini-muffin pan, since I do not have any ice cube trays.

They were... decent. Not nearly enough flavor for me and my boys, but the texture was good. My next thought was to find a good balance of flavored gelatin with unflavored gelatin to get the additional flavor but keep the texture. I went through various experimental versions over the next two weeks.

Some were too jello-y and we needed a spoon to eat them.

Some had the consistency of a bouncy ball and we could not even bite them. No, we did not experiment with how high they could bounce since I did not want to encourage the boys to play with their food.

I'm now very close to what I want.

I use 3 ounces of concentrated juice (thawed), 5 teaspoons of flavored gelatin, and 4 teaspoons of unflavored gelatin. I am able to buy the gelatins in bulk, so that helps lower the cost of production: it comes out to 62 cents per batch! :) I purchased ice cube trays in different shapes to see what will happen; my boys love pirates! What is pictured below is actually three batches based on the 3:5:4 ratio. I placed them in the refrigerator for a while to help them set.

They are still too sticky for my likes, however the boys love them. The fruit and pirate trays worked really well, since they are silicone and I can bend them to get the gummies out. The white tray... not so good. I had to use my fingers to dig our the circles and hearts, and I am not able to get the stars out at all. I think I will just use them make ice cubes and purchase additional silicone trays. The boys really want gummies in super hero shapes :)

If you have any tips for helping them not to stick to the trays and/or for making the gummies a bit less sticky, I would love your suggestions.

Summer Goals - Week 4

I am still struggling with this whole "time" issue. I don't feel like I am setting too many goals for myself, however I am getting sidetracked with other projects and tasks. Maybe by Week 8 (out of 10.5) I will finally get the hang of achieving my goals. I am not going to post a recap, simply because I am not going to dwell on that which I did not complete.

Week 4 Goals

Personal - Read every day for personal reasons, not work-related. I have not quit the daily physical activity, but I feel it no longer needs to be my goal (that and if it is not a focus, maybe I will have better success)

Home - Prep and paint the front railing. I did the research last week, but I did not have the opportunity to complete the project.

Work - create the student packets for the music camp. That will take up a good chunk of time, so that's all for this category.

Summer Goals - Week 3

Now that I have had a dose of what summer "break" will really be like on a weekly basis, I hope to get back on track this week (see my update about the chaos last week).


WEEK 3 GOALS

Personal - Keep up the daily physical activity and include at least 2 spinning (cycling) classes.
I need to do this... for me.

Home - Research how to paint the front railing (which is rusting) and then paint it. I also need to get dirt to fill my planting boxes (which I built myself... woman power!). I'll have to take some pictures...

Work - create the daily lesson plans for the music camp and begin creating the student packets; post to my music blog.


Does anyone else suffer from "not-enough-time-itis?" You mean, EVERYONE has this?!? No way!! It's an epidemic!

Summer Goals - Week 2 Recap

Where does the time go?!? Last week was more like what summer "break" is around this house: chaotic. Week 1 was relatively blissful since I was the only one home. Last Monday was similar since I was still the only one home. Then it was Tuesday... EVERYONE was home... all day. I sneaked out for a cycling class, but otherwise it was time for bed before I new it!! And this continued the rest of the week.

Update to Week 2 Goals:

Personal - I did not keep up with this goal. I did spend 2.5 hours cleaning out the garage on Monday (that definitely counts as physical activity) and I did go to the cycling class on Tuesday. And that was it. Wednesday was spent at "work," Thursday prepping for the garage sale, and Friday & Saturday holding the garage sale.

Home - Completely achieved... yay! I did clean and reorganize the garage and I did hold the garage sale. Although I did not sell as much as I hoped to, I did make $300... which I am using to upgrade the boys to a bunk-bed. See below for how I organized my garage sale.

Work - I did create the overall plan for the music camp and create the "basic" daily lesson plan, however that's as far as I got.  I did not post to my music blog. Oh, well.


GARAGE SALE

I did some research online to pick up some tips to success. Some of the best tips that I employed was to make everything clean, to label prices and sizes clearly, and to make it very organized like shopping in a store. I put the large items in the driveway (with the hopes of attracting customers) and the smaller things on shelves, bins, and laid out on blankets in the garage.

I re-purposed some election yard signs (from a friend of my husband) to "Garage Sale" signs and placed those at the main roads leading to my housing development. Then I had smaller signs on the street sign and my mailbox. I only "advertised" on Craig's List and the local yard sale Facebook page. I probably could have gotten more foot traffic if I had remembered to contact the local newspaper.

As the garage sale was happening (Friday and Saturday mornings), I took pictures and listed some of the items on the yard sale Facebook page. I got a few sales from that page.

I still have lots of stuff left, so I took a bunch of pictures and listed them on the Facebook page. Later today, I will also put the items on Craig's List.

I will conquer the clutter. I will.

Summer Goals - Week 2

One week of summer break has gone by and it was wonderful!! It was nice to have some time to myself. My husband (also a teacher) and my oldest were both still in school the full week, so I sent the youngest to daycare and enjoyed some peace and quiet. I did achieve my goals for the week (check the update post), as well as did other projects and tasks.

During this summer break, I am teaching music 4 different ways: private flute lessons (one student, 5 sessions, 30-minutes each), a babies & toddlers music class (7 sessions, 30-minutes each), a music camp for ages 6-9 (5 sessions, 3 hours each), and assisting with the New Horizons band (a band for retirees who want to learn to play a band instrument, 8 sessions, 1.5 hours each). Thankfully, most of these sessions occur on different days of the week so I still have a very flexible schedule.

WEEK 2 GOALS:

Personal - Keep up the daily physical activity and include at least 2 spinning (cycling) classes. I went to one class last week: the instructor was awesome, I loved the music choices, and the time of day works perfectly for me! The same instructor offers 3 different classes during the week, so I am going to make time for myself to go to at least 2 of them.

Home - clean and organize the garage, hold a yard/garage sale. I really hope to make a decent profit and clear out our house a bit.

Work - create the overall plan for the music camp, create the daily lesson plans, and begin creating the student packets; post to my music blog. So far, the music blog has been successful, so I need to keep putting my ideas out there and sharing them with other music teachers.

Now these are just the BIG goals for the week. I am not very good at doing "nothing" so there are lots of little things that I do throughout the week.

Summer Goals - Week 1 Recap

REVIEW of WEEK 1 GOALS:

Personal - Do some type of physical activity every day, such as walking, biking, playing with the boys, going to the gym, or playing Wii Fit.

Sunday = played frisbee with CT
Monday = used Wii Fit
Tuesday = walked with my Beagle, Xerbi
Wednesday = got out the bike, discovered it needs some adjustment, so I walked with my other beagle, Doyle, instead.
Thursday = did some Pilates while watching the Today Show
Friday = went to my first spinning (cycling) class in YEARS!!
Saturday = the only day I did not complete my goal; I spent 4 hours in my car and 6 hours at a meeting, then had movie night with the family. Perhaps I will do 2 activities tomorrow to make up for it...

Home - re-organize & move downstairs shelves, collect & clean items for yard sale

I finished the shelving project Wednesday. Of course that project spawned a few other smaller projects that also were completed on Wednesday... with some carryover into Thursday. The collection of yard sale items gets bigger every day.  I plan to hold the yard sale next weekend, so I'm sure you can guess what my next set of Home goals will be :)

Work - create task list (items that need to be completed prior to August 16th), post to my music blog

The task list is begun and ever growing. I guess next week is when I start actually working on the tasks, huh? I posted on my music blog and had a fantastic response to the post!! I'm feeling good about it since I just started it this spring.

See you tomorrow for Week 2 goals :)

Summer Goals - Introduction

Being a teacher, I get the opportunity to spend a couple of months refreshing myself and attempting to catch up on tasks that I kept pushing off (until summer). Although those who may not personally know a teacher often think teachers have a "dream" work schedule, those in-the-know realize teachers regularly take work home and rarely work a typical 8-hour work-day (for which there is no overtime!).

Let me step down off my soapbox... sorry 'bout that.

In my district, the last day with students was June 1st and I have one more day in the school building on June 4th, then summer break officially begins! Teachers report back to work on August 16th, so that gives me 10.5 weeks to do all the personal, home, and work tasks that I have set aside for myself to accomplish. I will also have a handful of meetings to attend and music classes & camps to teach during these weeks.

Every Sunday, I will set at least 3 goals for myself: one personal, one home, and one work. I hope this will help me to reach my goals this summer, but also to keep me from over-booking myself or getting too lazy.


WEEK 1 GOALS:

Personal - Do some type of physical activity every day, such as walking, biking, playing with the boys, going to the gym, or playing Wii Fit.

Home - re-organize & move downstairs shelves, collect & clean items for yard sale

Work - create task list (items that need to be completed prior to August 16th), post to my music blog


So once I post this, I am getting off my butt to start working on the shelves, and as soon as my hubby is finished mowing I am going for a bike ride.