Busy Days

I haven't had the chance to update the blog lately because things have really been busy. First of all, I am preparing for the upcoming parent-teacher conferences that I have next week. Since I teach at the preschool level now, I don't have to do report cards. However, that doesn't mean that I'm off the hook. My co-teacher and I have to present each child with a "journey book". This is basically a very extensive portfolio that includes all that the child has done/learned since September. This is actually an ongoing collection and we'll continue to contribute to each one throughout the year. These are not the typical portfolios that I've seen (those are basically just comprised of the child's work). No, no, no...we have to create "write ups" for each work sample that we are including and also for the many, many pictures that we've taken of the child engaged in activities/tasks. We take pictures every day of all of the kids doing things in the classroom. The write ups are quite time consuming and actually I had to reach into the depths of my brain to remember all of the educational jargon that I've learned to include in each write up. Well, we are done with this portion of the journey books. That was a big relief. We have conferences on Monday and Tuesday and then I'm on Thanksgiving Break. I'm so glad!

A really happy surprise that came last week was a visit from my mom. She called us on Wed. and told us that she'd be coming on Friday. So, she stayed with us from Friday to Thursday. It was unexpected, but a very welcome visit. We didn't do anything complicated or fancy, but it was fun just to spend time with her.

We'll be spending Thanksgiving with WS' parents at their house. We're looking forward to that. It'll be very low-key and that's exactly what I want. WS and I are making the pies as we have done for the last 4 Thanksgivings. We each make our specialty pie and then try to figure out which one people liked better. It's our little tradition and it's an innocent competition that we enjoy. The weather has been cooler, but we haven't really had any snow except the one little snow shower. The weather is supposed to be even cooler this week with a low of 8 degrees on Wednesday. Maybe we'll have some snow for Thanksgiving!