What's special about summer?

I am participating in the
Tuesday Slice of Life with Two Writing Teachers.
All participants are writing about one moment, one part of their day.

A big thank you to Two Writing Teachers for providing this unique opportunity

for teacher-writers to share and reflect.

My 2018-19 journal

Here it is, July 31st. I know what that means: summer break is coming to a much too rapid close. I return to school on August 8th (yikes - next Wednesday!), for two weeks of professional development and then the start of the new school year.

Two small purchases this week cemented this transition for me:

- A school journal for 2018-19! I love selecting a new one of these each summer...imagine all the special snippets that I will write in the months ahead - notes about children, lesson plans, workshops, and more.
- A large wall calendar for my kitchen, where I have begun to enter this year's schedule...all the school holidays and special events, along with all my family celebrations, appointments, and events.






I am having an absolutely fabulous summer...one with so many days of true leisure that I am often unsure what day it is. Is there a better luxury than this? Here are my top ten pleasures of this summer:

1. So much sweet time with my husband, Tony; he's retired, and summer means we both have free, open schedules. We are able to be truly present with one another.
2. Finding time every single day to write...challenging myself to write a couple pages each day, and finding this time so meaningful and well spent, such a joy.
3. Reading novels, devouring novels, enjoying novels - reading for the fun of it!
4. Long, meandering walks with no real time limits - so much more relaxed than the 'must do' exercise squeezed in at the end of a teaching day.
5. Visiting with others, catching up with old friends, traveling to Maine and Georgia to visit family...leisurely meals, excursions, relaxed conversations with family, friends, and neighbors...reconnecting with dear ones is a highlight
6. Weeding...I actually enjoy working in my yard when I am free to start and stop when I like.
7. Tony and I finally figuring out how to turn on Netflix without one of our sons showing us how to do it - and then browsing movies and shows.
8. Indulging in #7 in the middle of a rainy day! 
9. Sitting outside and noticing all the nature around me, especially the birds...whether a plump mourning dove balancing on a stair railing, bright yellow goldfinches darting out of the purple coneflowers, a single hummingbird at the feeder, there is always so much to see.
10. Sleep..waking without an alarm, daring to take a nap in the middle of the day...yes, this is a delirious pleasure.

Oh, summer...please don't disappear on me!

SOL What about summer?

I'm a little crazed this week...but I wanted to post something on Two Writing Teachers' Slice of Life, just to keep up my writing habit!

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Our school year is winding down.  I am in the midst of my fourth round of family conferences.  I am finding that these are truly delightful - an opportunity to have a very affirming, positive conversation with families about their child's growth this past school year.  So much growth happens over the course of a preschool year!

With each family, I am sharing my "top five things" to do with one's preschooler over the summer, to ensure they are ready for Pre-K:

1. Go to the library!  Make it a weekly ritual.  Look for books we've read this school year, look for new books, and read, read, read.
2. Create a special corner in your home for your preschooler, where he/she can work on things and leave it and then return to it.  I'm particularly partial to building things with recyclables and keeping a notebook/journal.  But, ideally, there's a little place that your little one can call one's own, to learn to create independently and to revisit these creations, to refine, edit, modify what they've done.  
3. Ask your child the open-ended question: How does your story begin? and record the response.  Keep these precious stories for your child to read (and perhaps encourage your child to draw a picture to accompany these).  
4. Let them dig in the dirt.  Yes.  Simply dig, play, explore, hunt for bugs, turn over rocks, enjoy.
5. Begin a family tradition of "family game night" - these little ones love whole body games like "Hot/Cold" or "Guess What is Different" and simple board games. 

Summer, with its new, irregular schedule, provides such an opportunity to try new things, to create new rituals and traditions in one's family.

What ideas do you have for preschoolers in summer?  I'd love to know!