Ingenue Mom

I don't post about my specific teaching experiences on my blog. I don't believe in doing that. I'm very aware that my blogging is public - any parent, teacher, principal in my life could easily find my blog - and I'm not ashamed of that. They could also look at my Facebook if they wanted to, although some would have a hard time finding it. I live my life out loud. If there's something I'd need to hide, I just don't do it -  not because of my job as much as just because that's who I am. This is why I'm okay with writing this post, knowing full well that it could be read by parents, teachers or principals in my life. I believe I will make a great teacher. One of the reasons I believe this is because I'm a mom. Obviously I don't believe that teachers who aren't moms aren't great teachers, but for me personally, becoming a mom has had a profound impact on what kind of teacher I will be. For one, after reading Kelle's post today ab

I find it amazing how quickly kids pick up on technology. My friend's 6 year old can play games and things on the computer that I couldn't do in 4th grade! Although, to put things in perspective, the fabulous computer games were just coming out when I was in 4th grade, but still! We let Isis play with our iPhones & our computers sometimes. I thought I'd share a little list of what she can do right now! Unlock an iPhone Scroll through menu screens or pictures on the iPhone Click on apps on the iPhone Hit the home button when she's done scribbling on my Scribble app (or when she wants to get back home from any app or screen) Push the keyboard buttons when it's in the text messages Move a computer mouse around & click buttons She knows that hitting the space bar when watching a YouTube video will pause the video & then hitting it again will start it (she giggles a lot when she does this) Hold the phone to her ear & say "hi!" Hit butto

If only I had an extra $188.00 lying around... ...I would totally buy this dress .

Oh, so many thoughts, and I already know I'm going to fall short of articulating them the way I wish I could. I read blogs like Melissa 's, Adriel 's, Queeny 's & Kelle 's and I am blown away by the way they use words. It's like painting a picture. I don't have that, but I pretend sometimes that I do. I've been teaching about the American Revolution in the 5th grade class where I'm doing my long term sub. This is my first time teaching 5th grade content & it's been interesting to see where their foundations are & how they view some of the concepts we are covering. Before discussing the American Revolution, you have to cover slavery because the colonists and other explorers brought slaves from Africa before the Revolution. When we finally reached the discussion of the Declaration of Independence, it was such a beautiful, but bittersweet moment when several of the students kept asking questions about why the founding fathers would put

This is our little trooper in the waiting room at the doctor's office. We finally got a smile when we pulled out the iPhone. We've had one sick girl at our house the last couple of days. It started with a happy girl on Monday with a 99-100 degree fever. By Tuesday morning, it was a 102 degree fever & a bit of a cough. By Tuesday afternoon, it was a pitiful girl who didn't want to play, couldn't keep her eyes open, with a 103 degree fever that wouldn't go down & a cough that sounded like something was rattling in her chest. We took her to the doctor Tuesday afternoon. We knew something was wrong when the nurse took one listen to her chest & left the room to talk to the doctor. They immediately sent her for a chest x-ray before we even got to see the doctor.  It's pneumonia. Luckily we caught it early & we were able to go home with antibiotics. They said her fever could stick around for a couple days & the cough would definitely stick around

These are the books we read over & over at our house! They  may or may not be Isis' favorite, but we read them a lot, so I guess maybe they're the most familiar right now! Since we've read them a lot, she tends to point to her favorite people in them. It's so funny! I've been in the market for some new kids books lately! I have a running list of ones I like that I've heard of & read, but I'm always interested in adding to my list!! Please let me know your favorite children's books! Goodnight Moon Who doesn't love this one? I love the end: "Goodnight stars, goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere." Everytime we finish reading it, I'm wanting to just tuck myself into bed! Llama Llama Red Pajama We actually love all our Llama Llama books! We have Llama Llama Holiday Drama , Llama Llama Misses Mama & Llama Llama Red Pajama. I was looking for Llama Llama Mad at Mama at the bookstore the other day , but they didn't have

For the last 2 weeks, Isis' naps have been all messed up. She would only sleep about 30 minutes for the first nap and then less than an hour for the 2nd nap. Something just wasn't quite working. It was like she wasn't quite tired enough & she was just taking cat naps to get her through the next couple hours. We finally decided to try dropping a nap. I realized I'd rather her take one really good 2+ hour nap than 2 naps that were starting to be less than 45 minutes each. Today, instead of putting her down at 9:30am for her first nap like we normally do, we went out for some family errands! We went to Toys R Us to get her a table to color & draw on because she's been trying to color on everything & rather than her color on my kitchen table, we decided to get her own Isis-sized table! We picked this one . It has 3 setting for size so it can grow with her & it wasn't horrible colors that clashed with my house! Then we went to Joseph Beth Booksellers