Family Night

Tonight's turn to plan family night went to my seven year old son who picked a backwards dinner.  This means we eat everything in opposite order.  

So not only did he pick the menu of strawberry cheese Danish, pizza roll up, Sun Chips, and fresh fruit, but he chose the order we ate it. 

While the pizza roll up baked, we filmed a typical Poland music video.  

Family nights don't have to be elaborate nights out or tons of money spent.  They can be as simple as changing up your norm.  The point is spending time together as a family. 

Family Night

This week's family night was unique!  The theme was "never hads".  Our kids had never been to Burger King before so we took them there for dinner.  

For dessert, I made lava cake which is something none of us had ever tried before.  

To close out the night, because it was the day before Halloween we thought it would be fun to do something no one would ever do.....decorate Easter eggs!! 

We had fun dying eggs at a time of year that's all about pumpkins.  

Yes, the night of "Never Hads" was a success for our family and we had a great time together.  

One of My Favorite Teaching Blogs

   Okay, there are a ton of teaching blogs out there.  Do a google search and you will be overwhelmed in seconds with blog after blog.  After all, you are on one now.  I thought I would share one of my favorites with you.  It is a great go to blog no matter what grade you teach or what grade your child may be in.  Sometimes I check out teacher blogs for ideas on how to help my own kids.  After all, I have a second grader, a sixth grader, and an eighth grader so I need all the help I can get.

   One piece of advice:  Do only what you can do.  You are only one person.  At the end of the day, if you did all you could, you have to let the rest go.  Rest in that.  I do.  And somehow, in some small way, that helps.

   Have fun checking out this great resource!  If the button doesn't work, just click here:  Teaching Blog Addict

Family Night Riddles

    This past week on family night we enjoyed a meal of Thai Chicken in Green Curry then sat around and took turns reading riddles and trying to solve them.

   
   We had a great time trying to figure out these brain twisting questions!  My middle daughter did a great job planning this family night!  

    
   Here is just one website you can go to for some great riddles!

                                      Riddle Website

Text Shapes Up!

Check out this great website where kids can transform text into shapes!
I can think of so many great uses for this in my Math and Science Class!
Festisite Website

Parent Wish Jar

Found this great idea for Open House this year that I'm going to use.  I found the idea on the blog

You put out a parent wish jar.  It is a simple jar.  You lay out strips of printed paper to the side for parents to write down a wish they have for their child that year.  They put it in the jar at Open House.  During the year, I plan on taking them out and reading them to myself to help me remember and focus on why I do what I do.   To check out this great idea or to print the free labels and strips this awesome teacher put on her blog for download, just click here:  Parent Wish Jar

Light Show

   I've come to appreciate in life that the greatest moments aren't the ones we plan for.   Instead, it's the ones like last night when we looked up and noticed that these large cumulus clouds had lightning going off inside them.  It was a beautiful display.  One of my kids and I marveled at how it looked like heaven wanted so badly to open up and display itself to us yet held back.  We decided to sit out in the yard and lay on our backs and just watch.  We would sit and when the clouds would shout with bolts of light we couldn't help ourselves but marvel with ohhs and ahhs.    

   Yes,  I've come to realize that entertaining my kids is appreciating the moments life offers us.  Those rare moments in cars where a great song comes on and we roll the windows down and sing together.  Or those moments we literally chase butterflies around because we simply can't understand why they are everywhere so late in the season.  Or those moments we have been caught in the rain on a run and break out in dance.  You can't make those moments up.  You just appreciate them when they happen and smile.  

  So next time, heaven decides to do a show, perhaps you too, might grab a towel and your child and revel in the moment you've been given.