My week, balancing life as mom and teacher and a look ahead past Halloween

Unless you’re been a teaching mom, you probably don’t truly understand the ‘balancing’ act that we preform everyday.  On one had we work tirelessly to create activities that instruct, educate and entertain the 26 little ones we are responsible for at school.  I mean here is just a taste of what went on this week . . .



You can click on this pic to find out more about these activities.



I, like all us teacher-moms, struggle with being exhausted at the end of the week and yet feeling like I need to be super mom for my three little men.  I’m the first to say, most days, I’m quite a bit less than ‘super’ but I’ve learn to become more ‘creative’ and to not sweat the small stuff.  It’s ok if they don’t get 7 course meals, if they are a bit behind on haircuts (they’re sporting some serious curly dos these days) or if their shirts are a little bit wrinkled . . .  So tonight when the thought of dinner (man I HATE when one of them asks ‘what’s for dinner’) came about, I opted for a simple boy favorite ‘muffin tin breakfast for dinner.’ 

Yep, I’ve been doing muffin tin meals for about four years now . . .  Here’s a picture of one of the first time we had a muffin tin meal. 

And now, I could honestly put ANYTHING in a muffin tin and my boys think that I’m . . . dare I say it  . . . ‘SUPER MOM!!!’  This week . . . Halloween themed muffin tins.  (I have them for every season)
 Slap a little breakfast in them with a Halloween themed glass to go with and it’s a guaranteed crowd please.  Tonight’s menu yogurt, waffles, cheesy eggs, apple sauce, tater tots and syrup.  Sometimes we do a theme: colors, numbers, letter sounds. . .  but tonight it’s just breakfast themed . . .

I’m guilt free again and ready to tackle the mess of Thanksgiving STUFF piled on my table.  I love Halloween but, yes, I’m already looking ahead to Thanksgiving.  I’m trying to figure out what I will use again, what I still need and planning our kindergarten family Thanksgiving Feast.  Take a look at this picture from another year’s feast . . .

75 kindergartners line our hall and dine together.  Definitely one of my favorite teaching days of the year definitely.  You would think that with the years I have taught kindergarten I would have everything I could possibly need for this month as far as teaching materials go, but with the introduction of Common Core Standards, the number of kiddos in my class this year, and the vast differences in readiness . . . I still have some things I have to get together for my stations over the next week or so. 

I was able to get one thing done already.  Since I STILL have kinders working on letters and letter sounds, I went ahead and made a new I-Spy for Letter Sounds.  I included the option for black and white recording sheets for this one.  Click on the picture below to check it out. 

Boys are in bed and I need to go rest-up for the Corn Maze adventure we have planned for tomorrow and get some planning done before I head to bed myself.