Bloggers Letters to Santa

Taken from here Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is COMMENTS. Seriously, it's all I want. Love, New Blogger P.S. I'M SERIOUS. Dear Santa, I want a book deal. And a movie. (All the other veteran bloggers have one!) Love, Veteran Blogger Dear Santa, I want a more expensive camera and more color-coordinated outfits for my kids and an orchard in my backyard. Love, Mommy Blogger Dear Santa, I want a vintage, retro, modern, artsy, modge-podged Polaroid camera with which to take vintage, retro, modern, artsy photos of letterpressed stationery. Love, Style Blogger Dear Santa, I want a home security system. And a gun. Please. Love, Private Blogger

12/11

Lisa's Random Thoughts * Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends... (Is that spelled correctly? I have been playing with the spelling for seriously, like, five minutes) . * Today was freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezing. I felt like the worst mom ever for not sending Isaac to school in a hat and gloves. Turned out they didn't take the kids outside so that was all good. * I think a stress related nervous break down at work is becoming a new pre-Christmas tradition. Last year on the last day of school before break I had a legitimate tantrum in my classroom that involved throwing objects and screaming. I can feel it coming this year... * They are providing only 100 flu shots for school district employees. I better get one. * The Daily Show with John Stewart is seriously one of my favorite shows. * I'm obsessed with blogs. And facebook. Here I sit refreshing and reading and I have a dishwasher full of clean dishes to put away and baskets of laundry to be dealt with. * I think I'm seeing Fantastic Mr. Fox tonight. * My cousin posted this on his FB. You know how I feel about Bella, so I thought this was funny.

* Isaac this morning ran into my room naked and shouted "Shake what your MAMA gave ya!"

Boo

Isaac is at his dad's. I was supposed to go to NYC this weekend. But alas, I'm just too broke. It's not going to happen. Guess Christmas in NYC will have to wait till next year...

I love her

Seriously....

Cleaning Poem

I asked the Lord to tell me

Why my house is such a mess.

He asked if I'd been 'computering',

And I had to answer 'yes.'

He told me to get off my fanny,

And tidy up the house.

And so I started cleaning up...

The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside..

That really did the trick.....

I was just admiring my good work.

I didn't mean to 'click.'

But click, I did, and oops - I found

A real absorbing site

That I got SO way into it - I was into it all night.

Nothing's changed except my mouse.

It's very, very shiny.

I guess my house will stay a mess.......While I sit here on my hiney.

~Author unknown

Teacher rant.

For obvious reasons I generally avoid venting/writing about work here. This is an unlocked public blog and I would like to keep it that way. But I am not stupid enough to think that one of my parents couldn't stumble across it. And of course, I want to respect the privacy of my students and their families. But I'm going to break my rule and vent here (in a general way).

please

please

please

please

If you have a preschooler do you future kindergarten teacher a favor and teach them some skills to be independent in every day life. There is no reason for your child to be in kindergarten and be unable to zip their coat.

There is no reason for your kindergartener to not dress themselves. Today my co-teacher was talking to one of our students about remembering to put on her classes. She said she hadn't brought them to school because her mother hadn't put them on her. My co-teacher said"When you get yourself dressed, it's your job to put on your glasses." The girl gave her a weird look. My co-teacher was like "You do get yourself dressed don't you?" The girl said no. We quickly polled the kindergarten class and discovered that about a 1/3 of them are dressed each morning by their parents. This is a group that we have really struggled with to get them to understand classroom rules, routines, expectations, etc. The fact that most of them are being dressed like infants explained a lot.

And, although it is a little trickier, work with your child to teach them how to tie shoes. Your kindergarten teacher will thank you.It is very daunting to have 24 pairs of untied shoes and a chorus of "MISS-IS STEVEN-SON!!!!!!!"

I have certain parents (whose child does not show a delay in fine motor skills, as some of my special ed students do), who have worked and worked with their child on reading and math skills so he would be at the top of the kindergarten class but the child is unable to pack and unpack his own school bag, zipper his own coat, open the lunch containers that are sent in his lunch or tie his own shoes. I mean, there's more to school readiness than how many sight words your kid has memorized.

As a parent of a Pre-K student I have really tried hard to practice what I preach. We have dressing and zipping down. Hopefully shoe tying will be mastered before the fall. =)

Coming soon to a postcard in your mailbox...

2009 in a nutshell...