Monday's Musings: Learning Opportunities

There is this emphasis in school's right now...make connections to real life math, foster a love for reading so kids get lost in books.  As teachers, we are being encouraged to help students make connections to concepts and skills they use all the time.

I try to do this at school...I am also trying to do it at home...all the time.  I ask questions in the grocery store, make them figure out totals in Uno, talk about fractions when cooking.  Like, I think I hit my kids over the head with it.  They are starting to see right through it...LOL.

Ella, my overachiever can't get enough.  She asks for extra math problems.  Nathan, well...he is a boy's boy. So smart but in his own words, sometimes "disengaged".  LOL...he got that one from a Sylan Learning Center commercial.  Education is so important to us and I want my kids to use their smarts.

Imagine how happy I was to find them creating books one night.  They had experienced an author's visit that day in school.  I observed while making dinner and they were fully engaged.  Talking about what they learned, drawing and brainstorming.  It was so cool.  Not forced at all.

Thanks to Instgram, I caught the moment.

I decided to go out of my box with this layout.  I loved that woodgrain camera and liked the thought of little idea buttons coming out of it.  Sometimes, you just need to create..free of boundaries because you feel it in the moment.  I used the new Destinations collection from Lily Bee for this page.

I love this photo...Nathan with the pencil and Ella mid sentence...these are the moments I love to see.  As a teacher and a mom. Because sometimes I worry...have a need to control.  I wish Ella would read more for fun and Nathan would follow directions to apply himself more.  I have this need for them to reach their potential and it concerns me when they don't.  I need to remind myself to sit back and let it unfold.  That love for learning...it is there, it just needs to blossom.  It needs to happen on their time, in their way, in their world.  

I guess I have some learning of my own to do...