Holiday Book a Day (#nerdlution Day 1)

Christmas is magical with young children.  I treasure being able to enjoy the holiday season with Big B and Little C, especially the traditions we are building as a family.  One of my favorites is our Holiday Book a Day.  (Thank you, Pinterest!)  Yesterday I wrapped up the 16 Christmas picture books we own.  I also began scouring Goodreads and trusted blogs to find two new books to order and add to our collection.  Plus I'll need to make a library trip to find seven more titles for us to enjoy.  

The Pinterest post that inspired our tradition

It was such a treat to open and read the first book last night.  Since Little C now has opinions at the age of almost three, we needed to develop a system about who gets to read the book in bed.  #nerdybookclubproblems  Tonight, Little C began unwrapping the whole stack tonight and reading joyfully.  (I need to re-wrap Dec. 3-5 before I go to bed tonight.)  Snuggling up with a "new" book each night is such a treat!  

Here are our holiday/winter favorites, featuring many beloved characters...

Auntie Claus by Elise Primavera

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg

Pete the Cat Saves Christmas by James Dean & Eric Litwin

The Jolly Christmas Postman by Janet & Allen Ahlberg

A Creature Was Stirring by Clement Clarke Moore, Carter Goodrich

It's Christmas, David! by David Shannon

Mortimer's Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson

Olivia Helps with Christmas by Ian Falconer

What holiday stories does your family enjoy?

Annie

#Nerdlution

It is a running joke in my family that it wouldn't be Thanksgiving if someone in our house wasn't sick.  I can't remember the last Thanksgiving break where we were all healthy the entire five days.  This year looked promising until Thursday evening.  However, being laid up for about 24 hours gave me extra time to lurk on Twitter and catch the conversations marked the beginning #Nerdlution.  I pondered the idea of a blogging #nerdlution most of the weekend, but I kept talking myself out of it.  A text from Kendra sealed the deal.  I'm in!

The reason(s) I tried to talk myself out of #nerdlution are the exact reasons why I need it.  I am a creature of habit, but writing and blogging hasn't become a part of my routine (yet).  I never miss a morning run/walk barring serious illness/injury.  I carve out and protect this time because it is important.  I need to create this habit with writing and move beyond my reluctant writer tendencies.  While I'm confessing, I also need to admit to being a Twitter/blog lurker.  (Exhibit A is documented above.)

Here it goes...
I will post daily to our blog or comment on someone else's blog.

Annie

Winter Workout

#nerdlution is in full effect.  I'll start with one school thought I had while running.  But I'm mainly going to blog about running and working out tonight.

Today one of the most confirming things happened to me as an educator.  I was sitting and conferencing among the children during math.  A parent walked in and couldn't find me, and we laughed about how I was blending right in.  A true learning community was taking place at that moment in time.  And it felt great!  More on how I run my math block another time.

Now then, as I was running tonight with my 5 year old and 9 year old, I was trying to formulate ideas for math instruction and what I'm cooking in my kitchen.  But my thoughts kept coming back to running and what working out in the winter looks like for me.

I've been training in the summer for a local half marathon for several years now.  The half is really my sweet spot, long enough to be accomplished, not so long that my family combusts under the weight of training.  I keep chasing a certain time, and have the opportunity to try again next year.   My favorite part of being a runner is my sons have taken up an interest in running.  So tonight I head out on a 3 mile run and in the first mile awesomeness happens.  As the three of us are holding hands, running up a hill in the neighborhood; Big Brother is cheering on Li'l Brother.  Li'l Brother is screaming at the top of his lungs, "I Can Totally Do This!  We're climbing Sidewalk Mountain!"

After one mile, Li'l Brother announced he was done, and Big Brother and I had the chance to run 2 more miles together.  I loved hearing his thoughts on homework, You Tube, and friendships.  I hope he wants to run with me lots in the next couple years.  He was gracious enough to stay with me tonight because it was dark.  :)

Nighttime runners.  

I've attached a copy of my winter workout schedule.  I enjoy having the flexibility to be more relaxed in what I'm accomplishing in regards to my fitness.  I've given myself some choices in getting activity in each day, with some rest built in as well.  The workouts aren't fancy, if you are a fitness guru, my apologies for it's rough layout.  I'm just a girl putting together what works for me!  Some ideas are adapted from various resources, and working through trial and error in classes and workout sessions with a trainer.  The 6X4 minute workout is one of my favorites from a book entitled, Train Like A Mother: How to get Across any Finish Line-and Not Lose your Family, Job, or Sanity.  The book is by Sarah Bowen Shea and Dimity McDowell. If you are a runner, I highly recommend this book.  It was a great guide as I was training this summer.

A rough workout schedule for the winter months.  

What does your schedule for working out look like?  And what else am I blogging about for 50 days?
Joy!
Kendra

#nerdlution

So, the story is I’m reading “the Twitter” like I do before bed.  My PLN is buzzing with this hash tag, and I go to check it out.  And now I’m hooked.   And it’s past my bedtime.  So naturally, I texted Annie and Jillian to see if they were in, and began writing immediately.  

Late this summer, 3 friends launched a blog.  Then school started.  Here ended the blog, except for a few therapeutic posts from me. Life just happened.  First graders needed their teachers during the day, our families needed us at night.  So we talked about the blog.  We just didn’t use the blog. We are still talking and challenging each other.  #nerdlution was the inspiration that I needed to continue to record the ideas that we share.  

But, I’m in my school groove, and I've been swirling ideas for blog posts in my head.  Over the next 50 days, I commit to writing Something on our blog.  This might include:

                *What I’m eating.  (I do love my kitchen.)

                *What’s going on at school?  (I have super colleagues; we still have things to say about instruction and classroom practice!)

                *What I’m reading. (School and Non)

                *What’s up today?  (Could be fun, I teach first grade!  I also live in a house of boys, and I have a dog.  Brace yourself.)

                *What I’m thankful for. (Lots)

                *What I’m running on/in/through/under/etc. (Will also hold me accountable to run, if I’m blogging a bit about it.)

                *What I’m wondering about.  (My firsties are loving their inquiry notebooks.  I need to share my wonders—on my blog.) 

So #nerdlution, I’m committing to putting Something on our blog every day for 50 days.  Here we go.