The One Where I Turned 40

I started looking through pictures of this past year and forgot how truly amazing this year was. There was one theme. Travel.

January brought a few snow/ice days to NC. We had already decided to sneak away down to Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte for a belated birthday trip for Mackenzie, but we ended up not having to "sneak" since it ended up being a snow day for school! Since this Great Wolf Lodge is so close, we took advantage and got almost 2 full days in the water park!

February allowed me to fly up to Maryland and visit my girls for a quick weekend away. I love when coworkers become family and am so happy that we keep in touch. We did a paint night and enjoyed a nice dinner out. Kyle was also happy with another Eagles Super Bowl win as we hosted another fun party.

March ended with chaperoning Mackenzie’s field trip to the Outer Banks. We spent a full 48 hours visiting Jeanette’s Pier, climbing to the top of Currituck Lighthouse and Jockey’s Ridge, seeing the Wright Brothers Memorial, and exploring the Lost Colony. It was fun just being a parent/chaperone and not being in charge of activities and other people!

April took us to Phoenix, Arizona for an anniversary getaway with my cousin and his wife. We played lots of golf, ate lots of food, and explored Sedona on a jeep tour. It even snowed while we were there!

May was pretty calm. No travels, but we did go to the ACC baseball championship game at the Durham Bulls stadium.

June carried us to our annual beach vacation to Ocean Isle Beach full of family, food, golf, and swimming! We also went to Busch Gardens with my childhood BFF and her kids.

July produced an epic road trip. The month started off with me sneaking away to Tennessee to play in a golf tournament and ended with a road trip from North Carolina to Ohio to Chicago then to Tennessee. Our trip to Chicago included marking off 3 more baseball stadiums from our list, including driving up to Milwaukee for the day. I ended the month by turning 40.

August brought about back to school season. I finally landed a job at the neighborhood school where the kids have gone the past 3 years. It immediately felt like home.

September we entered the baseball family life. Jackson joined a team for the first time and we enjoyed watching him learn and grow.

October stayed calm with a visit from my mom and some STEAM club projects.

November was filled with more travel. The fifth graders trekked up to Washington, D.C. for 36 hours of jam packed experiences. We visited Mount Vernon, DC monuments at night, Ford’s Theatre, Arlington National Cemetery, Pentagon 9/11 Memorial, Washington Monument, and Smithsonian museums. Kyle, the kids, and I then snuck off to Orlando. We spent Thanksgiving with Mickey at the Magic Kingdom and then fulfilled Jackson’s Lego dreams by hitting up Legoland. We also stopped by Savannah, Ga on our way back home to visit with my uncle.

December didn’t bring any travel, but we packed in some local fun. Family time at the Flyers-Hurricanes hockey game and a fun afternoon playing Top Golf. Our Christmas was spent in North Carolina with lots of family time.

I am truly so thankful for all of the amazing things that occurred this year. Turning 40 sounds scary, but honestly it hasn't been so bad. I feel like I'm hitting my groove with parenting, teaching, marriage, and life.

Can’t wait to see what 2026 brings!

New Year's Eve with Kids Part 4

I was looking back through pictures to see what activities we did last year for New Year's Eve and I completely forgot we were kid free! The kids spent a few nights at my moms house and the hubby and I went out to an early dinner then spent a quiet night at home.

I decided that this year's New Year's Eve activities are going to revolve around games! I'm also switching it up and instead of doing bags, I bought balloons for them to pop each hour. Each balloon will have a game inside on a piece of paper.

I created 12 different game ideas, but we will probably start our countdown around 4 pm. I'm going to alternate between the minute to win it games and the other games.

The games are listed below:

Game #1 - Winter Pictionary

Take turns picking a card. The person who picks a card will draw the word on a paper or a dry erase board until the others guess it. Keep taking turns until all cards have been chosen.

Materials Needed - Click on the link above to get your copy of the cards, paper, markers

Game #2 - Heads Up - Family Edition

This game follows the normal heads up rules where one person has a word or phrase on their forehead and the others have to give clues about the word or phrase until the person guesses it correctly.

This edition of the game will use names of family members. You can set limits on the types of clues that can be given in order to make it harder or easier.

Materials Needed - paper to write down the names

Game #3 - Bucket List - Two Truths and a Lie

For this activity, everyone will take a few minutes to write down their 2026 bucket list items. What do they want to accomplish this year? They should also write down one item that is NOT a bucket list item (the lie).

When everyone is ready, take turns reading their bucket lists including the one lie Everyone else tries to guess which item from the list is the lie.

Materials Needed - paper and pen to write down the bucket lists

Game #4 - New Year's Eve Charades

Take turns picking a card. The person who picks the card will act out the word or phrase until the others guess it. Keep taking turns until all cards have been chosen.

Materials Needed - Click on the link above to get your copy of the cards

Game #5 - Categories

Take turns choosing a category. This can be holiday related by choosing New Year's Eve or Christmas, or a random category like food.

The person who chose the category will go first. They start off by naming an item from the category that starts with the letter A. The next person will say a word that starts with the letter B. Continue going around and see if you can make it all the way to letter Z.

Take turns picking a category and see which category was the easiest!

Game #6 - Kids Pick!

We have a TON of board games already in our house, so this allows each kid to pick a game from our house that we can all play. This could also be a time to give the family a new game if you wanted.

The next 6 games are Minute to Win It games. There are SO many options out there, these are the 6 that I have chosen.

Game #7 - Don't Blow It!

Each person will have a straw and attempt to blow pieces of candy from point A on the table to point B on the table. I'm planning to put some tape down on the table to make a line for point A and then a square for point B.

Set a timer for 1 minute and see how many pieces of candy each person can get into point B!

Materials Needed - timer, straws, small candy like M&Ms, skittles, etc.

Game #8 - Stack It Up

Each person will have 1 minute to stack candy on top of each other. They can only use 1 hand and the candy must stay on its own when the timer goes off. The highest stack wins!

Materials Needed - timer, flat candy like smarties, peppermints, etc.

Game #9 - Marshmallow Chopsticks

Each person will have a set of chopsticks and a bowl. Put the marshmallows in the center of the table. Each person will use chopsticks to try and pick up as many marshmallows as they can one at a time and put them in their bowl. Whoever has the most after 1 minute wins!

Materials Needed: timer, chopsticks, marshmallows, bowls

Game #10 - Ping Pong Bounce

There are many different ways to play this game and it can be adapted depending on the age of the children. We are going to have each person take turns to bounce the ping pong balls into cups on the table. You could also have each person stand on a chair and try to bounce or drop the ping pong ball into a cup. Whoever gets the most ping pong balls into the cups wins!

Materials Needed: timer, ping pong balls, cups

Game #11 - Scoop It Up

Each person will have a spoon and 2 bowls. Bowl A will be filled with candy and bowl B will be empty. Each person must move the candy from bowl A to bowl B using only the spoon which they are holding between their teeth. Whoever moves the most candy after 1 minute wins!

Materials Needed: timer, bowls, spoons, small candy like M&M's or skittles

Game #12 - Keep It Up

Each person is given a light object like a balloon or feather. Each person tries to keep their object in the air for the entire minute. Depending on the ages you can make it harder by using the rule that you can't use any hands or you can only use your mouth by blowing the object in the air.

Materials Needed: timer, balloons or feathers

Other ideas that we are going to do to fill the evening:

- sparkling apple cider with pop rocks

- poppers

- order pizza or Chinese food

**I will update the post with pictures afterwards.

Check out my posts from previous years for more ideas:

New Year's 2024

New Year's 2023

New Year's 2022

May the year ahead meet you with moments that matter most!

One Word: Simplicity

I have never really been a big resolution person. Like most people, I make a list of things to accomplish and never reach them. (shout out to those who actually accomplish their goals!) However, over the past few years I have done the one word challenge to live by throughout the year.

This year I picked the word SIMPLICITY.

During winter break, I put the laptop away and truly focused on resting and relaxing. While doing this I was able to think about life: myself, my kids, my husband, our house, and work. As I was doing some cleaning before our guests arrived I started to focus on STUFF. Part of my anxiety deals with clutter. When there is STUFF everywhere I get overwhelmed and instead of being able to clean it up, I just shut down and leave it there. This triggers the anxiety of feeling like our house is cluttered. 

So I decided that this year I am going to focus more on living simple. I'm going to go through our house room by room and decide if the STUFF has a place and purpose, or is it just taking up space. I turned my closet hangers around like people suggest and anything that I haven't worn during this year is getting donated. Those pants that I keep holding onto because I am sure one day I will be back down to my pre-kid size, gone. 

I also felt this way as I sat and watched my kids open presents at Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love watching them open presents and will never take that way from them. But there were SO MANY! (our families are large and people enjoy buying them things) For birthdays we have already made the shift to just one or two gifts and focusing more on experiences, and I think I am ready for that to happen during Christmas as well. I think even the kids get overwhelmed with so many new things at once that they end up not playing with some of the things.

Honestly, one thing that sparked this idea of simplicity is the craze of people buying Stanley cups. I'm sure they are amazing cups, but I have a hard time paying that price for a cup when I already have a cabinet full of them. So I plan to carry this "simple life" over to purchasing items as well. Next time I want to click that Buy Now button on Amazon, fill up my Target cart and place a pick up order, or fill my cart with impulse buys at Walmart, I'm going to stop and think do I truly need this? Not only will this help with my desire to reduce clutter and simplify my life, it will also help save money in the long run! 

I decided that this idea of simplicity can also carry over to my school-life as well. I decided that I can be more intentional about the activities that I have my kids do. Less copies, more hands-on learning. Less busy work, more activities/practice games. Less focus on grades, more focus on feedback. Feedback is something that I struggle with sometimes and it goes back to that idea of anxiety/clutter. Sometimes I end up giving more assignments that require feedback than is truly needed. Then these assignments begin to pile up waiting for me to give them feedback. Instead of being able to tackle the pile, I put it off due to anxiety. Then I realize that it has piled up for so long that even if I did sit down and give them feedback it wouldn't be relevant to their current learning anymore. This is where the more intentional activities/assignments comes into play. Understanding that some activities are just practice and don't require feedback, while others can be used to assess learning and provide students with an idea of how they are doing.

We live in a world that is always on the go. We live in a world that loves material things. However, I am making the choice to slow down and live with less this year.

I always enjoy seeing what other people have picked for their one word for the year. So what is yours?

PS - this word also comes from a book that I read during 2020. Our local library was doing mystery bundles from the library where they would pick 3 random books for you to read since people could not go into the library to browse the shelves. The book is called 7 Days to Simplicity by Jen Hatmaker and it also really helps to put things into perspective.

New Year's Eve with Kids Part 3

My daughter informed me 2 days ago that I better start planning our New Year's Eve bags. So I decided to be adventurous and explore New Year's Eve traditions in other parts of the world to incorporate into our bags this year. I attempted to find traditions for a country in each time zone so that we can celebrate all day long.

**All times will be eastern standard time. Each country will also have a link to the website where I found my information and will often give you more detailed information about the traditions that take place there.

6:00 am - New Zealand - bang pots and pans and sing Auld Lang Syne

8:00 am - Sydney, Australia - it sounds like this country is known for their elaborate fireworks displays, so we will be making a firework craft found here at Growing a Jeweled Rose.

 

9:00 am - Papua New Guinea - traditional dances

9:00 am - Guam - collect coins to jingle in pockets at midnight, make Bonelos Dago (yam donuts) or Nilagang baka (boiled beef)

10:00 am - Tokyo, Japan - ring bells 107 times, then once at midnight to banish all the human sins and purify participants

11:00 am - Philippines - celebrate with 12 round fruits (ie. oranges, grapes, cherries), wear polka dots, and scatter coins (we are going to do chocolate coins)

11:00 am - Hong Kong, China - learn about the Chinese New Year with crafts from Chalk Academy

12:00 pm - Thailand and Indonesia - both cultures have traditions that have to do with lanterns, so we will be making lanterns with paper bags and battery operated candles

1:30 pm - India - learn about Diwali from the Educator's Spin on It

3:00 pm - Dubai - this country is known for their elaborate celebrations and dinner, so we are going to dress fancy and celebrate by drinking tea and eating a treat (luqaimat recipe)

4:00 pm - Turkey - sprinkle salt at the front door and smash pomegranates, we are also going to let the kids scratch off a few lottery tickets

4:00 pm - Russia - mandarin oranges or sweets for the kids

4:00 pm - Madagascar traditions

5:00 pm - Greece - hang an onion over the door and make vasilopita (cake version or bread version)

5:00 pm - Finland - eat ready-made frankfurters, potato salad, french fries, and crisps. Feeling adventurous, learn all about melting tin to determine your future health, wealth, or happiness

5:00 pm - South Africa - toss furniture (or a bucket of water to be more kid-friendly) out of the front door to signify leaving all of the bad things behind in the new year

6:00 pm - Spain - eat 12 grapes, one for each month of the new year

6:00 pm - France - make paper hats and paper confetti

6:00 pm - Germany - make German Berliner (a jelly filled donut)

7:00 pm - Ireland - bang a loaf of bread on the wall to banish bad luck and bad spirits from the house

7:00 pm - Scotland - build a fire to ward off evil spirits and "burn the old year out", sing Auld Lang Syne

7:00 pm - England - make new year's resolutions, make a Cannelig for good luck

9:00 pm - Greenland - make masks

10:00 pm - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - wear white to celebrate, put a bay leaf and money in your wallet and leave it there all year then next December 31 donate the money and throw the bay leaf in a running water stream

10:00 pm - Argentina - shred old documents and throw the paper like confetti, eat dried fruit and nuts, take the first step at midnight with your right foot to everything goes right throughout the year, eat beans

10:00 pm - Chile traditions

11:00 pm - Puerto Rico - they also throw a bucket of old water out of the front door and they sprinkle sugar outside their house for good luck

11:00 pm - Bermuda - make a paper-mache onion and drop it down at midnight

12:00 am - Colombia - run around outside with an empty suitcase if you hope to travel a lot in the new year, they also eat 12 grapes at midnight

12:00 am - Cuba traditions

12:00 am - Peru traditions

1:00 am - Mexico City, Mexico - learn about how the color of your underwear is a sign of what kind of year you will have!

2:00 am - Calgary or Edmonton, Canada

3:00 am - Vancouver, Canada

**if anyone knows of any Canadian traditions for NYE let me know! It seems like they just get together with friends and family and eat food, which sounds lovely!

If you are a Canva user, here is the link to the cards I made. You can make a copy and then edit them to fit your needs.

Click here to access the Google Slides with the cards for each country.

Do you have any special traditions from countries around the world that I can add to this list?? Let me know!

Previous Year NYE posts:

New Year's Eve with Kids Part 1

New Year's Eve with Kids Part 2

New Year's Eve with Kids Part 2

We had so much fun last year with the kids on New Year's Eve that we decided to do it again! Our daughter is in 2nd grade and is learning to tell time, so I decided to use analog clocks this year for the bags. 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Last year we started the first bag at 4 pm because coming up with 8 ideas for bags is plenty!

4 pm - New Year's Printables

There are so many options out there but this year I picked ones from Oh Rubbish Blog.

5 pm - New Year's Hats

Use the numbers for the year and a strip of paper (or two) to create a headband style hat for the kids to wear.

6 pm - Reflection Questions

I found these cute questions from Artsy Fartsy Mama and decided to print them out and put them in a bag.

7 pm - Game Time!

We have SO many board games in our house including some new ones we got for Christmas, so we let the kids each pick 1-2 games that we could play as a family.

8 pm - Popcorn and Hot Chocolate 

This is always a favorite, so even though it was on last year's list we decided to do it again this year!

9 pm - 2022 in review

We also did this last year, but it is fun to see how their answers have changed in a year

10 pm - New Year's Poppers

I found some cheap ones at Walmart this year, but also found this DIY version using toilet paper rolls from Honey and Lime.

11 pm - Sparkling Juice Toast

This year we picked up a bottle of sparkling juice and some plastic flutes from The Dollar Tree for the kids to do a toast at midnight.

See New Year's Eve 2021 post here.

From my family to yours, we wish you a year of full of happiness!

via GIPHY

A Year of Cooking with Kids

My aunt asked me to put together a year of cooking adventures that she could do with her granddaughters as a gift for Christmas. I had so much fun putting this together that I am going to do it with my own kids too and figured why not share it with everyone else as well!

Each month features a different recipe that you can make with your kids. I tried to keep them relatively simple recipes, but you can easily switch out any recipe. There are PLENTY of ideas out there on Pinterest.

Here are the recipes that I chose:

January - Mini English Muffin Snowmen

I originally got the idea from Snappy Gourmet, but I liked the idea of using English muffins instead of dough, so I combined this idea with Well Plated's recipe for English muffin pizzas. Easily swap out the olives with peppers or pepperoni to fit your child's tastes.

February - Air Fryer Heart Pies

I used Pampered Chef's recipe for the air fryer hand pies, then used Well Plated's idea of making them into hearts for Valentine's Day. These are so easy to customize with whatever filling your child likes!

March - Leprechaun Cookies

These delicious looking green cookies come from Never Ending Journey. Also, just add green food coloring to any of your favorite recipes to have some leprechaun fun!

April - Oreo Egg Truffles

I made these a few years ago and oh my goodness they are delicious! These Oreo truffles from Play Party Plan can be made into any shape!

May - Muffins for Mom

Swap out whatever your favorite muffin recipe is for this month! I used a banana muffin recipe from Live Well Bake Often.

June - Donuts for Dad

Again, swap out with your favorite donuts recipe. I used a recipe from A Grande Life that uses a can of biscuits!!

July - Firecracker Hot Dogs

These are so adorable for the 4th of July! The idea came from Handmade in the Heartland.

August - Jello Beach Dessert

This fun beachy themed dessert almost looks too good to eat. The recipe comes from Mommy's Fabulous Finds.

September - Apple Nachos

Who doesn't love a good apple recipe in the fall? This idea came from Momma Fit Lyndsey.

October - Jack o' Lantern Quesadillas

Here is another adorable take on an easy quesadilla recipe. The recipe comes from One Little Project.

November - S'mores Pies

One of my favorite things about fall, s'mores around the campfire! Here is a fun twist on a s'mores recipe from My Heavenly Recipes.

December - Reindeer Snack Mix

This salty and sweet snack mix won't last long in my house! This version comes from Melissa's Southern Style Kitchen.

The designs for each month were made on Canva. Click on the image below to get the Google Slides version of the recipes. The links to the original recipes are included in the speaker notes at the bottom of each slide.

Remember, the most important part of this is to have fun!

Rebranding Myself

I've decided to start over. To reorganize my online presence. So I'm "rebranding myself" just sounds right. I don't have a brand that I am trying to sell, but I do enjoy blogging and creating things for school, my kids, and just life in general so why not put them altogether?

I have been all over the place in the past. I focused on education content for awhile, then changed to focusing on cooking and recipes, then kids came into the picture and I created content for them. Then I had some life changing stuff I went through the past 2 years. It gets messy when things are in 10 different places, so why not combine them all into one!

So here we are! Welcome!

My name is Amber Potter. I have been teaching since 2010. I have taught in Virginia, Maryland, and now North Carolina. I was married in 2013 and have two wonderful kids. I enjoy cooking, coffee, playing golf, and being creative.

As the tagline says, this blog will be a little bit education, a little bit parenting, and a little about life. Welcome aboard, I hope you enjoy the ride! 

New Year's Eve with Kids

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

We are staying in this year because you know this pandemic is never ending, so I decided to use the internet to come up with some fun ideas to do with our kids (ages 4.5 and 7)!

Beginning at 4 pm there will be a bag to open at each hour. Some of the bags will have games, some will have things to do, some will have little toys to celebrate.

Here is my plan:

4 pm - New Year's Around the World

Print a blank map of the world time zones. Color in the places that have already celebrated New Year's and then each hour you can see what part of the world is celebrating at that time until you get to your time zone.

Embrace the Mess

We live in a world where everyone is trying to live their best life, which means that we tend to share all of the good parts with our friends and family, especially on social media. We post the pictures of our kids when they are smiling and getting along. We post pictures about vacations and cookouts with friends. We talk about the latest and greatest thing we have tried or the food we've cooked. All the positive stuff, which is great. But what does this do to us mentally? It can be draining. We begin to compare our lives to others. We try to live up to other peoples' standards. We get frustrated when things don't go right. We begin to wonder why.

But guess what... it's time to embrace the mess and keep living your life.

This is something that I am learning to do. Before kids, I was the person that always had my house together. The kitchen was always clean, the living room was always picked up. After kids (especially once the second one came around), I often felt a lot of anxiety when the house was a mess. I would get frustrated, sometimes at the kids. I didn't like that I was blaming the kids for feeling this way. Then I realized that the mess means they are playing and having fun. The dishes piled up in the sink and the laundry on the floor means that I am spending more time playing with them. I had to come to the realization that having a "messy" house was going to be the norm for years to come as the kids grow and instead of constantly living with the anxiety about the mess, I am learning to embrace it.

It's ok to come home and there be toys all over the floor, to have dishes piled in the sink, to have clothes that need to be washed or put away (let me be honest, I absolutely HATE putting clothes away so more often than not we just look through the piles of clean clothes to find something to wear every day). :-)

There is so much pressure on us to live this perfect life, but it doesn't have to be that way. When your friends post a perfect picture of their kids, just know it took them at least 10 tries to get that perfect shot. When you see those picture perfect clean kitchens on Pinterest or in magazines, just know that they probably don't even get used. Stop comparing yourself to others and be grateful for the life you live.

I am learning to love my messy, sometimes unorganized, crazy life and you should learn to love yours too.

A few tricks and tips:

• Create a cleaning schedule; I've used two options. 
• Option 1 - assign a small task each night of the week. For example, Mondays - vacuum, Tuesdays - dust, Wednesday - bathrooms. I also did one load of laundry per night, as needed.
• Option 2 - pick one day of the week and set aside an hour to get through all of your cleaning. Stick to the one day so in your mind you know, Wednesday evenings is my cleaning night. With this option, I tend to do laundry all throughout the day on Saturday (one of my days off)
• Sometimes it is ok to not be organized
• My kids have a playroom where they have all of their toys. Each toy has a specific bin it goes in when we clean up, but some days (especially if the kids want to help) we just throw things in whatever bin we see and ta-da we can see the floor again!
• I also have that one room that if I know we are having guests come over I will throw all the odds and ends that I don't feel like putting away into the room just to get it out of sight.
• Ask for help!
• I tend to do most of the cleaning and laundry around the house because I am home so much right now with virtual learning, whereas my husband gets home later in the evening and his days off vary. However, I have learned that when things are getting backed up or if we are having people come over, all I have to do is ask him to do something he will always do it. (now if I could just get the kids to help out more) :-)

https://sites.google.com/view/amberpotter/home

Instagram: @mrspotterstyle

Twitter: @apotter730

It's OK to Need a Break

I made this original post in December 2019 before the world changed.

Dear moms (and dads)... we all need a break sometimes and it’s absolutely ok.

Last weekend we found out that our daycare provider had an emergency in the family and was going to need to take off Monday through Wednesday, which left us having to figure out what to do with the kids. Unfortunately we don’t have any family in the area and have never really found a backup babysitter for situations like this. Sometimes we can get one of our parents to come stay with us, but this time I asked if my mom wanted the kids to come to her house for a few days. She did (thanks mom!), so I packed the kids in the car and met her halfway.

She kept the kids for the entire week and it was a week that I didn’t realize I needed.  I went to work as usual each day. However, I didn’t allow myself to stay late as I would have done in the past. No kids means catching up at work, right?? Not this time.

So I left on time each day and came home. I also could have done a million and one things at home while the kids were gone, but I didn’t. I did a few small things like picked up the playroom and cleaned the kitchen. But that’s it.

I used this week to recharge mentally. I watched TV shows that weren’t on Nick, Jr. or Disney. I read an adult book. I enjoyed the quiet. I needed this time.

My husband and I also enjoyed this time together. We went to happy hour, we went out to dinner, we made dinner together. Just the two of us. We also needed this time.

To all the parents out there, it’s ok to need a break from your children. I’m not saying send them away for a week because this was definitely not planned. But take a night for yourself. Whether it’s a couple of hours for a date night out, an evening away, or even just a few hours out shopping, take the break.

This rule also applies to work. That will be another post, another day. But taking a mental break from things in life is a necessity at times. Take care of yourself.

Into the Unknown

As we enter 2021, we have made it almost halfway through the craziness of virtual kindergarten. In June I wrote a blog post about how I wasn't sure what kindergarten would look like for my then 5 year old.

We found out in August that she would be starting off 100% virtual. The school started kindergarten off with a gradual entry. The parents met with the teacher one day. Our daughter met with the teacher one day. Then they had a couple of days where they just had morning meetings. During the third week of school, they followed a full schedule.

The school created a schedule that they felt would work the best for these kinder babies. They have a morning meeting, phonics in one of three small groups (the other time is supposed to be independent time), math, a 2 hour break for lunch/recess, then small groups in the afternoon for science/social studies/health/reading. Lastly they have specials at the end of the day.

At first I loved this schedule. I thought it would be good for the kids to have extended breaks from the computer. However, as we have progressed through this year, I have discovered that these long breaks are HARD. Unfortunately, she has a break from 10:55am to 1:50pm because she is in the last group in the afternoon. I have two, hour-long classes that I teach during this break so it is hard for me to help her with independent work and she won't do it on their own.

Even with the struggle around the working independently, it has been AMAZING to watch this kid navigate this virtual learning like a pro. She absolutely loves being on the computer with her teacher. She loves to tell her "friends" on the Google Meet that they are her best friends, even though they haven't met. She has learned sight words, letter sounds, how to add/subtract, understand greater than and less than. She is starting to read. All of this has been accomplished while learning on a computer.

The things that these kids are accomplishing right now is nothing short of amazing. They are learning to navigate technology, programs, online assignments, etc. during a pandemic. All while dealing with who knows what at home. 

We continue to venture into the unknown as we begin 2021. Many counties are continuing virtual learning with no idea when or if we will return to the school building. Keeping positive thoughts. This may not always be easy, but these kids are resilient. 

Bittersweet Christmas

First of all, to my readers who are currently celebrating one of the winter holidays, I hope you are having a Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas, or Happy Kwanzaa.

This Christmas is a little bittersweet for me. Ever since I was a little kid, I always spent Christmas with my extended family. Large gatherings with aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Once I started dating my now husband, we also continued this tradition. We rotate one year with his family in PA and one year in NC with my family. Obviously this year is going to be different. No traveling to be with family. No large gatherings.

At first, I was upset. I absolutely LOVE spending this season with family. Then I realized that this year has been a year of appreciating the small things. Now, instead of being upset, I am appreciating our little family and the fact that this is the first time we will ever spend Christmas in our own house. Our kids are currently 6 and 3, so they are such a fun age with the Christmas traditions.

We are going to bake cookies, watch movies, eat popcorn, go look at Christmas lights, cook a delicious Christmas dinner, and of course what the kids are most excited about... open presents. It will be nice to go to sleep in our own beds, stay in pajamas all day, and the kids can play with their new stuff rather than packing everything up in the car to drive home.

So as I continue to appreciate the little things this year, I hope that you also are able to celebrate this holiday season in some way.

ALSO, to all my fellow educators out there. Please make sure you are taking some time for yourself this winter break. Keep the computer closed. Those emails, grades, plans, etc. will all be waiting for you on January 4. 

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Instagram: @mrspotterstyle

Twitter: @apotter730

Setting Boundaries (Again)

Well this blog post didn't age well...

In December I wrote a blog post about how I was learning to say no. It was making my life much less stressful by putting myself first, especially at work. I had learned that I can say no to something and life will go on.

A couple of weeks ago I came across a book called Boundaries on Amazon Prime. I added it to my library and started reading it as I finished my previous book. (One of my 2020 goals is to read more for pleasure.)

Amazon

This book confirmed everything I had been feeling this school year. I was learning to set boundaries in my work life. I was learning that when you set a boundary, not everyone is going to like it, but if they truly respect your relationship they will understand.

This book touches on more than just work. It focused on friends, family, children, significant others, and more. While I was working on setting my boundaries at work, this helped me also look at all aspects of my life and where else I needed to work on boundaries.

I am starting 2020 off much happier than I was about 5 months ago and I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year brings!

Marshmallows and Toothpicks Activity

I've got a super quick and easy activity to do with your young kids this week.

I created an activity for my daughter that helps her practice her letters, while also allowing her to use her hands to keep her busy. This idea was thought of when making all of those busy boxes (see previous post) a month ago.

Each slide shows how to create the shape or letter using toothpicks and marshmallows. Make sure to have a conversation about how we can create all of the letters with the toothpicks, but the shapes with curves are not going to look exactly the same since we are using straight toothpicks.

I also allowed my daughter to explore with the toothpicks and marshmallows. She enjoyed creating different towers and designs using the materials.

It kept her busy and that was the whole goal!

Click here to get your copy of the presentation.

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Instagram: @mrspotterstyle

Twitter: @apotter730

Thankful.

This year has been weird. We are going through something that I never thought we would go through in our lifetime, but it has been a time to truly reflect and be thankful. I know some people may not feel this way, because this year has taken A LOT from us. People have lost loved ones, jobs, homes, and a daily life that we were used to.

For me, though, I've used this month to sit back and be thankful.

I am thankful for family. I am lucky that Covid has not affect my family personally. We have been able to have our parents come to visit at different times in a safe manner. We were able to have our family beach trip in August. In a year where many of our trips have been canceled, being able to safely spend time with family was such a blessing.

I am thankful that I have a job where I can safely work at home, while also helping my daughter attend kindergarten in a virtual setting. I am happy with the way my county has handled the idea of virtual learning and tried to prepare us teachers as best as they could for charting this unknown territory. I am also thankful for my husband's job. Working in a restaurant throughout this pandemic has not been easy for some, but his company really created a good path for them to navigate while making sure to take care of their people.

I am thankful for my kids, who have taught me a lot of patience this year. There have been many struggles while being stuck at home with them for the past 8 months. But we have learned to appreciate all of this extra time together.

I am thankful for friends, especially those who I can call up to talk at any time of the day. Not being able to visit and be with friends as often as we normally would has been hard. I enjoy being social, I enjoy being able to get together for happy hours, dinner, fire pits and this year it has been really tough to do that. So being able to pick up the phone and chat is always a great thing.

I truly hope that things start to turn around for the better. This year has been full of ups and downs. While some may find it hard to be thankful for anything, we must continue to look forward. Things will get better. Keep your head up. Stay safe. Wear a mask.

https://sites.google.com/view/amberpotter/home

Instagram: @mrspotterstyle

Twitter: @apotter730

My Social Butterfly Has Lost Her Wings - Revisited

I am continuing to look at blog posts from the previous year and this one really struck home. The original post is below, but so much has changed since then. We have ventured into the world of virtual kindergarten. My little social butterfly is struggling. She just wants to make friends in her class, but that is so hard to do when online for 20-30 minutes at a time.

Luckily, since this post I have allowed my kids to go back to daycare. My 5 year old gets to go once a week on Wednesdays, when school is just small group time. It is SO good for her mentally. She NEEDS to have socialization with other kids. I have been told numerous times that staying home with mommy is NOT fun.

While we have eased up on our social outings (ie. we visit the playground every now and then if it isn't too busy, she gets to go to the store with me every now and then), there are still a lot of things that she is knows she is missing out on. She wants to travel and do fun things, but it just isn't the time yet.

This post reminded me that we are still in the middle of pandemic, especially with cases slowly starting to rise again. We have to make sure we are checking in on our children. While we think this is all hard for us as adults, it is even harder for the kids. So yes, my little social butterfly is has gained part of her wings back, but she is nowhere near full flight like if she was in the school building. I hope for ALL of the kids sake we can get this virus under control and slowly get our kids lives back to normal.

Original Post - March 17, 2020

Last night was tough. I was trying to put my 5 year old to bed and she was fighting it like a champ. When she avoids bedtime she asks questions and lately these questions have been hard.

In the past week I’ve had to explain to her that our trip to Tennessee to visit family has to be postponed. She doesn’t get to go to daycare and see her friends. Gymnastics is canceled until further notice. We all have to stay at home even though daddy has to go to work which in her eyes is “not fair”. 

My little social butterfly is losing her wings because of a virus that is challenging to explain to a 5 year old. She understands that right now there are bad germs in the world and the safest place for us to be is in our house, but she’s a planner and she wants to know for how long. She thrives off of being able to play with her friends and go to gymnastics.

While everyone is worrying about missing school, online learning, parents becoming teachers... don’t forget to also check in on your child’s social and emotional well-being.

These are tough times. There’s a lot of uncertainty and that’s scary for a child. So while I encourage you to try and continue helping your child learn, also know that it’s ok to just focus on survival. 

This morning we made green pancakes for St. Patrick’s Day. We made it into an art lesson. What colors mixed together will make green? It was fun. We all need to find more of these little teachable moments that will help all of us get through the new norm for the next who knows how many weeks.

Remember, check in with your kids, family, and friends. We all have a lot going on and we need each other right now.

7 Days of Dollar Tree Busy Boxes

I am currently teaching from home while my 5 year old is also at home attending virtual kindergarten. The times that she is on the computer with her teacher are amazing. She participates, she is engaged, she is loving it. (however, she still asks me every day when she can go back to school)

The issue arises when she is on her breaks, specifically, her break from 11am to 1:50pm. Unfortunately I am trying to teach live for at least 2 of those hours so I needed to come up with things that would keep her busy. I reached out on social media and someone suggested busy boxes.

I took a couple of trips to The Dollar Tree and came up with these 7 busy boxes.

Box #1:

 

This box uses a container, alphabet flash cards, and rice. She draws a flash card and then uses her finger or the eraser end of a pencil to trace the letter in the rice. Give it a shake and draw another card.

Box #2:

This box uses a container, play-doh and shape flash cards. She picks a flash card and then uses the play-doh to make the shape.

Box #3:

This box uses a container, kid's tweezers (found in the school section) and two bags of beads. She can use the tweezers to pick up the beads (works on fine motor skills) and then sort them by size, color, make a pattern, etc.

Box #4:

This box uses a container, pipe cleaners, and 2 bags of alphabet beads. I created my own sight word cards (find them here), but you could use index cards as well if you don't have access to a printer. She draws a sight word card and then uses the beads to spell it while putting them on the pipe cleaner

Box #5:

This box uses a container, dot marker, sticky notes, and number flash cards. (I split the number flash cards into 2 groups and saved the other half for another project). She picks a flash card, then uses the dot marker to put that amount of dots on a sticky note.

Box #6:

This box uses a container and clothespins. I created my own version of clip and cover cards to focus on matching uppercase and lowercase letters. I am working on others as well, so those will be in a future blog post. You could also use index cards for this as well.

Box #7:

This box uses a bag (because I didn't buy a container large enough to hold the dice), stickers, dice (2 for a $1), and sticky notes. She rolls the dice. Add the two numbers together. Then put that amount of stickers on the sticky note.

A few things that I have learned while letting her explore this week. I had to learn to let go. While I made directions for all of them, the end goal is that she is staying busy and keeping me alone while I teach. This means that when I come back and her hands are green from the dot marker and she has drawn a picture instead of making dots. It is totally ok. When she put the sticky notes all over the house... it is ok. When she wants to just play with the rice, play-doh, or beads... it is ok.

I see myself making more of these in the future because they were fun to put together and she enjoyed helping me. Stay tuned for more!

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Instagram: @mrspotterstyle

Twitter: @apotter730