...and Now for Some Fine Tuning and Tweaking...

In photos my blue bulletin boards really do dominate, don't they? Take a closer look though and you might be able to see signs of fine tuning in this corner, that corner, and some tweaking of the furniture arrangement (and oh look! The chairs have found their appropriate places too!):

To the rear, our reading "circle," literacy/story time/calendar area (I know, I still need a chair):



Students' desks and areas for computers, legos, and all of our math manipulatives (on shelves):



Dramatic Play to the left, puppets in the apple baskets, and painting/clay to the right (yes, I put up Kadinsky, Picasso, and Van Gogh prints):



The view from the rear classroom doors, next to the bathroom area:



I'm still sorting materials and supplies on the art cart:



Hmm, it looks like our kitchen (dramatic play) is in need of repair:



Here's a closer look at our storytime corner. In addition to our books and listening center, I place three tubs of math manipulatives, and three tubs of literacy/language games in this area so my students can have some additional practice with problem solving, patterning, and phonics whenever we get a free moment. I also use this area to introduce and explain worksheets or model small paper activities that tie into stories we've just read before sending students to work at their tables. Having their attention away from the noise of the hallway is a *good thing!*

And finally, a view from the storytime corner looking toward the front of the room. I have our wooden blocks and other large building manipulatives housed in the bookcase that is almost center photograph- the floor area is open enough that students can spread out, building cities, kingdoms, neighborhoods, and on carpet which will hopefully cushion/soften the noise created by the solid wooden blocks!

*****

I'm going to try to finish up my classroom arrangements and decor this week. I'll make center tags, hang some more decor from the ceiling over the students' desks (it's a wonderful place for patterns and art display), get the table baskets filled with crayons, pencils, glue and scissors, and start putting together journals. I'll get the curriculum kits reassembled, take a look at the kindergarten standards for Oz, and figure out a template for my lesson plans. Next week all teachers will meet for professional development at our school and throughout other district locations- I'll keep you posted!

*****

~ Head over to The Chancellor's New Clothes for this week's Carnival of Education (you might find someone familiar linked there!)...

~ No, I haven't forgotten that you enjoy trying out new recipes as much as I do! Once I see some pretty blueberries in the grocery store, I'm going to try Smitten Kitchen's Blueberry Crumb Bars and Blueberry Pancakes... I must have BLUE on the brain this week!

~ Ever cooked Eggs in a Basket? I've wanted to ever since Moonstruck came out (Olympia Dukakis makes it for breakfast in one scene). Thanks to The Pioneer Woman Cooks for sharing the method!

Making Progress in the Classroom

...but first, another furniture tip!

If your classroom is carpeted, you may find that the custodial staff has to shampoo before you can start arranging furniture. There are metal brads on the "feet" of many kindergarten tables, chairs, easels, book racks, cubby shelves, etc. It's best to let the carpet completely dry, which could take a full day so that the metal brads don't leave rust marks on the floor (a big no-no, and a surefire way to get on your custodian's not-so-chipper-side!) but if you're pressed for time (or just *really* need to see if a planned room layout will work), cover the brads completely with masking tape:





It will take some time to cover the brads, but it will be soooooo worth it in the end!

*****

Dear Daughter came by and helped me make some progress in the room. We spent a lot of our time climbing ladders to hang bulletin board paper and set up kindergarten/school themed vignettes:



(What will eventually be our "circle time" area for stories, games, calendar, sing-a-longs...)



An area being set up for painting and clay (we're learning about colors so I have multi-colored flags hanging from the ceiling...)



Vignette numero uno (displays that are up and out of the way stay put for the entire year)...



Part of a vignette that spells out "kindergarten," along with some friendly bears and stars...



...and of course, something patriotic!

*****

How is your classroom set up coming along?

I'm Thinking About My Super Stars: Past, Present, and Future

...and their parents and teachers.

I'm at New Teacher Orientation, thinking about this:

It's Called "Do You Teach, or Do You Educate?"

I found it on YouTube:

Classroom *Before*...and Furniture Tips

Here's a peek at what I'll be working with as I set up my kindergarten classroom this week... call it a "before" slideshow (yes, I'll post some "after" shots soon!):

I'll try to wrap up the sorting and organizing on Monday so that I can start preparing my staple boards for displays (calendar, posters, curriculum materials, etc.) as I won't be able to situate my furniture until the carpets have been shampooed and are dry.
*****

If *you're* ready to arrange your furniture, here are a few things to remember:

~ Kindergarten students use space, lots and lots of it. They will not be sitting in chairs at desks very often, but will lay across the floor assembling puzzles or building with blocks...they will stand at the art easel to paint, they will play dress up in an area designated for dramatic play...they will make a unifix cube "snake" the length of the room either across the floor or across desks, and they'll interact with one another by walking from center to center (activity areas) to talk with friends, make suggestions, or satisfy their curiosity. A balance between the amount of furniture and the amount of wide open "free" space needs to occur. Too much furniture, and the children can't move. Too little furniture, and the kids will RUN.

~ There are safety issues that will affect where you place furniture in your room.

• * In Alaska, earthquakes were a threat, so student's desks couldn't be placed near the windows, and had to be situated closely enough that students could climb under them to avoid items falling from above. Tornadoes, neighborhood violence, gusting winds, etc. are all elements that can make windows in your classroom dangerous.



• * Fire exits cannot be blocked. Alternate fire exits could be windows or doors. No furniture or decor should prevent your students' safe and timely exit from the room.



• * Your room might have movable cabinetry or free standing file cabinets and bookshelves. Sit at your desk and examine the height of the furniture. If you can't see over it, it should not be placed as a divider between centers blocking your view. You need to be able to see the students from any and all vantage points in the classroom. I place too-tall bookshelves and file cabinets against walls for stability and so I can see them clearly- after all, they are climbing and tipping hazards.



• * Shelving and cabinetry should be neat and organized, utilizing tubs or baskets when necessary. With practice, cleaning up after activities will become intuitive and natural for your students. Remember to store items that students should use ONLY with your supervision up and away.



• * Area rugs are helpful in visually marking areas (reading time, the math manipulative area, etc.), compliment the decor and provide comfort, and can even be used as a learning aids (ABC carpets, a number theme...) but need to meet fire safety codes. Find out from your principal or grade level partner what types of carpets can be used before purchasing.

~ Kindergarten furniture is short. Make sure you leave enough area around furniture and into centers that you, visiting parents or volunteers, and other teachers or aides can move easily without repeatedly bruising your knees and shins. If you have height-adjustable tables, make sure they aren't too tall or too short. Using the students' chairs as a guide should help.

*****

I hope you're enjoying the remainder of your summer break!

So You're Going to Teach Kindergarten, pt.2

What wonderful cabinetry. And I know what's going behind the doors on the upper level: Books. Dear Daughter and I opened fourteen boxes of them, finding even more surprises left by the last crew of packers that prepared our belongings for the trip from Texas to Oz. Despite some bent corners and torn covers, it was good to see my favorite stories again after taking last year off from teaching.

Kindergarten teachers often teach concepts and skills organized into thematic units. "Autumn," "Animals," "Counting," "Colors," etc. I organize my books by how I USE them throughout the year. In August, books like Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, Blueberries for Sal, Timothy's First Day of School, and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, are within easy reach for reading time. So are books about autumn, colors, numbers, and friendships. My winter holiday books can all be found on the same shelf as my snow themed stories, and fairy tales are grouped together for the spring.



I also group books by author. Norman Bridwell's Big Red Dog Clifford keeps company with Marc Brown's Arthur, and I love featuring Leo Lionni and Patricia Polacco as favorite storytellers too! It's my system, books sorted by theme, and also sorted by author, and it works for me. Come October, I can pull down an entire stack of books featuring Halloween, bats, spiders, growing pumpkins, monsters, fire safety, and silly rhymes, and put them in the hands of my students. Each November, family stories, Thanksgiving tales, harvest, and Indigenous Peoples pique my kindergartners' interest.



Do you have sets of books, providing multiple copies so groups of students can read along with you or one another? Try sorting them into easy-to-grab tubs (mine are on the bottom row of the next set of shelves):



Big Books need to be stored either flat (making it difficult to find exactly the one you're looking for), in a book display specifically made for oversized stories, or in their curriculum kit box for easy access.

Find a system that works for you and your students- books are treasures!

*****

Don't forget to organize your professional library too (mine is full of books and binders):

So You're Going to Teach Kindergarten, pt. 1

Yay! Good for you!

On the first day you can get in to the school (and presumably, your classroom), make sure to take your digital camera, a measuring tape, a notebook and pencil, your lunch, snacks and drinks for the day, and your calendar. If you have supplies, books, and other teaching gear you'd like to drop off, go for it, but don't plan on opening them!

Here's why: there are a few things you need to do before you wave your magic wand,*poof*, producing the world's greatest kindergarten classroom in cloud of glitter.

If this is your first year teaching at an already established school, chances are you're not the first teacher to use the classroom. You might walk into a completely empty room. You could walk in to find a mish-mash of furniture, equipment, and curriculum materials. You might find that your classroom has served as the storage or catch-all room for the rest of the school for the past five years. Or you might walk in to a fully furnished, fully equipped, almost completely developmentally appropriate teaching space, like I did this week:



ACK! What? Before you have a stroke, let me point out a few things. 1) As a teacher new to this district, I've gone to school before many of the "regular" teachers have returned from their summer vacations. The summer cleaning staff is still dusting, washing, repairing, and vacuuming the rooms in preparation for the start of school. 2) Take a looksie at the bookcases along the back walls. Everything sitting on TOP of the shelves...is MINE. And those shelves make a full "L" along two walls in the room. All of the items on the lower shelves were already in the class. 3) All of the furniture has been moved to the center of the room so that the janitorial staff can clean the carpets around it. Once several more furniture shifts take place, the carpet will hopefully be shampooed.

Dear Daughter and the Toddler came with me to inventory what was in the room on Day One. You need to inventory your room as well. The inventory might be difficult to do because previous teachers will store the classroom's curriculum materials and supplies, but they won't organize it or return everything to its original location and condition. If the last teacher liked to keep half of the language arts books at the reading table and the other components of the curriculum kit at his/her desk, or in small tubs for individual students to use, chances are, you'll find that "system" still in place when you arrive. The best thing to do is to open every cabinet, cubby, and drawer. If you find items that seem to go together or have matching storage boxes, pull them all out and place them together in an easy-to-get-to location. Here's a photo of the math, science, and language arts materials and curriculum "kit" items I've found so far:



It's a "rough sort," meaning I haven't opened up all of the boxes or checked to see if the workbooks or flashcards, assessment booklets or supplemental activities are in order, much less present. I still have big books and flip charts to find and add to this pile so that I can reassemble the kits as much as possible.

You can sort your classroom items pretty easily for your inventory: furniture, curriculum kit elements, math manipulatives, language arts materials, puppets, computer equipment, stereo/headphones, toys, workbooks, arts and crafts supplies, classroom/school binders for policies, procedures, a professional library, etc. Doing a rough sort lets you know what you have, the condition of your classroom furniture and supplies, and points you in the direction for creating your to-do and wish lists.

I sorted paper products:



Then determined what I had for crayons, glue, kleenex, etc.:



A majority of my afternoon was spent sorting math manipulatives and language arts materials. The blue tubs and the clear containers with white lids are ALL math items:



These two sets of shelves are full of puzzles, and ONLY puzzles (ignore the storage bins up on top, that's part of my seasonal decor, which I'll try to get to on Monday):



These clear and yellow bins are all fine/gross motor activities (Legos, building blocks, lincoln logs, etc.):



The bins already available in the classroom come in primary colors and are perfect for storage on the shelves. Blue will be for math, the yellow is for fine/gross motor, and next week I'll sort language arts/literacy items into red bins. Green will house science materials, and orange...who knows? Dear Daughter will get a treat from Dairy Queen on Monday afternoon after she peels every sticker and label off of the bins in my class. If you don't have children to be helpers in your room, consider asking a colleague if s/he has teens for hire who would like to earn their favorite fast food meal for lunch in exchange for doing the little things.

*****

Before you leave for the day, measure your room. Photograph it as well. Photograph the ceiling, the insides of cabinetry, the bathrooms, where your windows are located, your furniture, everything. You'll want the photos to refer to later, possibly in the wee hours when inspiration comes to you in a dream, waking you! Take notes too. How many staple boards or corkboards do you have for display? How many windows might you have to make or purchase curtains for? How many electrical outlets do you have and where are they located? How about computer jacks? If you have open storage shelves like I do, and you're considering covering them with curtains to reduce the visual noise (and possible temptation for more impulsive students), measure, measure, measure so you know how much fabric to buy (and purchase plain 'ol clearance material, okay?). Make sure to ask your principal or building administrator if you're ALLOWED to staple items into the walls, hang decor from the ceiling, or affix hook and loop tape to hang curtains before you do it!

*****

Your calendar will help you remember when your new teacher orientation will take place, teacher inservices too, and you can set goals for each day you're able to spend in your classroom setting up. You'll want a day for inventory (and requesting furniture/materials if necessary) and your "rough sort," a day for furniture arrangement and the setting up of centers (with materials located where they will be utilized the most), another day for bulletin boards and classroom decor, a day for lesson plans, your parent newsletter, and grade level planning meetings, and another day getting your first week's activities, materials, stories, and required school safety drill practice planned and prepped in full. Make sure to ask if your school will host an Open House before school starts, or if you need to prepare for initial observations and assessments of your students before they arrive for their official First Day.

*****

If you have the time or just feel the urge to lay claim to YOUR classroom before you leave on Day One, you can set up your Essential Three that will help you through the rest of the week:



Welcome to Kindergarten!

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Blog...

... to bring you a review of my day!

All of today's blogging time was set aside for mother/daughter eye exams, grocery shopping, drug screening/testing for my employment, and a visit to my new school to pick up keys and drop off classroom materials. I think it's time for me to post some drafts in the queue just in case, but until then:

* I still don't care for the blowy-puffy-here's-grit-in-your-eye procedure that optometry techs seem to enjoy watching patients endure at the beginning of an eye exam. What *is* that thing, anyway? Is my eye dusty? Are you testing me on my blink and flinch coordination? Are you checking my mascara's and eyeliner's staying power? My eyes water just thinking about it!

* I've been experiencing some confusing encounters at the grocery store I've been frequenting here since our arrival. It's on post, and each time I've gone, I've been approached by older ladies and gentlemen asking if my kids are "ready for VBS." Huh? Each time their table has been surrounded by other people, so I've only been asked that one question before the greeter has turned his or her attention to someone actually interested enough to stop and look at their display. It wasn't until this morning's trip that I finally saw the table itself- and realized that VBS stands for "Vacation Bible School," not "very big shoes" or "very bratty siblings." Enough with the abbreviations folks. I get it with my husband's military-jargon, I get it with all sorts of edu-speak, and I see it as I try to figure out just what my daughter is asking me for when she text messages me on her phone.

Spell...the...whole...thing...out...please. And if you won't, please just step aside as I maneuver my way through the store with my thrilled-with-the-acoustics-toddler to get a loaf of bread, a container of milk, and a stick of butter.


* Drug screening. Today was the first time *this* kindergarten teacher has had to walk in to a medical facility, surrender her i.d., allow someone else to lock up her purse and do the little aim-for-the-plastic-cup-routine with an audience standing right outside the bathroom door. Oh, and I wasn't allowed to flush the potty afterward either. Yep, everything had to be as...witnessed...as possible. Wow. Just...wow.

* Yes indeedy, I did get the key to my classroom today! Dear Daughter and I were so excited, so pleased, so impressed with what we saw as we walked through the school, peeking into classrooms, lounges, cafeterias, etc... and when we got to see my room, I just about cried. This is the first time I've been given a classroom that is fully supplied. FULLY. I guess I'm no longer at a Title I school, and the difference leaves me in awe, and saddened. Standardization across the nation? Honeys, it isn't happening.

The classroom is beautiful. Most of it is appropriate for kindergarten, though my teacher's desk is fixed to the wall as part of a built-in, and it seems I can't lower it to a better height for use as the reading table. The students' coat cubbies are actually closets with doors (another interesting safety issue) and I have tons of storage for manipulatives, books, etc. I'll be sharing a bookroom and a set of student bathrooms with one of my colleagues by way of two "walk-through" areas.

* I've brought home a school binder that seems to have our policies and procedures explained in it, but getting them committed to memory is becoming more difficult with each new move I make. Every school has its own set of rules, procedures, routines. The first one used clipboards for fire drill and stranger danger drills, the next had little red and green paddles we were to hold up outside during a fire alarm along with scrap pad sign-off sheets that had to be turned in to the office after each drill. The next required a binder or notebook with students' names and contact info, while at this, my newest school, who knows what the variation will be. In the past six years, I have had to follow four different rulebooks on school procedures for fire drills, xerox copying, attendance reporting, lunch requests, stranger danger, parent pick-up, field trip requests, classroom newsletters, professional development, parent teacher conferences, NCLB documentation, lesson plan formats and due dates, social club dues and rules, phone etiquette, lunch time and recess procedures, before and after school bus duty, parking space assignments, computer lab sign up, nurse pass procedures, email and internet do's and don'ts, office errands, teacher lounge clean-up, grade level planning times, preps, and tornado safety practice. Talk about a jumble.

*****

Off to bed (this is a late night posting)- I have a classroom to inventory and set up in the morning!

Eskimo in Oz

My Dear Husband and I were having dinner away from home last night after having run errands for most of the day. We chose a buffet type restaurant for both its selection and its proximity to the Sprint Service Center, where my cell phone was being beaten into you-SHALL-display-email-when-she-wants-you-to submission repaired. The late hour combined with the buffet environment and the other diners that belonged to the senior citizen crowd seemed to bring out our silly side, and soon we were joking about the repairs my cell phone *might* need, the number of used car lots that my husband has to choose from in his search for a smaller vehicle that gets better gas mileage, and how it was funny for me, being an Eskimo in Oz.



It sounds like a great blog title, no? Eskimo in Oz. We'll see if I find some inspiration for that one, since I'm back to rethinking my blogging now that I'll be returning to the classroom. Should I just keep all of my content here and at Tending the Eclectic Kinder-Garden, or should I focus one blog solely on teaching, and use the other as a catch-all... Pondering, pondering. Thoughts?

*****

By the way, after two forty-five minute waits at the Sprint Service Center, we realized that Sprint Service really doesn't...sprint.

From Wiktionary: Sprint: A short race at top speed; a burst of speed or creativity; To run etc. at top speed for a short period of time.

*****

I've missed W.E.I.O. again this year- and will have to make vacation plans back to Alaska over the summer in the years to come to see and hear the dancers, drummers, blanket pullers, Native crafts and vendors, athletes and friends who gather there annually:


Thankfully, Pamyua's "tribalfunk" sound occasionally visits Oz!

*****

Apologies if tomorrow's Show and Share is posted a little later than usual- I'm hoping to get my key(s) to my classroom in the morning and will be photographing the space and materials to help me plan my activity areas for my students!

The Things You Find...

...when you sneak away for an afternoon and wander through some local antique malls!



It's a 1950's advertisement for refrigerators, but what caught my eye was the word "femineered." Femineered? Femineered?

"Women dreamed them, home economists planned them..." And just what did the femineers want as features in their refrigerators? A bottle opener in the door latch, an "egg-o-mat" that would dispense eggs, one or two at a time, and an "exclusive diffuse-o-lite," to light the "entire interior without glare."

Here's the outside:



...and the inside...



The Canada Science and Technology Museum has a collection it features about historical Marketing, Design and Consumerism, and shares:

Magazines, brochures and trade catalogues in the 1950s liberally promoted the image of the attractive and pleasant “homemaker” to tout the merits of electric ranges. Manufacturers appealed to Canadian women consumers’ dreams of grandeur by comparing their appliances to gems, with the notions of “deluxe,” “imperial” or “royal” embodied in the chrome or gold-plated decorations, dazzling colours, and ease of operation, and conferring upon them the virtue of being “femineered from top to bottom.” As early as the 1920s, commercial catalogues suggested that the stove was “as important as your husband.”

*****

Thank goodness for today's ephemera humor!



(magnet found at Ephemera Inc.)

~Green Maintenance Monday~

We've stalled a bit indoors as I won't be able to set up the toddler's playroom or my craft area until my kindergarten materials, books, and decor are delivered to my new classroom later this week. Dear Husband checked the trees in our yard today instead, looking for branches that needed to be trimmed while the kids and I checked on the seeds that we planted for "filler-type" greenery and flowers for the remaining summer months.

The nasturtiums and pumpkins have sprouted, though I'm not sure if we'll actually get any pumpkins grown in time for Halloween with such a late planting. The kids were inspired by the pumpkin photos at Chance Family Happenings:





Dear Husband trimmed back some branches that were obscuring traffic/street signs:







...and he discovered a few branches that the electric company will have to come out to cut and remove (see where the power line is?):





Later this afternoon I'll re-pot some of my indoor plants into larger containers, anticipating what new greenery I can find to put into the newly emptied pots!

*****
Thanks for being green, Kermit:




*****

~SmittenKitchen shares a recipe for Sauteed Radishes (yes, radishes!), Sugar Snap Peas and Dill

~Paper-and-String is working on Christmas in July (check out her trees, reindeer, and puddings)

~Doug has "heavier" reading on his summer book list than I do, but I'm intrigued after reading his thoughts on Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. NCLB is an issue that has ties that stretch much further than our classrooms, school district offices, states, even country.

~Dear Daughter enjoyed her birthday, but wanted a plain ol' vanilla cake (with purple streaks swirled in) with strawberry icing. Guess I'll have to wait for another celebration to try The Pioneer-Woman-Cooks' Yogurt and Orange Marmalade Cake.

*****

Happy Monday!

Birthday Girl

Happy Birthday to my Beautiful Girl:



...my creative and girlie Dear Daughter...



...today you'll eat birthday cake for breakfast, go shopping for new clothes and learn how to *gulp*, apply makeup, because you're fourteen now, not five.

This time around, I'm hoping you'll go for a more subdued look. At five years of age, you never scribbled when you colored...except when Rissa and Amy let you play in makeup:



Wow.

You're almost a freshman now, but you'll always be my "Muffin," and Daddy's "Sweet Pea," and I'm sure you're probably *thrilled* that I've posted these photos of you online for the world to see.

You're very welcome, Miss-Ten-Pounder-at-Birth.

We love you and hope you enjoy your special day!

Are You Ready? Back to School...Lunchtime Tips

... because it's just around the corner!

*****

If you have a kindergartner gearing up for the first day of school, it's time to put yourself in his/her shoes in regard to LUNCH.

*Soggy sandwiches aren't fun to eat, so try coating both pieces of bread with peanut butter with some jelly in the middle to avoid jelly-soak-through.

*Orange chips stain clothes. Yes, kids still wipe their hands all over their shirts and pants, ignoring the cute napkin you included in their lunchbox. Lunch time is social time so kids are too busy chatting, visiting, and listening in on conversations to remember the good manners you taught them.

*Those little plastic wrappers on the straws for juice boxes don't always have a slit cut into them. Juice boxes tend to be easier to punch straws into than the pouch style drinks.

*Though teachers discourage it, food bartering/swapping still takes place at lunch or snack time. Please remember that some students have food allergies, occasionally severe. It's important that your child knows he/she is still a good friend even though s/he won't share peanut butter cookies (or offer "just a taste" of some other treat) with classmates.

*If your child likes to save leftovers for a snack later in the day, please practice fastening those plastic storage lids or ziploc baggies NOW, otherwise, be prepared for very messy spills and mountains of crumbs in backpacks or lunch sacks.

*If you send a thermos with lunch, make sure your child knows which way is "up" when it comes to putting the thermos back in the lunch box, otherwise s/he will be back in Leak-and-Spillsville.

*Not every classroom has a refrigerator available, so if you live in hot climate, plan on skipping the mayo and milk.

*Snack packaging (the wrappers on cookies, chips, graham crackers, trail mix, fruit snacks, etc.) isn't always easy for little hands to open. Cut a small slit in the top of each to help ease your child's frustration. The same goes for the tips of bananas, or the peels on oranges.

*Yes, teachers are happy to help your young ones learn how to open milk cartons and lunch wrappers, but children feel such a sense of accomplishment, independence and helpfulness when they can do it on their own and teach their friends the "tricks of the trade" as well. Small milk cartons are available at most grocery stores if your kindergartner would like to practice before school starts.

*Not every child knows that you'd rather not open a lunchbox full of wrappers, banana peels, or used juice straws at the end of every day. Additionally, kids don't always know that you might want their plastic containers returned home! Decide and discuss which items morph from "food wrappers" or containers to disposable trash, and which don't. You'll keep a lot of your Tupperware collection intact if you address this sooner rather than later. Ditto for silverware!

*Make sure you write your child's name on that lunch box or lunch sack, because there's always at least one classmate who will have the same one, or one similar looking enough that mix-ups will occur.

*If your child will purchase lunch at school each day, make sure you find out the "routine" in advance and see if you can prepay so your child won't panic or experience a meltdown if lunch money has been lost on the playground.

*****

Do you have any tips or helpful hints for lunch time? Please share by commenting!

Fifteen Things on a Friday...

...about *moi,* in case you were wondering:

1) My favorite hobby would have to be crocheting blankets, but I think I'll be inspired to crochet scarves now that we're living someplace with much cooler winters!



2) My favorite season is winter, though autumn is a close second, especially since leaving Alaska several years ago.



3) I'm not into hunting and fishing like other members of my family, but I wander through antique malls whenever I get the chance. I'm on the lookout for a specific salt cellar that will complete my collection. I...WILL...FIND...IT.

4) I prefer vanilla/spicy scents over fruity, any day.



5) I don't get nervous about shots or getting my blood drawn since having children. A flu shot comes nowhere near the pain level that childbirth does.

6) I think love manifests itself in many different tones and forms, but none of them are cruel.



7) I have two favorite Christmas songs: Little Drummer Boy (duet) by Bing Crosby and David Bowie, and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring (instrumental) by J.S. Bach.

8) I prefer to drink "foo foo" coffee in the morning, but occasionally will drink tea.



9) I can't swim, but have made sure my children don't have a water phobia.

10) I prefer walking to running, and only in cooler temperatures. Having gallons of sweat rolling off of me while getting sunburned holds no appeal for me whatsoever.



11) My favorite piece of jewelry is my wedding set, though I love my charm bracelet too.

12) I can whistle, but don't get me started or I'll never stop. As a teen, my mother and I tried to re-enact this scene but never made it all the way through because we'd burst out laughing:


13) I neither sing nor hum in the shower.

14) My favorite candies are peanut M-n-M's and Smarties. Never together though.





15) I'm an Eskimo who loves ice cream...big surprise. Dairy Queen's Peanut Buster Parfaits (with extra nuts) can just about make my day. So can plain ol' Tin Roof Sundae. And Rocky Road.