Like so many of you, September is my new year. Although I am no longer a student or an educator (officially at least!), I still feel like the new year begins in September. The girl’s first full day of school was yesterday and I am ready to have a schedule and do my best to focus on goals of my own. One of those goals, is to get back to writing regularly and publically…so here goes. When I promise to write every day, I disappoint myself every time so for now, I am aiming to write a post once a week. Think some general thoughts, book recommendations, what I am loving and more. And I am going to call it Thoughts for Thursday cause I had the idea in the grocery store last week and I am sticking with it 🙂

SOME THOUGHTS…

One of my favorite people to follow on-line is Jessica Smock, who writes at her site, School of Smock. Jessica describes herself as a “mom of two young kids, a former teacher and educational researcher and an imperfect parent.” Given this description, it is no wonder that nearly everything Jessica posts resonates with me in some way.

A few days ago, Jessica shared the image above on her Facebook group and I quickly scribbled ‘write about Jessica’s post’ on one of the many scraps of paper that litter our kitchen counter. Surprising noone, the paper got lost and I forgot about it. Then Katherine came home from her first day of eighth grade and told us that her teachers had started talking about high school and class placements. On the first day of eighth grade.

Sigh.

It is my wish that all of us- parents and teachers included- could let our kids be kids. Let them be who they are right now. I do know that I fail at this sometimes too and in many ways I am getting worse at it instead of better. True confession: I nagged Caroline to do SAT prep work last night on the second day of school and months before she will take the test. It is so easy to get focused on children’s futures instead of just letting them be who they are right then.

So a huge thank you to Jessica Smock for the reminder above.

A FAVORITE THING…

A few times a week, I am lucky enough to practice  yoga with Coach Stroker, a retired teacher, coach and all around local legend. His classes are all about building a tribe of like minded people who love sharing thoughts and community with a little bit of yoga thrown in for good measure.

Last week, Coach Stroker shared this video and I wish the whole world could see it. Click here to watch and I dare you not to cry.

In my imagination, these weekly posts are longer but I am knee deep in planning a huge fundraiser for Caroline’s soccer team on Saturday so that is all the writing I have in me today. To be continued 🙂