Celebrating Reading!!

It's been four fabulous years since I created Literacy Launchpad. Wow! My baby is growing up. I can't believe it! Hee. 

After graduating MTSU with a degree in Children's Literature/Literacy and Elementary Education, I set out to create a program to "motivate and empower children to soar into reading." Now four years later, I'm still at it, and having a blast! I've got the best job in the world. Seriously. 

Here are some photos from the past four years. I have a TON of photos, so here's only a small sampling (I actually didn't go through all my photos... not enough time). Maybe I'll post some more again in another post... 

Resolutions

I've never really been much of one for New Year's resolutions, but I've made a bunch this year. I'm not sure what inspired them all, but I thought I would share some:

- BLOG! BLOG! BLOG! - Adjusting to life with a baby (6 months old now) has made it a challenge to get much done during the days. My to-do list is just so much longer, and there is so much less free-time. Since blogging is never at the top of the priority list, it ALWAYS gets forgotten. But I'm making it a priority this year!! My goal is to post AT LEAST once a week.
- More photos - I love reading blog posts with photos. I want more of them on mine.
- Update blog - This is long overdue. I love that photo, but it doesn't even look like me anymore!
- Learn more about blogging - Any tips are welcome. Isn't it obvious that I still don't know much about all this?
- Launch my new business venture - More about this to come in future posts.

Some other goals:
- I would love to sew and craft more
- plant a garden this summer
- cook more from scratch

I'll be talking to you again real soon!

It's Been A While

I've obviously been absent for a while as I have been adjusting to motherhood and a new school year. I have seriously scaled back my teaching schedule, and am now only teaching one day a week. This is due to two reasons: 1) I wanted to be home more with my baby boy 2) Enrollment was so low at many of my centers that after paying a sitter, I wasn't breaking even. I'm assuming that low enrollment has been due to the tough economy, as I have never had issues with enrollment in my previous years, and have not done anything different this year.

I miss many of my old students, but am really enjoying this new schedule. I love my time with my son. I love being there for all those special moments. And working one day a week allows me to get enough of a break to stay sane, while doing what I love.

Also, I have plans of pursuing publishing some of my Literacy Launchpad curriculum in some way, shape, or form. I'll keep you posted on that. Teaching one day a week allows me to test run new stories and lesson ideas that I might include in my publishing pursuits. Perfect!

I'm also offering Literacy Launchpad classes at my local rec center, but for whatever reason those never seem to take off (I have offered them in there in previous years too).

That's an update on what I'm up to. I will be posting lesson ideas and reflections again soon!

Time To Work?

For the past nine months I have been trying to figure out how I will juggle motherhood and Literacy Launchpad. I always thought the two would mesh so seamlessly, but now that I'm dealing with the reality of managing both, I'm wondering how I will fare. I am a perfectionist, very all or nothing. So how can I be the perfect mom and the perfect teacher? They're both such time consuming jobs.

People juggle teaching and parenthood all the time though. I guess it's something you adjust to? I haven't even begun doing Literacy Launchpad work this summer in preparation for the school year, and already I feel as though there aren't enough hours in the day. I hope my life doesn't spin into total chaos once the school year officially begins...

So it's time for me to start working on lesson planning and such. I sorted through my lesson plans and have decided that I wasn't completely happy with how some of my September lessons went that are slated for repeat this year, so I want to come up with a new month of lessons for September. Hopefully I'll find some great inspiration. I also need to prep for enrollment kick-off; renew insurance and business licenses, line up a great sitter for my little one, etc. etc. Yikes!

So how do all you teaching mothers do it? I know there are many of you out there. Got any tips or encouragement? Can it be done??

The Countdown

I have about 2 and 1/2 weeks left till my due date. Wow! This pregnancy has flown by, but now suddenly feels like it's dragging. I can't wait for this baby to arrive. I can't believe I'm going to be a mother. It's completely surreal to me! I can't even imagine what that moment is going to feel like when I first hold my baby. I get all verklempt just thinking about it! Talk amongst yourselves...

O.K... better. So, what is my plan for the next couple weeks?
- I'm going to try to get a jump on some planning and organizing for the fall. I know Literacy Launchpad will be starting again before I know it, and time is going to slip away from me once my little one arrives.
- I am going to start working on preparing some Literacy Launchpad curriculum to submit for publication. It's a dream, but one that will surely never come true unless I start doing something about it.
- Maintaining my house cleaning. I don't know when I will have to rush off to the hospital, so I'm hoping to keep my house in a somewhat constant state of relative cleanliness.
- Sleep. I'm a nap person, and I've got to enjoy my uninterrupted sleep while I can
- Blog surf. I'm addicted, and again, probably won't have tons of time to feed this addiction once baby arrives.

That seems like an ambitious list for 2 weeks. I'll leave it at that.

Yes. No. Maybe.

Remember me?? I know, it's been forever. The truth is, I was planning on giving this blog up altogether. It didn't seem to be becoming the awesome parent communication tool I was hoping for, so it didn't seem worth the effort I was putting in to it.

BUT I've had a change of heart. So what if it's not what I had hoped it would be?! I've been missing the blogging world! And every time I get a comment on here, or an email from another blogger, I feel sad (and guilty) that I've been away so long. So... I'M BACK! Kind of.

I've been having the urge to get back to blogging. So we'll see how this goes. I don't plan on posting everyday (not that I really ever did post everyday). It will probably be more like once a week, or once every other week. I'm not going to focus as much on lesson summaries like I did in the past. But fear not! I will still be sharing info about class, just not with as much depth as I was previously.

My plan is to just play it by ear, see how it goes. The plan is also to play it by ear and see how I feel. There's another factor that has played into me deserting the blogging world recently; my husband and I are expecting our first baby! I had been feeling pretty yuck for quite a while, so when the choice was between blogging or sleeping, sleeping always won (actually, I usually didn't have much choice in the matter). But I've been feeling much better lately (knock on wood). No more narcolepsy!

So... I'll be seeing you all around the blogosphere!!

Balance

I've been reading some other bloggers' posts about balance in their lives, and I am struggling with finding balance as well. I am seeking the optimal balance between fun and formal instruction in my lessons.

See, the main goal I am striving for with all the classes and lessons I teach is motivation! I want these kids to LOVE reading and to WANT to read. Giving them meaningful and enjoyable experiences with books when they're young will hopefully be the foundation of a lifetime love affair with books and reading.

There are also literacy skills I work on with my kids while we're having fun with our books and stories. And I strive to incorporate the learning and practicing of these skills into our lessons in a fun way. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes it's a challenge.

This is the third year Literacy Launchpad has been in existence, and this balance has been something I have struggled with since the beginning. How much formal instruction do I incorporate into class? Do I sacrifice fun to do that sometimes?
I feel like I'm constantly torn between these two elements, sometimes feeling like I let one or the other monopolize my lesson too much each week.

Anybody have any thoughts to share about this? Parents? Teachers? Anybody?

No Class This Week

Literacy Launchpad meets three weeks each month, and there is no class this week. Awww! I know, I know, the week isn't the same without a good story from Ms. Amy, huh? Hee. Hee.

I went to bring some flyers to one of my schools today, and of course my kids wanted to know if I was coming to get them for class. It's these kinds of moments that tempt my to give my best Sally Fields impression, "You like me! You really like me!" But, I think the reference would go over the heads of three-year-olds, so I tell them instead that we will be having class next week.

This week I'm preparing my lessons for October, which are always some of my favorites! I just LOVE books about autumn. I'm introducing Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert next week, and I'm eager to see how the students react to it. I think they're all going to have a lot of fun with it.

I'm not a fan of cold weather, but I do wish it would cool down just a little for our autumn lessons. Books about pumpkins and leaves should be read on cool, windy days, not on days when it's sunny and a high near ninety degrees!