Skating & School

Day 6 of our snow and ice adventure began like this. Have you ever seen such a happy backseat? I know you're jealous that I get to see this in my rear-view mirror every afternoon.

J and JK's mom treated us to a special lunch at Red Robin.

Then we headed to the ice skating rink. It was my first time on ice skates since 8th grade and Ava's first time ever. Surprisingly, the skating skills were still with me. Not surprisingly, Ava was brave and balanced on the ice, only falling a few times.

I love the walker things for little ones, really saves the parent's back.

On Thursday a special Valentines Day package arrived in the mail from Mimi. Mommy was thrilled with the adorable red and pink clothes. Ava was thrilled with the marshmallow cupcake on a stick.

Since I've been out of the classroom since May I have realized that I miss teaching. I think more than anything I miss the aha/light bulb moments in my students. I've always worked with Ava, but this semester I've been more intentional with school time with her. She is so eager to learn, and begs for me to bring out her school box whenever we have a spare moment.

This was her lunch that she colored, cut, and glued all by herself. I only cut out the lunch sack. We talked about the different kinds of healthy foods that she packed in the sack, and what letters began each item.

With all of this snow it was only fitting that we build a paper snowman. We sang Frosty the Snowman as she colored, cut, and glued him on this decorated blue paper. I cut the hat and arms.

It's important to get to know your students. She drew a picture of herself (in her favorite color of course) and told me about it, "Ava's laying down in her bed because she is sleepy. And then suddenly I was crying because I was sad. And now I'm happy. That's all I need."

After coloring the bus and school, Ava selected an orange crayon to help the bus find its way to the destination. As you can tell, she found it with no trouble at all.

Working on her alphabet arch

with great success!

Ava gets personalized lessons and I get to soothe my teaching itch, win-win.