Friday, August 29, 2008

Go Away Gustav!

You have got to be kidding me!!! David and I are headed off to our long awaited vacation this afternoon and Gustav is brewing in the gulf. We are going to head that direction and see if we can enjoy two good days at the beach since we are faced with the "cone of uncertainty". We have plans to retreat and finish up our vacation somewhere else if necessary. Either way it's vacation but I am just so disappointed. The beach is my favorite. I don't want anyone to be disturbed by a hurricane but especially not me on my vacation! Just pray for safety and safe travels. Hopefully I will have some pictures of something besides stormy weather to post soon!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Beach Bound!

David and I are leaving for a late summer vacation this Friday to the sugar white sands of the Gulf of Mexico! I am in dire need of a vacation and I just can't wait to put my toes in the sand! I have been reminiscing about vacations past so I thought I would post some pictures of our last venture to the beach! I hope you enjoy them! :)



My sweetie!



Twin Goof-balls!



Ahhh...sunset!


I can't wait to see this again!



David took this picture as I was walking along enjoying the beach!



This was the first day of our last vacation!

What's wrong with early childhood?




Okay....

I don't usually use my blog as a place to push my opinions or agendas. It's just meant as a place to update you on anything baby related. Since we are currently in a holding pattern with that I find that I am not blogging. So in the hopes that you actually just like to "hear" what I have to say - I will blog on about other random things that cross my mind.

So, most of you who read my blog are early childhood people like me or you are friends/family who know how passionate I am about great lives for great kids! (All kids are great!) You also probably know that my job takes me into many center based programs, family homes, DOE programs, etc. This is leading somewhere I promise.

On the visits I have gone on lately I keep finding this horrible trend. You see...there is a whole host of "teachers" out there who apparently had dreams of controlling a group of children in the name of education in a formal classroom setting. In the preschool environment it comes across like this... total unrealistic behavior expectations, total directive conversations, no social talking, old-school developmentally inappropriate practices, hateful tone and completely illogical consequences as it relates to discipline.

Early childhood has changed, people! We know better to do to our kids what was done to us. We now really know how children learn best and how to engage them. We know more than ever about their tiny yet very impressionable brains. Therefore, as Becky Bailey would say..."we can no longer teach children for a time when we were born for they were born at a different time."

I know some of you are saying...but I turned out okay! Nonsense! Change is good and necessary. As we learn new and better ways to do things we need to do them. If ditto sheets and rote learning didn't scar you for life, well great...but there is a much better way. This can be likened to surgery. If you had to have your appendix out tomorrow would you like to have the procedure done the way it was 50 years ago? Heck no! See...knowledge is power!

So I am trying to say...If you want to have a classroom of small children to be your audience...if you want to "teach" children how you were taught...if you want a classroom with star charts and behavior systems...if you want an arena to exercise your control... then you should find a job outside of early childhood programs!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Some days I wish I was my dog!

What a hard life my Ginger has - poor thing! NOT!


Nashville Shores

Hello! Long time no post! I'm home today so I am trying to do lots of catching up so I knew that I must post to let everyone know that we are indeed alive! :) These are some pictures from our day at Nashville Shores with our niece, Mackenzie.




Cheese!



Kenzie is rocking some super big glasses! She's a star!



The rarest of photos - me in a bathing suit!



Wow she is growing up so fast! What a beautiful young lady. She is an awesome little girl!