Wish List

It all started with an email from Amazon indicating that my free year long trial of Amazon Prime shipping is about to come to an end. ::tear:: I have until July 21st to get free next day shipping and after that, I will have to pay the fee to keep the prime shipping account in action. Because I am a student, I was able to have Prime shipping free for a year and now I can pay $39 if I want to keep the account. I guess the regular price is $79, so I am leading towards taking advantage of that deal. With all that I order from amazon, I think I will definitely get my money's worth in what I save on shipping costs.

But, since I am not sure if I will keep my Prime account, I thought I better order some of the books I want for the upcoming school year before my free shipping runs out. Mrs. Bee said I can ship anything I order to her house since I am still in Germany. I was emailing Mrs. Bee, who is my sweet friend and also teaches Kinder at my school, this morning and I got to thinking about all the amazing books I have read about on Books that Heal Kids. If you don't know about this blog, go there...now! (Actually, finish reading my post and then go there!). Roxanne has the greatest inventory of fabulous books that help teach kids valuable lessons and things about life. She summarizes the stories and gives a little blurb about why she loves the books.  In order to come up with the list of what I want to order, I just popped on over to her blog and used her list of topics to search for books that will help me with particular lessons.

I did not do a good job teaching our social skills program last year (because I don't like it) so I want to make this year better--by using stories to teach about these skills and concepts rather than scripted lessons based on photo cards. These stories will help kids to relate better and let's face it, I just love any opportunity to buy more books. I was just in the basement yesterday returning some books to their boxes so they are altogether for our big move in August and I was so happy to see all my books that I will finally have in my classroom again once our shipment arrives (in October?).

So, I searched and found many books that I would love to get and I started by just putting them in my amazon cart. I am not pulling the trigger on buying them quite yet because the cost is close to $200, but at least that gives me a place where I can refer to the titles I want and possibly find more reasonable prices on used books or something like that.

Without further ado, I present to you....my wish list! 

This first set shows books on skin color, culture, and diversity.

This next set is more focused on social skills, school rules, and behavior.

I think I am most excited for Rosemary Wells' new series of Kindergator books! She is devoting a whole series to social skills books and that is awesome!

I love the power of a good story and I hope that I can get my hands on at least some of these gems to use this year. Yes, the library is always an option, but I do much better when I actually own the books, and if they are truly great, then I want to have them for my own collection. We found that we definitely had to break out The Bucket Book on numerous occasions last year so I was glad to be able to just grab my copy and remind the kiddos about filling buckets rather than waiting days to get it from the library in order to remind the kiddos of said bucket filling.

What are some of your favorite books for teaching kids about social skills, behavior, or diversity?

Lovely

What a view!

Our weekend in Austria was am.az.ing. We relaxed, ate wonderfully delicious food thanks to Veronica's culinary skills, swam, hiked, and I actually got a lot of reading done. 

 

This was a text for one of my classes at some point and I re-read almost the entire thing in the past few days. I am still trying to figure out exactly what to write for my next paper, which is called my "specialty" paper. It is basically a lit review on my educational interest, so I have been trying to plan my outline and this book is a great resource in the areas of multicultural education, diversity, equity, cultural differences etc.

I have big plans for lots of reading tomorrow. 

These are a few on my list. 

Hubs and I have plans to do a driving trip to Lake Como, Venice, and Saltzburg in about a week and a half and a trip to Barcelona in August, so I feel like the summer is very quickly slipping away and I am going to be so mad at myself if I don't get this paper done, so it's about time I buckle down and really focus on reading, taking notes, and writing. 

So tomorrow, the day should go something like this...

grocery shop

run

read

Here are some more pics from our lovely hike...

and my favorite...

ABCs Around the World

I said I probably wouldn't post from Austria, but I have something on my mind. After a beautiful and challenging hike up the foothills of the Alps, I sat down with one of my textbooks called Affirming Diversity and did some reading while hubs played in the pool with the boys. I was reading chapters about multicultural education and the importance of acknowledging the big world that exists outside our classroom walls and p.communities. I started thinking about how much I liked introducing different ways to say hello during our morning greeting circle and started brainstorming what else I could do to add in some learning about other places. Since we study one letter each week in Kinder, I decided to choose one country that starts with each letter of the alphabet that we can learn a little about when we focus on that letter. I am picturing putting a pin in a map of the world, learning how people who live there greet each other and adding each greeting to the wall near our circle carpet, and learning something special about that location. This is what I am thinking...

Afghanistan
Brazil
Columbia
Denmark
Ecuador
France
Ghana
Holland
Italy India

Japan
Korea
Laos
Mexico
Norway
Oman
Peru
Qatar
Russia
Spain
Thailand
Uruguay United States

Venezuela
West Indies
Luxembourg (I settled for any country with an x in its name)
Yemen
Zaire

I think in order to make this happen I need to do all of the leg work this summer so the materials and info I need are already prepped. That way I can possibly give the list to parents so if they are familiar with or come from any of these countries, they can share some info with me. I know many families at my school are from Mexico so that will be a fun week. We also do a snack that goes with the letter of the week so it will be fun to think about what people in other countries might eat. I would love to learn a little about China and eat with chopsticks the week we do the /ch/ sound.

I always have lofty goals during the summer, but I am excited to try and make this happen. I love visiting all these new places I have been traveling to and I always think it's important for teachers to bring their own interests and passions into the classroom.

Please excuse the typos if there are any...I am posting from my iPad.

Weekend in Austria

Mr. Sneaker and I are driving to Austria later tonight to visit some friends. We met them in Portland when Juergen was working there for a few years. They are German, but are now living in Austria. Well, technically Veronica is Argentinian, but her family moved to Germany when she was about 9 or 10, so she lived in Germany longer and she is fluent in English, German, and Spanish! They moved from Portland back to Germany a few years ago, then we moved to Germany, then they moved to Austria. Now we are going there to visit. They have two super cute sons, Luca and Hannes and I am excited to see their new(ish) house. They moved awhile back and Mr. Sneaker visited several times during my hiatus in the US, but I haven't been yet. The last time we drove through Austria on our way back from visiting Neuschwanstein, I was blown away by how gorgeous it is and I am really excited to go back! Luckily I did about a zillion loads of laundry yesterday so we can clean clothes to pack up. 

Actually, I think we could go months without doing laundry and still have enough clean clothes. Yesterday I went through Mr. Sneaker's clothes because we just have to get rid of some stuff before we move back and I counted 133 T-shirts. Yes, that's right....one hundred thirty three. And, then this morning I found some more hidden in my wardrobe. Sneaky husband... So last night we did a little sorting and I told hubs it would be ridiculous to keep more than 100 T-shirts, so he and I went through them all and made a large pile to get rid of. The only problem is that there isn't a Good Will or anything here, so I have to figure out what to do with this big box of stuff so that I can get it out of here before hubs has second thoughts! ::hehe:: Hubs is actually very good about getting rid of stuff, but he just accumulates so much working in the world of sports that no matter how much we give away, there is an ever reproducing pile.

I feel like I am rambling. Is this post going anywhere?

This afternoon I am headed to meet my friend Christy for coffee, whom I haven't seen since I left last summer. (was that the correct usage of whom?). I am looking forward to catching up with her and then skyping with my bestie, Cristina, a bit later. Cristina and I are both just a little bit excited that there is a new book in the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series...I thought it was over, but no...there's more!

I want to download it on my iPad, but it's $16.00 and that seems like a lot for a book that I can't sell, loan, or donate to anyone else. Even the hardcover is only $13. I thought that electronic books were supposed to be less expensive...oh well...We'll see if I can wait it out for it to become cheaper. Speaking of books, I read two Emily Giffin books in the last week.

Both were good, but I preferred Love the One You're With. She is the author of Something Borrowed, which is now a movie with Kate Hudson. I also re-read her book Something Blue while I was in London.  I kind of feel like it's a waste of money to buy a book that I will read in about 3 days, but I like to have something good when I travel because there is a lot of waiting around.

Now, I need to delve into some of the readings and books for my next paper! Somehow all this free time has not resulted in me working on that! I need to get it done this summer before I go back to work!

I don't think I will post this weekend, but I will be back with pics on Sunday night!

Wedding Weekend

Whew. After all of the busyness over the weekend and being overtired from all of the wedding festivities, I am very proud of myself for getting up early this morning and getting to work on my mile long to do list ( I actually made one today!). I have already been grocery shopping, unpacked our suitcases and put all the clothes away/in the laundry and am working on load # 3 of laundry. There is still a ton to do and I need a quick turn around because hubs and I decided to head to Austria this weekend to visit some friends. Do we ever stay home? We are pretty much on a mission to do as much as we can before moving back to the states because when else is Austria going to be a 3 hour drive away?? Hopefully the rain holds off because last time Mr. Sneaker went to Austria he did some great hiking and I would love to give that a try. 

Speaking of giving things a try, despite my best efforts to hang with the rest of the bikers in Amsterdam, I have to say that if I never ride a bike again it will be too soon. I feel like I should have worn a sign on my back saying "biker in training" or something because then perhaps the other bikers would have given me a bit more space and proceeded with a bit more caution as they whizzed past me. Some of the streets were so busy with cars, vespas, and other bikers, that I think it is quite a miracle  I managed to not hit anything or anyone or injure myself. Although I really enjoyed spending time in Amsterdam, I don't know that I would ever want to live there. 

The rest of the wedding festivities were super fun and I had several I can't believe this is really my life moments throughout the course of the trip. We never made it to the Anne Frank House, which is a huge bummer, but we did a lot of other really fun things and this trip was more about the wedding than sight seeing. On the 4th we went on a boat cruise around the canal with the majority of the wedding guests. We cruised around for about three hours with the champagne flowing the entire time as well as a full on BBQ from the front of the boat. 

 Mr. Sneaker and I both spilled on our holiday attire. 

I guess we just don't do well with light colors..

The following morning we had breakfast at the hotel and relaxed until checkout. Then we headed for the bus that took us to the wedding venue. The wedding was held about 45 minutes away from where we had stayed and was on a gorgeous grassy golf course. Absolutely beautiful. We had been told that we would be staying in cabins and I was very unsure of what the accommodations would be like, but the grounds were amazing and the cabins were super cute.

We had four beds in our little cabin, but it was only the two of us staying in it.

When we first arrived, we put our stuff in our cabins and then there were some drinks and snacks to enjoy while we waited for the ceremony. At about 3:30, we headed over to the main building and J&M tied the knot. It was a beautiful ceremony, led by the bride's father, and everything was elegant, simple, and fabulous. They chose not to have a wedding party, they wrote their own love letters to each other, and wrote their own vows. 

After the ceremony, we enjoyed cocktails and snacks on the patio, followed by a delish BBQ dinner, several hours of dancing, and some late night marshmallow roasting. 

The groom surprised his lovely bride with an iPad and Mr. Sneaker helped get it all ready by downloading some good apps, downloading some books and getting People magazine all set up for the bride to read on the way to their honeymoon. They took off the day after the wedding and the location of the honeymoon was kept a secret until she opened her iPad and saw the location on the travel book that hubs had downloaded. He even put cute photos of the B&G as the background on the iPad.

It is so fun to tour around and visit new places, but there is nothing like climbing into my own bed when we get home. I slept so well last night and I feel energized for a day of organizing and cleaning!

Preview

We just got back from our trip to Amsterdam and I am too tired and worn out to write a real post, so here is a sneak peak of how I spent my time there...

so. much. fun!