Sunday: Gearing up for the Week (School Open House!)

First, I'm happy to report that I DID get out for a run on Thursday afternoon, which made both Albus (my faithful dog) and me happy. It was just a 20 minute number, but it was just what we needed and it fit perfectly into the afternoon before I had to pick up the kids and get going with dinner stuff.



I started today with a run. That really is one of my favorite ways to start a day. I should do it more often - Albus thinks so, too. Another short one, at 23 minutes, but it was nice.


This is the last week of vacation - holy moly! And, even though this week marks the end of one chunk of the year and the end of our "lazy days", it is one my son has been looking forward to for a few weeks: his pre-school Open House is on Tuesday! He's anxious to see his teachers again, see familiar faces that will be in his class again and maybe even visit for a few minutes with some of the kiddos who are moving up to the big Kindergarten class.


I'm confident that the year will be another good one for us. Mr. Music (for those of you who are "new" readers, that's what I call my son) attends a Montessori School, so he'll have the same pair of teachers this year as he did last year. His class is a multi-age pre-school group with kids ages 2.75 - 5. It'll be a great mix of kids from last year and younger kids entering school for the first time. The start of the year is always exciting - and I'm happy to see my son's confidence and independence blossom as he builds a solid foundation at pre-school.




His teachers are FANTASTIC and do a great job of introducing the kids to a balance of learning experiences - and quite thoroughly, too. After their tree unit in the spring, Mr. Music could clearly identify which trees are coniferous and which are deciduous - using those terms! (Coniferous Photo Credit. Deciduous Photo Credit.)


I also like how calm and respectful the Montessori environment is. Conflicts are resolved with conversation and kids discussing how they feel about what happened - and after just a few weeks of modeling by the teachers and older students, these little folks really do put the problem-solving and conflict resolution techinques to work on their own. I'm hoping those lessons work their way into solving sibling conflicts at home soon, too! One step at a time, right?!

This week also kicks-off my Half Marathon Training Plan for the Seattle Half Marathon! I've opted to go with the running plan from Marathoning for Mortals. I followed the run-walk full marathon plan from that book in 2003 when I ran the SunTrust Marathon in Virginia and I found it to mesh nicely with my chaotic teaching/graduate student/wife life. I found a few other plans in Runner's World and on-line, but I do find some comfort in sticking with the "known". And so - tomorrow I'll get it going. I'm REALLY doing this! (Photo credit) And, yes, for those of you who are sticklers for details, I KNOW that marathons don't have runers start in starting blocks!! I just though the image was an appropriate one for the start of something BIG in my life -and running-related, if not a perfect match.