We inherited a frog from one of the preschool classrooms and our living classroom keeps growing.

We’ve been catching and feeding our frog live insects, wow, his tongue is sooooooo fast.  Super-cool!

Today was my first day back from vacation and it was just wonderful. What a lovely, lovely day. I enjoyed being with everyone so much. I feel sunned, relaxed and rested. I now know why teacher’s need a bit of extra time off each year - so we can be our best selves for the kids, which often includes taking a break from those same kids for a while.

Today we also had Traveling Grandma come for a visit to talk about her trip to Iran.

(A slide show of photos from Iran.)

It was phenomenal to listen to her tale. The kids had many questions and sometimes I think it was even a bit too much for them to fathom - from the head-coverings, to the screens that the women must stay behind, to the idea of not being able for women to be in the presence of men.

(A storybook in Farsi.)

(A baby blanket from Iran with built in baby toy pulls.)

We loved seeing the souvenirs Diane brought back with her and hearing her stories of passing out the letters and pictures we drew for the kids in Iran. Her reason for going was to reach out to the people of Iran to show them that there are peaceful Americans that want to be friends and come together globally.

(Trying on the head-coverings.)

(Sometimes I forget how lucky we are.)

We love Traveling Grandma and we are proud to announce that she will be teaching our music class next year once a week. She was a music teacher before she retired and she is coming out of retirement especially for us. Thank you so much Diane for my lovely tile, all the goodies you brought us and for spending so much of your time with us - you are much appreciated.

(Finding Iran.)

My dear, there really aren’t words to express what an inspiration you have been to me. You will be forever in my memory as the one who sparked and exploded with the love of learning before my very eyes. We spent so many days together, learning to read and write. Once you had the key, you took off and never looked back. Watching you walk into school with your nose literally stuck in a book just made my heart skip a wonderful beat of love and success. We did it together, you, your family, your classmates and your teachers. Having you here for our first year as Mystery Bay was such a magical experience. We have been a family in this classroom and I can’t imagine ever not having you as one of my kids. I can’t wait to see what you do in the future - as it will no doubt be exceptional.

Have a wonderful time in Alabama with your family. You will be greatly missed. Leave us comments, write us letters and don’t forget to visit (I could even be persuaded to come visit you - fieldtrip!).

All my love,

Michelle & the Mystery Bay Gang

I know, I know, I said I would be in and out of here BUT I had this freshly five-year-old lovely to hang out with and our days were just packed. I’m going to try to get this one, heartache post out that I wanted to leave you with before I left but didn’t quite make it.

See everyone tomorrow. I missed you, really I did.

Today while I was hula hooping in the big yard, Amalie said, “Not only are you my beloved teacher, but you’re my rockin’ teacher too!”

This summer Paul and I decided we both needed a bit of a break, to stay fresh for the kids and to keep our sanity in tact. Sarah so generously has granted these longed for wishes and let us sail away for a week or three while we have our wonderful Renee with us this summer.

Paul has been gone for three weeks and will return next Monday. However, I am then due to take my leave for the following three weeks. And while I am eager to spend some home time with my family, this is something that I haven’t done in over four years and I’m getting a little bit nervous.

I’m not nervous about hanging with my family (although I probably should be.) I’m feeling quaky about leaving my other kids. I have only taken one day off this year and I can barely stand to be away from them (even when I can barely stand them!)

I was laying in bed last night and all I could think about was, what field trips will I miss while I’m gone - will they go somewhere fun without me and is that legal (in a moral sense of the word legal)?

So, I’m kind of joking here but only kind-of. I’m not sure I know how to step away from this world I’ve created with these children that are so much a part of me and my daily life.

Sheesh, I know, it’s only three weeks but what if someone learns how to do a back flip or becomes the next Jeopardy champion or moves to Alabama! while I’m spending some much needed down time.

I’ll be in and out of here, as I know, I know, I have some catching up to do! I can hear you all from your houses stammering under your breath, “Why isn’t Michelle putting photos of my kid on the blog - what does she have better to do?”

This idea started long ago with the idea that Sarah would give our class “manners” lessons - she being British and we, well being US! Then we thought it would be fun to have a formal party and off we went on a journey taking us months to plan. We made a menu and began making the items during our weekly Cooking with Kathleen class and freezing them. The kids did literally EVERYTHING! Well, except for Kathleen who of course always goes above and beyond the call of duty to make everything wonderful and delish (cooking is one of our favorite classroom activities).

We even made all of the salad from what we grew ourselves in our very own organic garden. What a pleasure it was to walk outside and pull up all of our spinach and lettuce for this occasion.

Sophia typed up the menu, Anya added a picture. So many of us made the lovely tissue paper flowers. And we spend the day having manners class, making appetizers, getting the calzones stuffed, and finishing up the toppings for the salad and ice cream sundae’s (we even made the salad dressing and hot fudge). Everything was beautiful.

We decided this should be “formal.” And how we love what formal means to each individual person. Zavier picked a fancy bug out of a book and asked his mom to make him the wings to wear.

Harriette was set on a tuxedo - so sweet!

How precious was the moment that Jacob discovered that he and his dad had on matching outfits.

And Alex came adorned in his magician outfit - tada!

I nearly ate Justin up as he came in the door with his suit and peach colored tie on.

We had appetizers outside to kick off the dinner. Sarah took my camera just after I made my huge splash on the pavement, tossing my glass, saving my slightly smashed camera and falling back onto my very own child - whew, thank goodness the camera still works (Autumn was fine too!)

Then we all went inside to eat. The kids served their parents dinner and dessert.

It was all so lovely.

And me recovering with a skinned elbow and sprained foot - the only major wounds of the night -thanks Sarah!

Hot Fudge Sundae’s!

by candle light.

Then of course, after the tables were cleared, the kids were off to play.

While the boys did the dishes.

Late that night, I found the last of the kids all eating ice from this bucket.

Bedtime anyone?

Thank you everyone for coming to celebrate with us. We had such a wonderful time and made so many memories. And especially, thank you Kathleen, you are our ever wonderful and patient cooking teacher. Our class wouldn’t be the same without you. Because while Paul and I may be delicious, you are simply scrumptious. We send you peace and love right now.

The Mystery Bay Classroom auction project is almost ready for it’s unveiling.

Our project this year is photography.  Each student and teacher (the teacher photos may not make it into the final piece - they are extra in case they are needed to fill in the frame) took a picture of something they either love at school or find esthetically pleasing.  Then I dusted them off a bit in handy dandy Photoshop.  They are going to be matted and framed as one art piece.

Bid away folks!

But first we have a sneak preview of the photos (without the frame of course - and this may or may not be the order they will be in once they are mounted).

Enjoy:

Click below to see them close up with the photographer’s name attached.

The Mystery Bay Classroom Auction Photo Project

…are now on my new external hard drive.  I haven’t been able to download any photos, which makes it awfully hard to post photos. I filled one external hard drive already since I’ve been taking photos everyday of your lovely children for over four years now.

And to think, I always thought I would be a Luddite.

We often play our own versions of soccer, basketball, kick ball, dodge ball in the big yard but we have never really played a ball type game in any organized manner in our class. Eric, Justin’s dad, is a baseball coach and I asked if he would take us to the park to play someday.

Finally we came upon a day that had NO precipitation expected and we made a plan. I heard many of the kids talking about how they weren’t going to play. Someone said, “I don’t play “ball” games.” Some even had their parents talk to me about not wanting to play. I even had one kid who was terrified from the fear of not being able to do it. There were also many kids who had been waiting for this day all spring.

Wow. I remember gym and how scary it could be. I didn’t want this to turn to a group who loved playing baseball and a group that was too afraid of not hitting the ball to not even try. I wasn’t sure how it was all going to go down but we headed to the baseball field none-the-less.

We got there, split into two groups by counting 1,2,1,2 and group 1 took the field while group 2 was up to bat. We decided to just bat through the entire line up and then switch. This was going to be cooperative wiffle ball. There were no outs, everyone got a chance to swing away at the ball until they hit it (often with my help) and there were no winners or losers. I think ultimately this was what the kids were afraid of. Maybe in the future we can introduce more of the field rules but for today this was just what was needed.

There are times as a teacher (and parent) that you just have to give that extra push (even if it’s a hard push). I don’t always make kids do something just because we are all doing it. I really try to respect what the kids feel they can and cannot do. But sometimes something just tells me to push a little harder. One of our students was so afraid but I knew they wanted to try but they were just afraid of failure.   So, I actually held their face in my hands and firmly said, “you are going to do this, you can do this!” And away the ball flew with a little swing help form me. And they did it and ended up loving it, feeling so confident and ready to do it again.

I don’t always know what the right thing to do is and I certainly don’t always make the right decisions or follow through in the perfect way but today seemed to come out the other side with the kids feeling really confident in doing something out of their comfort zone. All the way back they kept asking me, “are we going to play again soon?”

Whew! Who knew wiffle ball could be so liberating, confidence building and another learning experience for us all.

Thanks again Eric!