Hello, Friends! How are you doing? How was your week? Busy? Laid back? Anything fun and exciting to report? Any fun plans for the upcoming weekend?
I am ready for it to cool off just a little bit here in Florida, just enough so we can start eating dinner outside on the patio! There is something about eating outside that just makes any meal taste better. Do you agree? It is one of my favorite things about fall time in Florida. In fact, I should probably spend a little time cleaning our patio – it could use a good scrub down!
While I get to cleaning the patio, here are a few green things to take you into the weekend:
Hello, Friends! How was your week? I hope it was a nice one. Are you experiencing fall weather or maybe even winter weather where you live? It’s amazing how quickly the weather changes, and all of sudden we are in fall. Even here in Florida, it has been a little cooler than usual. It will only last a couple of days though, so I better enjoy it! As the mister and I were sitting on the patio last night, he pointed at my legs and laughed that I had goosebumps!
The cooler weather has me thinking of Halloween which just makes me more excited. Am I the only one? I have found myself pinning all kinds of Halloween ideas lately! And I have already started to think of costume, food, and decor ideas too. I jokingly asked the mister if it was too early to break out the decorations – he just gave me the look. I guest October 1st is early enough for him. Ha! While I pin a few million more ideas, here are a few green things to take you into the weekend:
Back to school time means so many things for all of us – new school schedules, jugging family/work, after school activities, homework; the list goes on and on! With so many things on our daily agenda, you need a back-to-school lunch menu to get you through the week!
When Eben was younger, we loved the Laptop Lunches bento box, we had an extensive menu that we would pack for him! Now, that Eben is in middle school – it means that lunchtime is actually social time, and lunch is really an after thought – we really had to get creative to ensure he was eating. So instead of packing him a huge lunch in a bento box that he won’t have the time to really sit down and enjoy, we have resorted to sending him with several mini-lunch options that he can nibble on throughout the day.
We participated in Rock the Lunchbox this year and received a bunch of great coupons and healthy lunch ideas, so we decided to take the coupons and start to build a new lunch menu for Eben. We have been packing an assortment of organic meats, cheeses, fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds too – all in the Kids Conserve nesting tins! We also tried out the new ApplegateHalf Time Lunches, these are perfect for those mornings when something pops up and I start to run out of time! We already love Honest Kids pouches and utilize them when we are short on time too!
For fun, I asked Eben to draw me a picture of his dream lunch – and I about died of laughter! I love the blue “natural Jello” – is that an oxymoron or what? And hi drawing a pickle is spot on! Too funny!
Full Disclosure: This post was created in partnership with Stonyfield – however, I would have told you about these products anyway, since we already use them!
Now, that we are half-way through September, are you getting adjusted to your fall schedule? Have the kids fallen into their back to school routine? I always anticipate back to school with mixed emotions – happy that Eben will be learning new things (and he loves school), and sadness because I really enjoy seeing him all day and it reminds me that he is growing up quickly.
The mister and I attended the open house at Eben’s school last week. I find open house to be a little overwhelming – you start in your child’s 1st period class, the teacher has about 10 minutes to tell you everything they feel you need to know, a bell rings, you have a handful of minutes to get to the next period and so on. It’s a whirlwind of information that moves so quickly, if you aren’t proactive in asking your questions – you could easily leave more confused than you began!
What I did learn is it seems in many ways that the 8th grade of today is very similar to my own experience. The teachers have the same teaching style, (some are fun/some more serious) and what might be completely acceptable in one class, another teacher won’t tolerate (chewing gum!) However, there was one very distinct idea that every single one of Eben’s teachers had in common, they do not assign homework.
I have to admit at first, I thought, “really, no homework – is that a good idea?” Then, I started to reflect on the ghosts of homework past in our house. There have been many times when Eben has come home with what I deemed a crazy amount of homework for one night and one class. There have been nights that we literally sat down for several hours simply to complete the homework that was due the next day. And I have seen Eben’s attitude towards a subject change based simply on the amount of homework that was coming home for that class – whether he loved the subject or not. Not to mention, after working all day – spending the little amount of time that I get with Eben at night doing homework seemed like a waste of perfectly good family time.
All of these things were a major concern for me and I am sure many parents can relate. Then, I took those thoughts a little deeper and wondered how parents with multiple children have time to get all of that homework done, not to mention parents who have to work at night or single parent homes. And to be honest, I don’t feel like Eben absorbed more information by doing all of this busy work each night – instead, I feel like we moved through it as quickly as we could so we would still have some family time to enjoy. Are you the same?
So, overall I am happy and excited to have a school year that is virtually free of homework. While I understand that they will still be special projects and book reports due all year long, I don’t feel like we have this “we have to get home right after school to do homework” attitude anymore. Instead, Eben can spend that time volunteering at the library, being a part of a school club, studying and creating art at his studio, or enjoying time with family and friends – which to me just sounds like a much better way to spend those after school hours.
What are your thoughts? Are you for or against homework? Does your child’s school give homework? Sound off in the comments section, I would love to hear your experience.Â
Hello, Friends! How was your week? Are you getting into the back to school routine? Can you believe it is already September? It’s been a good school year here so far, just chugging along. So nice!
Since summer seemed so crazy busy to me, I have a lot of fun plans sprinkled into the Lyon family schedule for fall and winter. And with Thanksgiving and winter break right around the corner, I find myself giddy thinking about it! Are you the same way? Do you find yourself craving more family time, game nights and secret road trips? Me too! Well, I better get back to work – it is Friday after all, which means there are a lot of last minute things to finish up! While I get back to work, here are a few green things to take you into the weekend:
