I’m having so many feelings today!
It’s the first day of school here in Minnesota and the first day of FIRST GRADE for Piper!!
So many big things ahead of us today, and I’m sure for you as well whether you’re starting school today, or just starting the week fresh after the holiday weekend here in the US.
I’ve got a move-along/back-to-school video for you today from a few years back, down at the bottom of this post. But I also wanted to just take a moment to reflect on this summer because it was pretty outstanding – both professionally & personally!
Personally – from a Mom point-of-view – it’s been a summer for growth for ME! Lol! If you’ve been tuning into the blog this summer, you know it started off with my challenges – Piper and her never-ending bedtime routine and generally speaking finding the balance between being an attentive mother versus letting my daughter find some independence. (And same with our dog!)
I focused on Routines at the beginning of the summer (check out any of the blog posts titled “On Routines:” to catch up on those!), giving you songs and activities you can incorporate into your home and/or classroom. And I tried my best here to come up with new routines for us. Our bedtime routine has been revamped – it’s shorter, with stronger parameters and boundaries and although I thought it would be hard initially, I found that as long as I fully exhibited confidence in Piper and gave her positive encouragement about being able to “rock this” and what a big girl she was – she did indeed rock it!
In fact – exhibiting confidence in her (and myself) and positively encouraging her has been the magic of the summer. I came to witness that I have an adventurous and outgoing child who loves to try new things (like giant water slides and zip lines!) who delights everyone she meets and totally rocks new experiences!
Which is helping me today as I’m about to put her on a bus to school for the first time in our lives. (!!!) But we are about to rock out our morning routine and we will develop the new additions of walking to the bus stop, a new goodbye ritual (how many hugs and kisses and in what order before she gets on the bus) and after a summer of real growth and development – on BOTH of our parts – I have real confidence in her, and am excited about the year ahead.
I was going to write more about the summer, all the places I performed and friends I got to see and meet (Mary! Vanessa! Joseph! Sam! and more!) – but I will save that for posts over on my Instagram and Facebook Pages this week. Also – I have a new video camera on it’s way to me, and am SUPER EXCITED about all the new videos I’ll be creating for you this fall!
In the meantime – here’s an oldie but goodie from 2013 (a postpartum Nina in this one!), This is The Way We Go To School, where we sing and act out well, a morning routine before going to school!
Not only a fun activity, but a great conversation starter about what YOU do to get ready for school in the morning and in what order.
So – Happy September to you! Enjoy the video, your kiddos and I’ll see you in your inbox next Tuesday or over on Facebook and Instagram this week.
