Go Team MAD!

The Baby Alex Foundation was fortunate to have been chosen to be the 2014 recipient of the fundraising efforts of Team Making a Difference (Team MAD). This team of runners races the Hartford Marathon each year and raises money for a worthy non-profit that is doing something to change the lives of individuals in CT. The donation will go directly toward funding our first Alex's Library project at the CT Children's Medical Center NICU in Hartford. If you are a runner, help us raise money by joining Team MAD this year. To join, go to www.goteammad.org. The team provides fun training runs, a t-shirt and pre-race party. We hope to see you there!

The Value Tree on TV

If you live outside the Fairfield County vicinity and have any interest in learning more about my publications, The Value Tree series, tune in on September 2nd at 1:30pm or 10pm to www.soundviewtv.org, and click on the top left icon "on air", to hear my most recent interview with Herbie Bagwell. We take a brief look at the lessons and discuss the importance of teaching values to our children. For those in Fairfield County, the interview will air on local access TV on the 2nd, at 1:30pm and 10pm. Thanks for watching!

The Run Baby Run Baby Ultra

The inaugural Run Baby Run Baby Ultra was awesome! The race took place on August 9th in the beautiful lakes region of New Hampshire. We had 25 enthusiastic runners, including a team of kids, and loads of supporters. A huge thank you goes out to The Poor People's Pub in Sanbornville, NH, where the race started and ended. The Pub provided us with an indoor space for registration, lots of prizes for our raffle, pizza and sodas for our post-race party and a cheering squad. Thank you, thank you, thank you Poor People's Pub! We packed about 50 people into the back party room for an hour of eating, drinking and prize-giving. Our sponsors donated loads of gift certificates for our first place winners and fundraisers. This was our second highest fundraiser of the year, and we hope to grow it next year to be the biggest.

Coconut Oil - Fuel for Thought

Alex had a good summer, a complete 180 from last summer when we were still trying to figure out his nutritional needs. Over the last 12 months, we have figured out his diet (at least we think we have) and have gotten much better at following it. If he gets off the diet, as he often does while traveling, we are usually able to get him back up to his normal energy level after a day or two. One of our miracle foods is coconut oil. For the past year, I have been cooking everything in it: french fries, popcorn, pancakes, everything. I also add it to everything I can think of: pie crust, pizza dough, bread, cookies, muffins, smoothies, etc. It's nutty and sweet and is easy to get used to. There is a new product on the market I haven't yet tried, but which looks very promising. It's called Fuel for Thought. It's a small drink, made of coconut oil and some sweeteners (and probably some other stuff, because try as I might, I can not replicate it at home). My only problem with it is that it is too high in sugar for Alex to safely consume at school, when I am not around to monitor his sugar intake. I have written to the company and am hoping they come out with a version fit for epileptics, and everyone else who suffers a disorder that worsens with an increased sugar intake.

Mommy Summer School

I've had loads of inquiries about summer school this year, so I'm setting out our schedule here. We have had a lot of camp this summer, first with 3 weeks of cerebral palsy camp for Alex and day camp for Izzy and then another week of lacrosse camp for both kids. During camp weeks, I don't worry about teaching anything. I just try to read with them at night. Now that camp is over and we have 4 straight weeks to be together, we have our summer school schedule worked out. This summer our theme is Greek Gods and Mythology. I purchased the student copy of Greek Gods through Calvert Education. Calvert is a private school in Baltimore that has a homeschool division. I find that my kids are ahead of their grade level by at least a year with the Calvert products, but you can give your kids an online test to see where they are. I jumped ahead to the 4th grade supplemental materials and purchased the Greek God curriculum. It's simple, clear and comes with fun pictures to color. During the first part of the summer, I read 2-3 stories aloud each day while the kids colored the gods from the stories. We discussed the stories and reviewed what we had read, talked about where we often see Greek Mythology (Harry Potter), and related some of the stories to our lives. Once we finished the book, we went back to review them and create our own gods. So, our Monday-Thursday goes: I. Greek Gods (our Greek Gods curriculum from Calvert supplemented with free videos, mostly from YouTube, about specific gods - on Mondays they design a poster about a favorite god, on Tuesdays they create a poster of a new god from their imagination, on Wednesday they are doing clay art where they make the gods out of clay and on Thursday, they finish up their projects and practice their presentations which they give on the weekend to their dad), II. Language Arts (various early reader books, rhyming books, poetry, etc--the kids read, write and draw about what they read, write in their journals, write down words they know or don't know, create their own poetry, etc), III. Math (from Singapore math, purchased online, mostly workbooks, or IXL online math with Kahn Academy to supplement) - then we take a big break to run, swim, etc. In the afternoon, we have a babysitter who is also a preschool teacher, who is teaching the last two lessons: IV. Values (straight from The Value Tree Summer School Series Volume I, which means they will cover 10 values this month, draw pictures and keep journals on their efforts to live a value-based life) and V. Art (mostly watercolors this summer). Fridays are called Science Fridays and they are all about math and science. I bought several science kits and we will work our way through these. Plus, we are listening to Brain On!, a free podcast for kids, about topics related to our science kits. I've adopted podcasts this summer and am in love with them! There are so many amazing podcasts out there. If your kids are older, and they love science, Science Fridays is awesome. I love listening to podcasts while running too! Great for entertaining kids in the car too, if you have long holiday drives. I love sharing Mommy School, so if you have questions, shoot me an email rather than a blog comment at: nickyschmidt@gmail.com.

The Value Tree Summer School Series

The Value Tree Summer School Series Volume I, which includes a textbook and journal, are now available on Amazon. Each of the 4-volume set teaches ten values, with easy lesson plans, fun activities and illustrative short stories to accompany each value. This series is appropriate for ages preschool through middle school. This series is designed for summer camp, summer school and homeschool parents--a must for summer education! Volume I is now available. As the other 3 volumes become available, I'll announce them here and on our website: www.currierbooks.com.

A Perfect Tuesday Afternoon

I ran yesterday in a blazing sun for about two hours. My shirt was drenched, in that only in the summer kind of sweaty mess that you just can't replicate in cold weather, no matter how many layers you wear. I had recently spoken to my old manager, and we reminisced about our days in Tunisia, running with the Hash House Harriers over sand dunes, along the Sea with its dozen hues of blue, through gnarly woods and down footpaths I would never have traveled alone. We used to sweat there too. I reminded him of a time he was so drenched in sweat that I commented that if we all got thirsty we could just suck on his shirt. His teenage daughter, running with us, was disgusted. In those days, I ran for the pure feel of movement. I ran as a tourist, with an interest in the people and places you just couldn't reach by car. I ran to engage my colleagues, to stay in shape in case of an emergency (and there were plenty of those), and I ran because I couldn't live if I didn't run. Yesterday, I ran to wipe Saturday clean from my psyche. After about two hours, I felt I could stop. I finished up in time for lunch and to check on Alex who was back to camp, still blistered, but better. He was so hot and tired he could hardly answer my questions, and so I asked that he spend the rest of the day in an air conditioned room where he might focus on fine motor skills. I spent the afternoon working on my next book, an adaptation for our YMCA which is using The Value Tree in their summer camp. I glanced out the open window to see Izzy returning from her afternoon tennis lesson at camp. Her face was scarlet. When I rounded everyone up to go home, I knew there was only one solution to the heat, a swim. As soon as we pulled into our driveway, we changed into bathing suits, and raced out to the beach. The sand was on fire, but the water was icy cold. It was high tide, my favorite tide, because we can wade out for yards on sand without ever going in over our heads. We all went under as fast as we could, our lips stinging in the salt, but smiling. "I love your suit," Izzy commented on a skimpy black bikini I didn't often wear. "You look skinny." "Lookin' hot Mom!" Alex yelled from the waves. Alex, still wearing his sunglasses but no goggles, practiced freestyle for an hour. Izzy, having bounced and splashed until she was dizzy, rolled onto her side on a towel and shut her eyes. I stood apart and watched my children, blissfully content in the summer heat, perfectly happy at being 5 and 6, no older, no younger. There could not have been a more perfect Tuesday afternoon.