Young Fives vs Kindergarten

Hud's Young Fives teacher (Mrs. Frederick) is asking parents for a note about why they decided Young Fives over Kindergarten.  As some of you know, it was a VERY hard decision for me.  Below is what I wrote.

I was heading into the Kindergarten assessment (kindergarten roundup?) with no thoughts of Young Fives.  I was under the impression that it was for children who turned 5 after September 1st.  We even completely skipped the Young Fives table while we went to all of the stations.  When I got the letter weeks later saying that the school recommended Young Fives for my son, I was completely unprepared!  I was reading the letter out loud to my son and stumbled over myself.  I contacted the school and talked with Mrs. Shelton, the school counselor, about why Young Fives was being recommended for him.  He was on the border line between Young Fives and kindergarten she told me.  His birthday is mid-June, and a lot of boys starting with June birthdays go to Young Fives.  Academically he was ready, but he still liked to move around when he was supposed to be sitting.  I just kept thinking "He's a boy! He's 5!  He's supposed to be moving around!" The final decision was with what my husband and I decided, and we had a week to figure it out.  

During that week, I talked with 14 different people.  These included Mrs. Shelton, Mrs. McAlpine (the school principle), kindergarten teachers, middle school teachers, friends from work, etc.  Not a single one talked bad about having their child in Young Fives.  Not one regretted it.  Some even wished their children would have been young enough to go to Young Fives!  I was told over and over what a great Young Fives program Northwest had.  By this point, we had been telling my son that he was going to kindergarten in the fall.  He was DEVASTATED when we were considering Young Fives.  His buddies from preschool were moving to kindergarten and he couldn't understand why he might not be able to.  It broke my heart. Å friend told me that her school had recommended Young Fives, but she decided not to listen to them.  She ended up deciding to hold her daughter back in first grade because she was struggling a little bit.  A middle school teacher told me that she can usually tell which kids went to kindergarten without that extra year to 'grow up' because they are usually needing more help to understand the academics she is teaching. 

In the end, we decided on Young Fives.  What a fantastic decision that was!  Mrs. Frederick has been WONDERFUL!  My son is usually slow on feeling comfortable, and after the 2nd or 3rd day, he was telling me how much he loved school.  He has learned so much, mostly about letters, numbers, kindergarten curriculum, but also he has become a better listener, a better rule follower, and just a better kid over all.  We have one last son that will go through school in a couple of years (August birthday), and we are telling him Young Fives first, then Kindergarten.

Goodbye Jillian

Dear Jillian,
This is not what I expected, but I've drawn it out long enough.  You win.  I got 26 days of your 30 day shred over the course of 3 months.  I will now let go of the thred and let you fly free.  You were weighing me down, as I would beat myself up for not following up with you every day.  I have too much on my plate right now to have you knocking on my door every night, and I know you know I'm hiding when I don't open it.
BUT don't think you've got the final victory!  I will come back, stronger than ever and crush the 30 days in 30 days!!  Maybe after my marathon.

Ciao,
Not shredded Allison

30 day shred, day 23 & 24

Time: 10:30am

Weight: +3 lbs

Level: 3 & 2

My husband doesn't have any New Years resolutions, so he says.  But yet, he's eating salad like crazy and has starting running again.  Maybe it's something I call a resolution, but something he calls a "stress relief."  It's nice to come home from work and see that motivation.  My husband, in my opinion, doesn't need to lose weight because he is tall and lean, but I think running (as it is for me) is a great stress reliever and just makes you feel good about yourself.

It's hard, when I'm down, to see him motivate.  He makes a list, sticks to it, and I just think about things that I want to do, but can barely get off the couch, or am too busy to do anything.  

I decided yesterday that it was my New Years Day, a time to start over.  I plodded slowly on the treadmill and then, with my husband, did Level 3 of Jillian Michaels (he did not think it was easy, so that made me feel better!).  I was one step farther yesterday than I was the day before.  Today, I didn't run, but I did Jillian's workout (with a lot of dancing with the kids).  This is my personal goal now, as I have no creditability to have any followers (except mom, she'll always be there cheering me on :) because it was by no means 30 days in a row like I had planned!  

6 more days to go and I can stop feeling guilty about dissing Jillian!

Tomorrow I'm up for a 6 mile run (my first long one in my marathon training), but have decided not to do Jillian these long run days.  Too much for me to handle right now.

New Year, new you..... but when?

As you may have noticed in my blog, I tend to get knocked down every few weeks.  And when I do, it takes awhile to get back on track.  I was doing good with exercises at the end of December, but I have fallen off track.  With all of the Christmas eating and New Years partying, I have yet to get back on track.  I've got marathon training that should have started 2 days ago, and I've done nothing.  I've done no exercise in the last week, except for my dumbbell curls putting a Snickers to my mouth.

So...when does the new me come?  Yea, guess that part requires getting my butt off the couch!  Tomorrow is supposed to be almost 50 degrees (did I mention I live in the midwest in JANUARY!?!?).  So I'm hoping to get out for a run.

I've got 8 days left of Jillian Michael's 30 day shred, and I still plan to finish that!  It may take me all year, but I can do it.  What was I thinking trying to do it in 30 days?  Kudos to all of you out there that stick with exercising year round!  I have a hard time sticking to it for a month :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

30 day shred, day 22

Time: 10:30am

Weight: +1.4 lbs

Level: 3

I came home from my 5 mile run, thinking I was just going to get into the shower and start my day of binging on delicious food, but when I walked in the door my son grabbed his 2 lb weights that I had given them for Christmas (we celebrated yesterday) and told me he wanted to do the weight exercises with me.  Doh!  

We turned on Jillian with Level 3, and him and my youngest son both grabbed their weights.  They made it about 80% through!  After that, my middle son decided to do exercises that he learned in school (table tops, he said he counted up to 900, maybe we need to work on counting) and my youngest sat down on the couch and told me I was doing good.

I can feel soreness in my body, but I'm not sure if it's from Level 3 in the past or from the workouts that I've done this week at Optimal Performance Specialists (along with the strength exercises, we took a few minutes to work on my running form.  Boy have I had it wrong!).  Either way, I'm excited because I'm down .3 lbs (from my 1.7 lb increase, so it's still increase, but just not so much).  

I didn't do the work out yesterday because, as I mentioned earlier, we celebrated our family Christmas and I didn't feel like it :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

30 day shred, day 21

Time: 10:30am

Calories burned:  160 (155 was what I burned at Level 2)

Weight: +1.7 lbs

Level: 3

Level 3 certainly kicks my butt.  I can't do all of the advanced moves, but I can do a lot more than I could when I first tried Level 3 (I guess this is only my 3rd time, so I've come along way!).  Before I started the workout, I would have said my abs might have been a little sore, but when I started to do the ab moves, I could definitely tell!  My shoulders are sore too, but I think that was from yesterday's strength training at Optimal Performance Specialists.  We did a lot of jumping, lunges, and squats yesterday.  

I like the moves in Level 3.  They are usually 2 part moves, so the exercises goes pretty quickly.  For example, instead of doing pushups, you do walking pushups.  You move your hands to the side, do a push up, walk your hands to the other side, do another pushup and repeat.  It makes the time go by much faster.  One of the last strength exercises you are in plank position with the weights under your hands.  You lift your leg straight up, lower it, and then you pick up a weight (while still in plank position) for a back exercise (I think it's a form of a 'row').  I feel pretty cool doing it (even though I can't do them all).  I need to remember to start counting the exercises, because I'd really like to see how far I've come.

Even though I'm on the plus side of the weight, I do not plan on doing any running today.  Today is dedicated to getting caught up at work!

30 day shred, day 20

Apparently I skipped out on this yesterday.  I didn't notice until just now.  Have no idea what I did last night after the 5 mile run...  Oh yea.  I had to finish up some work for this morning!  Oops, I remember now.  I didn't plan that day very good.  Should have done it earlier in the day.  Will try harder!

I've got another wrench to throw in the mix.  I've decided to go, twice a week, to Optimal Performance Specialists (they work with Orthopedic Rehab here in town) to get my knee exercises in.  I went there last week for an evaluation on my knee and they figured out exactly what was going on.  Wish I could speak their language, but I translate it to the fact that one muscle is taking over in my leg when it shouldn't.  I got a set of exercises that I need to do twice a week to get my knee to behave correctly (oddly enough it's squats and lunges, the things that I was avoiding!).  I have to pay special attention when I'm doing them so that I'm doing them correctly and allowing the right muscle to do it's work.  In 12 weeks time, I should be as good as new!  Ok, maybe not that good, but not having my knees hurt or feel sore would be a start.  When I was doing the squats correctly, sometimes my knees wouldn't even crack and make crackling sounds! 

Why do I bring that up?  Because, also with the knee exercises, I get strength exercises and tons of cool stuff in these sessions.  I'm pretty certain that all equals to a lot of soreness.  The two days a week that I'll go there, I won't be doing Jillian, because that's way too much.  If Jillian can't make me shredded, maybe training for another marathon (YES, you heard that correctly!  Memorial Day weekend three friends and I will be running a delightful 26.2 miles along Traverse City bay) and getting in some kick butt strength training will do the trick!  

Today, I did Level 3 (9:30pm, way too late), and did part hard exercises, and part easy.  I know that in 10 days, I'll be able to do all of the hard moves and I'm excited.  I'm ready!!