Mel's Box of Chocolates

Hey there—remember me? After stepping away for a while, I’m returning to this little corner of the internet that holds so many meaningful moments from my life. For years, Mel’s Box of Chocolates was a space where I shared the ups and downs of motherhood, everyday adventures, and the sweetness of family life. Then I took a break. A long one. But here I am again...older, hopefully wiser, and ready to write my next chapter.  These days, I’m navigating midlife. Sometimes with tears, sometimes with laughs, and always with a whole lot of learning. Life now is more about managing my wellness, parenting adult children, rekindling the romance with my husband, and rediscovering our love of travel. And I want to share it all with you. This space will still be sweet, likely a little salty, and definitely a bit messy, but as always, 100% me.  Thanks for coming back...or for visiting for the first time. Don't be a stranger! 

"If you are unsure how to complete your homework? Ask Google, a friend, your parents, watch YouTube, or use a calculator and of course you can always come to me for help, too." When I said that to my 4th and 5th grade students as I introduced their first homework of the year, their mouths dropped. "You mean we are allowed to do that?" they asked. I answered with another question, "What do you usually do when you want to learn something new or figure out how to do something?" Many students responded they watched how-to videos or found an article on the internet with directions. Some said they asked their friend for help. Some said they just kept practicing and trying different things until they got it. Exactly! So why is learning in school any different than learning outside of school? When students encounter problems in school with reading, writing, math, etc, I want them to use the same strategies they would use to flip water bottles, play bas...

I am all about discussion in the classroom. I enjoy hearing the students talk back and forth and participate in meaningful conversations. Learning how to effectively communicate is a life skill and I want to help my 3rd graders develop this skill. The other day the students were participating in a number talk, where they share strategies they used to solve a math problem. While we have talk moves that help foster positive interactions, we don't always follow the "raise your hand before you speak" rule, but instead will banter back and forth. I see this as more real life application since we don't go around raising our hand every time we want to talk to somebody in the real world. During this particular number talk, a student shared a strategy that many did not agree with and they were quick to say so. The student shared that they almost felt attacked by all who were quick to comment about what was wrong with his idea.  This led to a teachable moment as we di...

I have a confession to make: As a student I never liked math! Math was never my favorite subject. Give me a good book to read and I was happy. Have me write equations...no thank you. Then I became a teacher. When I began teaching 11 years ago, conceptual math just becoming a hot topic. Which makes me laugh with all the talk about how much people hate Common Core because of the way it teaches math. The math we teach is NOT common core. Common Core is simply a list of standards that my students need to master as I teach math. It is so frustrating when parents and teachers bash this "common core math", but fail to realize it isn't common core, but the revolution of math. However, I digress! Teaching conceptual based math has made me a better mathematician. I now "get it". Dare I even say I LIKE math. I like it because I now UNDERSTAND what I'm doing. I now know WHY! This is a great video that addresses why math is different now. Why is Math Diffe...

The last blog post I wrote was a bulleted list of life happenings and a statement of my intention to get back into a habit of routinely blogging. The one blog post I wrote in 2016 is evidence of my failure in bringing that idea to life. My July 2016 post was actually a great prelude to this post as it shared some great memories that we made from the beginning of 2016. As we wrap up the year, here's what I want to remember about the last 6 months of 2016... Our whole family made it through the year staying relatively healthy, minus Dave spending the last few months wearing a boot due to pain in his foot. It's getting better and hopefully the boot will go away soon.  Dylan became a working man and worked all summer as a pool lifeguard. He ended the summer with money to pay for his insurance for a year, plus some. He worked so hard, never complaining except for the time he worked 10 days straight and asked me to look it up to make sure that was legal, HA! I was so prou...

Since it's been over a year since I last blogged you can imagine that some adventures have been missed. I'm not sure that I'll be able to write posts to fill in all the gaps so going with some bullets because who doesn't love a bulleted list. So here's just some of the memories that were made since last April as in April of 2015... Dylan conquered his first year in high school! Zoe conquered her last year in elementary school! Both kids maintained high honor roll for the whole year. I finished my first year teaching accelerated students in a brand new program. I completed more college classes and earned my certificate so I could teach gifted and talented students. The whole family visited Tulum, Mexico (our first trip to Mexico) in April 2016. Maybe this will make it's own post sometime soon! Dylan swam on the high school swim team and was invited to swim in the team relay at state champs where he realized he was a little fish in a BIG pond, but that sw...

Ask me to describe myself and "driven" is a word I would probably list in my top 5, maybe even top 3. I always have a plan for the what next . In my daily schedule, in my personal life, in my career...I enjoy setting goals, working hard to meet them, and celebrating when I accomplish them. However, my celebration is short lived as I immediately begin contemplating my next move. The other day I was listening to a podcast on the topic of "drive" and the speaker (sorry, I wish I could remember which podcast it was to give them credit) talked about how sometimes driven people are so focused on their next move or meeting their goals that they're pretty much blinded by the future. They are so farsighted , they can't see what's right in front of them. Instead of putting all their effort into the current activity/task/job to the best of their abilities and enjoying the moment, they are just going through the motions and thinking what they should do next to...