Reading Travel

Mini-Break Check In

May 18, 2023

It was daring to book our little mini-break in May, but I’m so glad we did. Thankfully nothing major got placed on the school schedule for today or tomorrow, and yesterday we got to see C do his “bridging ceremony” just before we left!

“Bridging ceremonies” are done at the school (not sure if all Montessori schools?) when you move up from one classroom category to another. 1st-3rd are all together (so C has had many of the same classmates + the same teacher for the past 3 years) and then 4th-5th are as well. This means we have 2 kids ‘bridging’ this year.

(A’s is next week.)

Crossing the bridge! Yes that is Annabel on the other side! She and her friend got to be volunteers handing out the gifts (dictionaries!) because they had sibs in the ceremony 🙂
happy! Even if it took a battle royale to get him to wear a ‘collar shirt’. I was proud of him for wearing it!

G got to watch, too – we picked her up from her classroom. It was very sweet! And then we headed out to . . . .

pretty view!

VERO BEACH. We were here in fall of 2021, plus Laura and did a working trip here in 2022. It’s about a 2 hour drive but feels different enough from home that it feels like a getaway — super easy. We had dinner at The Kilted Mermaid, where we also went in 2021 (at the time we felt NAKED without our masks on and Josh thinks it may have been our first indoor dining experience in the pandemic . . .).

It was great and I would totally go back there again next year.

We ran this AM (6 mi, mostly together) and are enjoying a very (very) slow start otherwise. Some serious planning is about to commence, so I’ll end this post . . .

PS: Started reading this – I believe it was a suggestion from Rachel in Wales (who has gone smartphone-free!). It is EXCELLENT so far.

Stolen Focus by Johann Hari

I’m already determined to get him on the podcast!

7 Comments

  • Reply Jessica May 18, 2023 at 11:11 am

    That’s a great book cover. Adding to my libby queue! C at the ceremony is so adorable.

  • Reply Brooke May 18, 2023 at 12:24 pm

    I read that book. It gave me food for thought, but it definitely had a bias and was sensationalist in spots.

  • Reply Rachel May 18, 2023 at 2:23 pm

    Oh I’m excited for you to read Stolen Focus! Especially for the section where he talks about Nir Eyal, who I first learned about from your podcast interview on BLP. I enjoyed your interview with him but was less interested in the book than I hoped, and Hari made some good points as to why. Some of the chapters are a bit OTT but he definitely has opinions and I still think about sections of the book now. Enjoy!

    (Also, I do own a smartphone… sort of. It’s sim-less so it doesn’t have internet outside the house and I share it with my husband, but we can use it for photos and offline maps. It also can’t make calls. We call it the “smart camera”. I use the dumbphone for calling and texting and daily use, but I would never be able to drive anywhere new if I didn’t have maps)

  • Reply Adrienne May 18, 2023 at 9:41 pm

    Vero beach is my home town! It’s so beautiful and I love visiting the beaches, though when I was a teen we called it Zero Beach. Way more cool restaurants/brewery, arts, and other cultural stuff has popped up in the last 20 years. Enjoy the trip!

  • Reply Susan May 19, 2023 at 12:57 am

    I initially liked the book, but then read about the author, having plagiarized in the past. I found that concerning. https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2011/sep/14/johann-hari-apologises-orwell-prize

  • Reply Emily May 19, 2023 at 10:58 am

    Also read “Stolen Focus”. My main takeaway was that it is important to control stress first so you have the energy and wherewithal to control the screens in your life. He does have some very strong opinions about kids and screens – but he doesn’t have kids so his conclusions just come across super judgmental on the topic.

    (Love your blog and have learned so much from your content).

  • Reply Elissa May 25, 2023 at 12:51 pm

    I wish we had more Montessori school options where I lived. Seems lovely. Congrats to your kiddos!

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