Relationship Reflection

Family vacations keep us close and connected

This blog post is to celebrate the relationships that I have with the important people in my life... family and friends.  The most significant people are with me to share milestones, celebrate holidays and to just have fun.  I have a very close family.  We spend a lot of time keeping our relationships close and significant.  We share family meals every Sunday together, celebrate birthdays and holidays together, spend quality time on vacation together, and just in general have fun together. When Kevin and I got married we began inviting our parents over for Wednesday dinners.  This has helped us merge our families into one.  We also spend Sunday mornings at church with Kevin's parents and Sunday evening dinners at my parent's house.  Shared religious beliefs are a way of connecting with others.   One way we are able to stay so close is through communication.  Without our daily texts, emails, phone calls and sometimes unexpected drop in visits our relationships would not be as strong. When I lived in California and England I had to be very specific with communication.  I posted pictures quite frequently on Ofoto for my family and friends to see how the boys were growing and developing.  We skyped frequently so the boys had a chance to talk with their grandparents and relatives.  My parents would visit us and we would come home on holidays to visit with my parents.  My parents pride themselves that they were able to spend almost every birthday with my children even when we lived so far apart.  Our relationships would not have been as close had we not kept in contact  with each other.  




Sharing holiday celebrations with family is important





Enjoying a football game with my siblings...shared fun experiences keep us close and connected





Summer fun with the boys and Kevin...I'm the target of the water fight that is about to commence...fun shared experiences keep us connected





Merging two families into one...shared family meals and consistent times we know we will be together keep us connected. 



My friends are very important to me as well.  We make it a practice to get together once a month to talk about our lives and families with each other.  We share stories about our work, families and lives to keep our relationships strong and connected.  I have friends that I keep in contact with in Florida, California and England by emailing them, calling or texting them and keeping in contact on Facebook.  Social networking has become a way to reconnect with people that I haven't kept in close contact with and am now able to reconnect and establish new connections and relationships with.  Communication is vital to relationships. 

Keeping connected with my friends and knowing I can count on them when I need them the most is valuable to relationships.

Teachers must have a connection with the families they serve.  They must learn about each child and family so they can find the best ways to connect and teach each individual child.  When teachers have fun with the children and families in their class, learn about their customs and cultures and connect with the children on what interests them most, then each child will get more out of their experience in the classroom.  Whether talking about my own family, my friends or the families in my classroom, communication is vital to the success of each relationship.