I have several articles on some of the elementary students in our family tribe -- I asked Grandma Donna to tell the progress of the first two -- Caity and Jayce -- as she is the one who supervises them while their Mom is going to school. I am going to try this cut and paste bit and send you what Donna sent me in answer to my request:
Caity is learning to read and enjoying each new word. She spends a lot of time writing them down and showing them to me. She brings home little books, called Open Court Reading, that they get to keep. Each has a little story with pictures, a lot like the Dick and Jane books I read -- but these are little paper ones that the children keep.
e.g. The Spot
Mom has a pot. Mom's pot is hot. Mom has a spot. Dad has his mop. Dad mops the spot. Dad mops and Mom pats the spot.
She seems very excited about Show and Tell each Monday, gets up and tells about something she wants to show. What a good way to get children accustomed to speaking before their peers, without it being scary. (It's something I could have used -- still is scary for me!)
I've noticed her coloring has improved greatly. She was also able to pick out all the words in one of the hidden word games on a restaurant child's menu. She is starting to do more addition and is enjoying the challenge of figuring problems out that we do in the car.
With only six girls in her class and 14 boys, she has few to pick from for friends, however seems to get along with her classmates without any problem. Gets phone calls at home (thankfully from just the girls, yet!)
Jayce goes to Fergus on Mondays and Wednesdays, for some special help, leaves at 11:15 and is back around 3:30. Haley drives him; she graduated from Ashby and we introduced Jayce to her as a friend of Chris's, the first day, as he was rather nervous to go off with her. Now he calls her his "girlfriend"!
She adores Jayce and goes on and on about him when she sees me. She says he talks to her all the way there and back -- I'm sure she doesn't understand it all, but he is getting better with his conversational skills.
Wednesdays he goes to preschool in Ashby from 11:30-3:30. His teacher, Judy, also comes out one other day, every other week, to work with him at home. He really enjoys that and the special attention! Judy is an older woman (looks like she could be Mrs. Claus) and he loves her too; she seems so sweet and good to him. She said he gets right into things with the other kids at school.
The day I picked him up from school, it seemed several people knew him and greeted him by name, including high schoolers and the principal. He has such a winning personality and so enjoys people, interacts most of the time with him starting things with a big "HI!"
Another one of the grandchildren:
Whitney tells me that she is in the 5th grade this year (also that Mark is in the 4th and Kim is in the 9th; we already have heard that Heidi is a freshman at the U of M). She mentioned that in math they are now working on decimals. I always liked teaching that part of math -- much the easiest fractional method!!!!
The class she likes the best right now is social studies. They had to give reports on explorers while in costumes like the one being reported on. (They worked in pairs.) She didn't tell me who she was -- I am waiting to hear!
She also informed me that they were going to the football game in the dome that was played yesterday "Cuz Dan's team won on Friday night"
November 14, 2002
Glencoe-Silver Lake--9
vs.
Becker--7
I am not sure on all the details. It is only through Lori sending the info to her mom that I was able to get the score of the game. I do think I was told their final game will be at the Dome next Saturday, November 23.
Go PANTHERS!
CONGRATULATIONS, DAN -- in reading the statistics, it would seem your specialty is moving the ball by catching passes extremely well!!
The Worth of Education
(or More Money in The Pocket)
There are several of you who could contribute to this portion of The Bulletin -- please let me hear from you.
Lori wrote as follows: I 've been extremely busy at work and studying for an insurance exam (ARe141), which I am scheduled to take December 9th. My plan is to go for my ARe (Associate in Reinsurance) designation and CPCU (Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter) designation. Gotta have big goals -- right? IT KEEPS ME BUSY!