Today is the last day of the year. I finished homeschooling my daughter in June. I started back to college in September. My oldest daughter started high school, and my youngest daughter started pre-school. Other than that, I cannnot think of any significant event that happended in my life. Nothing tragic which is good. Nothing significantly great either. I did not change anyone's life for the better or worse. I did not write a great american novel, or even very good poems. I just lived. Day to day. Moment to moment. And just did my best taking care of my children. I'm thankful for every minute of the year though. I enjoyed the days with my children. I tried to study hard. And I volunteered all that I could at church and at the schools. As I close out this year, as I have done so many times before, I will rejoice in the memories. Then, I will move on.

 

I hope that everyone had a great Christmas. I enjoyed the days that I spent with family. It is never long enough. I can't wait until I graduate and hope to move back home. Or at least closer. We cut our trip short so I culd be back yesterday. Books went on sale for next quarter, and I needed as many used books as I could get. I had to get one new, but otherwise they were all used. That saved me half the expected amount. With getting three file folders, my total cost was $398.49 including tax.
 

We're heading off to see family and will not be back until Sunday or Monday. Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.
 

I worked at the school every day during the week. I reorganized one classroom's books. I checked three weeks worth of spelling, and made posters for another classroom. And worked in the art room burning my fingers with a hot glue gun.

I also entertained two teenagers here for a study group.

So the question is now if I have the weekend off... the answer is simple... no.

I need to make fifty snowmen pretzels and two dozen suger cookies for Christmas parties. I also have to clean out my file cabinets to make room for next years bills.

I think I'd prefer doing geography to cleaning out the file cabinet... well, maybe.
 

I volunteered in my daughter's third grade classroom this morning. I spent two hours organizing books into bins and labeling them. In that time, the teacher had them read chapter books, write stories, had them eat snack, and taught them the different genres of writing. This is, of course, on top of telling rowdy kids to sit down, and tryto get the class to stop talking repeatedly. If anyone thinks that a teacher's job is easy, I have to say that you are out of your mind. You are clueless. Spend just two hours in a classroom and you will be overwhelmed with the amount of knowledge they try to teach in that amount of time.

After lunch, I went to Engle Tree Farm and helped decorate the GSRP/Head Start Preschool Christmas for the Fruitport Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration the next two days. We hung bagels decoated with bird seed by pipe cleaners. We had alot of fun.

My children have their Christmas program tonight at school. I saw the stage setup when I was signing out at the office. It is going to be a great program. I'm excited to hear them sing. I can't wait.

The rest of my week is pretty busy too. Tomorrow I am in the 3rd grade classroom again. Thursday, I will be in the art room helping the children decorate projects for Christmas presents. Friday, I have to help the 5th grade set up for their Indian thing that they are doing. I'm interested in seeing all the different Indian things that will be on display.

For next week, I was nominated to make cookies for the preschoolers to decorate. I also have to make pretzel snowmen for my 3rd and 5th graders for their Christmas parties.

Busy, busy, busy!
 

I volunteered in my daugher's pre-school class today. I was not needed at the elementary, so I stayed with the preschool class. If ever there was a thought that I would enjoy teaching four-year-olds, that thought will never enter my mind again. They could not find the letter r which was in the word right infront of them. They cannot use scissors without me worrying that someone is going to lose an eye. And of course they cannot sit for longer than three seconds. The difference between preschool and kindergarten is night and day. It's like starting a kid with a matchbox car one year and them knowing how to drive a VW the next. I would have to say that at that age one-on-one attention is critical to development. The hard part is that they each only get a few seconds of one-on-one attention. The group activities were great, but development in social behavior is all I can see that the kids can get from public preschool. I am glad I started homeschooling my daughter last year. The difference between simple skills of the children with involved parents and those without are staggering. Parents step up to the plate and spend time with your children. Teach them to recognize letters, use scissors, and color in the lines. Simple skills that will give them excitement in school instead of discouragement because they don't know how to do it.
 

I took a lazy day today. I did nothing except play games on facebook. I chatted on yahoo with my friend from
England and with my niece.

I had Christmas movies on all day, and steamed rice in the rice cooker to go with dinner. It was an easy day and a nice break from reality. I even was able to sleep in until ten.

None of the children had homework, so i didn't even have to tutor today.

Too bad every day isn't a lazy saturday!
 

I took a lazy day today. I did nothing except play games on facebook. I chatted on yahoo with my friend from
England and with my niece.

I had Christmas movies on all day, and steamed rice in the rice cooker to go with dinner. It was an easy day and a nice break from reality. I even was able to sleep in until ten.

None of the children had homework, so i didn't even have to tutor today.

Too bad every day isn't a lazy saturday!
 

I wrapped up my holiday shopping this morning with finishing all five stockings (4 chilren, 1 husband). The roads are still very icy, but going twenty-five, or thirty-five in spots, is ok.

I got a 100% on my comp exam. Even though I dont' know the exact percent of my math exam (though I think I aced it too) I have a solid A in the class. That leaves me with geography. Even though the blackboard says I have a 95%, my professor says I have only a 93%, so my A is now an A-. So all A's and that one A- are my final grades this quarter. I'm waiting for my final grade in comp to be posted to my grade sheet. then I will know my honor points and GPA.
 

Holy cow what a blizzard! I think this morning was the only time I've seen Muskegon drivers have driven responsiblly. Sad that it takes a blizzard to do that. Every school was cancelled, except Baker College. That left my four children home alone. Being the worry wart that I am, I called when I got to school, after class, three times between classes, after class, and when I left. On top of all the calling, I sent my brother-on-law over here, in a blizzard, just to check on them.

My Comp exam took the entire class. 8:30-10:10. I had to hand write an essay about the documentary WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price. Seven pages later... I was worried about what I had to hand in. Who wants to turn in a rough draft for an exam grade? EEK!

My Algebra exam was easy. Extreamly easy! It took a while to finish, but I was still done so early that I went through the entire exam again just to double check my work. I made sure my answers matched the answer sheet. Then I wished Len Lawrence a Merry Christmas and slowly crept out of the parking lot.

So now Christmas break begins. I plan to spend my time in the kids classrooms helping their teachers. They will like that. I'll try to keep writing througout my break.

Books go on sale December 28. That's when I cringe at how broke I really am.