Sorry about missing Friday – but a truck came by and took my line down, so I was without Internet service until today.

I hope all of you who are reading have power back and are enjoying some kind of normalcy. It’s been a bit wild here. Molly and Rob lost power and came to spend one night. It was wonderful for me, and I enjoyed every minute of it. The boys were absolutely delightful. I’ve never seen better behaved children. Robbie took a nap in my arms. I was enchanted by his dozing off. He snuggled in with me and passed out for about 1.5 hours. I was in heaven. We had chicken pot pie for dinner, and we ate the whole thing! When it was time to go to bed, the three of them climbed the stairs, got into bed together and were asleep in five minutes. They slept until 7:30 the next morning and they got up to a bowl of cereal and some serious playing. We played down at the school in the snow. They each had a tall pair of boots so we were able to trudge along through the ruts on the road and the kids discovered the long ice sickles hanging from everything. It was fun.

We have fared well here. We were iced in for two days and could not get out. We had a power line down in the drive. We had power, however, and felt really lucky. The cat disappeared during the ice storm and didn’t surface until after the snow fell. I would have enjoyed the storm a lot more if the cat had been home. Right now, I’m listening to ice falling from the trees. We lost a good sized tree which landed about three feet from where we were standing. It was a bit daunting, but no real damage done. The 65 foot tree will have to come down. Not sure how I feel about that since I planted it.

Edith took Amy and her family in for several days. Today, Amy has power and I am sure she is pleased to be back to normal, although I think everyone had a good time at Edith’s.

I’ve been making a postage stamp quilt and I was able to work a lot on that this week. I baked a lot and tried to stay warm in my freezing house.

I’ve also worked on the summer program – (yes, ice or snow, it’s that time to start thinking ahead). We will be sending a questionnaire home this week. Please fill it out and return it to a teacher. We need to know how many of our present students will be with us for the summer, how many siblings you want to add, and how you want to pay for it. We need to have a ceiling number to plan field trips and swimming.

Every January the phone begins to ring with people wanting spots at the GS. This year has been no exception. We have enrolled two new children and we expect another new child next week. This all works out in the wash if we enroll one new child a week. But we are nearly at capacity now, so that has to stop someplace along the line. We will be hiring another person to insure a good staff ratio of adults to children.

We hope this week’s challenges were not too hard. We will see you all on Monday.

Is It Time for ‘Huck Finn’ to Go?

A high school English teacher in Ridgefield, Wash., has created a literary firestorm by writing recently that, now that we have an African-American president, it’s time to drop The Adventures of the Huckleberry Finn from the curriculum. In an op-ed piece in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer earlier this month, John Foley said that it was increasingly difficult to downplay or contextualize the novel’s often demeaning racial content. “And,” he added, with what sounds like the voice of experience, “I never want to rationalize Huck Finn to an angry African-American mom again as long as I breathe.”

Subject: Who was Hayim Solomon? I thought this was interesting and fun. Didn’t get it published on Wednesday, however – too much going on.

On the rear of the One Dollar bill, you will see two circles. Together, they comprise the Great Seal of the United States.

The First Continental Congress requested that Benjamin Franklin and a group of men come up with a Seal. It took them four years to accomplish this task and another two years to get it approved..
If you look at the left-hand circle, you will see a Pyramid.
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Notice the face is lighted, and the western side is dark. This country was just beginning. We had not begun to explore the west or decided what we could do for Western Civilization. The Pyramid is uncapped, again signifying that we were not even close to being finished. Inside the capstone you have the all-seeing eye, an ancient symbol for divinity. It was Franklin’s belief that one man couldn’t do it alone, but a group of men, with the help of God, could do anything.
‘IN GOD WE TRUST’ is on this currency.
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The Latin above the pyramid, ANNUIT COEPTIS, means, ‘God has favored our undertaking.’
The Latin below the pyramid, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM, means, ‘a new order has begun.’
At the base of the pyramid is the Roman Numeral for 1776. (MDCCLXXVI)
If you look at the right-hand circle, and check it carefully, you will learn that it is on every National Cemetery in the United States It is also on the Parade of Flags Walkway at the Bushnell, Florida National Cemetery , and is the centerpiece of most hero’s monuments. Slightly modified, it is the seal of the President of the United States , and it is always visible whenever he speaks, yet very few people know what the symbols mean.
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The Bald Eagle was selected as a symbol for victory for two reasons: First, he is not afraid of a storm; he is strong, and he is smart enough to soar above it. Secondly, he wears no material crown. We had just broken from the King of England Also, notice the shield is unsupported. This country can now stand on its own. At the top of that shield you have a white bar signifying congress, a unifying factor. We were coming together as one nation. In the Eagle’s beak you will read, ‘ E PLURIBUS UNUM’ meaning,’one from many.’
Above the Eagle, you have thirteen stars, representing the thirteen original colonies, and any clouds of misunderstanding rolling away.
Again, we were coming together as one.
Notice what the Eagle holds in his talons. He holds an olive branch and arrows. This country wants peace, but we will never be afraid to fight to preserve peace. The Eagle always wants to face the olive branch, but in time of war, his gaze turns toward the arrows.
They say that the number 13 is an unlucky number.
This is almost a worldwide belief. You will usually never see a room numbered 13, or any hotels or motels with a 13th floor. But think about this:

13 original colonies,
13 signers of the Declaration of Independence,
13 stripes on our flag,
13 steps on the Pyramid,
13 letters in, ‘Annuit Coeptis,’
13 letters in ‘E PluribusUnum,’
13 stars above the Eagle,
13 bars on that shield,
13 leaves on the olive branch,
13 fruits,
and if you look closely,
13 arrows.

And finally, if you notice the arrangement of the 13 stars in the right-hand circle you will see that they are arranged as a Star of David. This was ordered by George Washington who, when he asked Hayim Solomon, a wealthy Philadelphia Jew, what he would like as a personal reward for his services to the Continental Army, Solomon said he wanted nothing for himself but that he would like something for his people. The Star of David was the result. Few people know that it was Solomon who saved the Army through his financial contributions but died a pauper.

I always ask people, ‘Why don’t you know this?’ Your children don’t know this, and their history teachers don’t know this. Too many veterans have given up too much to ever let the meaning fade. Many veterans remember coming home to an America that didn’t care. Too many veterans never came home at all.

Share this page with everyone, so they can learn what is on the back of the UNITED STATES ONE DOLLAR BILL, and what it stands for!

Dear Mrs. Brooks,

I wish to clarify that I am not now, nor have I ever been, an exotic dancer.
I work at Home Depot and I told my daughter how hectic it was last week before the blizzard hit.
I told her we sold out every single shovel we had, and then I found one more in the back room,
and that several people were fighting over who would get it.
Her picture doesn’t show me dancing around a pole. It’s supposed to depict me selling the last snow shovel we had at Home Depot.
From now on I will remember to check her homework more thoroughly before she turns it in.

Sincerely,
Jan Richards

I got this from Edith. I laughed when I thought of the idea but not the drawing, because the drawing was done by an adult. Children don’t draw stick figures nor do they make things the same size. Children will not draw hair that way nor will they make every child the same. Do you see the length of the mother’s hair? it would never be that cut and dry – no pun intended.

And last but not least, no child, except my son, Brendan, would have punctuated the drawing that way.

Children’s art is amazing for what it can do, and rarely can adults mimic what a child does. It’s the same way in trying to catch a child’s personality on paper – in a novel, in dialogue. I have a child named Helen Catrina in a recently published novel, and she says very little. Mostly because children converse simply. It was the hardest dialogue I wrote.

In art, children don’t pay attention to a whole lot of detail – like the money in this picture. The dollars would have been much bigger. Also, the body parts would never be the same proportion. Children draw bodies as they see them. The heads are usually much bigger than they need to be, and the bodies are nearly always round. There are arms if the child is a do-er. If the child is a hugger, the arms are proportionately bigger. If the child is a watcher, the body will have very little arm show. Fingers are a later development and usually designate something being done.

Faces are always interesting. A smile on a child’s face dentotes a happy child. Some children don’t put much face on their drawings. They leave the eyes pupil-less. This can be unnerving for an adult who carries the thought one step further than the child.

Clothes are also a last step like hair. Most clothes are drawn on as an afterthought, so you can see the skeleton underneath. It’s hilarious. Then the child tries desperately to cover up the body with the clothes.

Children are their own best interpreters. As we write for kids, as we listen and try to copy what they do, we never get it right. It’s the hardest thing to do well because it’s so simple and there is no guile.

Good morning! It’s another cold one. As I look out at my front street, I see a build up of last night’s flurries and tiny snow balls, and I see a white sheet of semi ice. Not a pretty sight for 5:00 a.m.

We are under a storm warning for tonight and it is being said that we will get 4-8 inches of snow. In the event that there is an event, we will be closed if other schools are closed.

In the interim, we will conduct today with prudence. We will be starting Mary Poppins with the kids and we will probably divide the movie into three parts instead of five. The children have really enjoyed this film adventure. They are loving “seeing what happens next.” I predict that none of the kids have seen Mary Poppins and will just love this kind of movie. It’s a happy movie and filled with those parts the kids will love to laugh at.

Next month, and February calendars will come out this week, we will be trying film again, but we will be weather watching because the nicer days need to be spend outside.

Today we will be having spaghetti and fresh fruit and a new French bread and Parmesan cheese baked bread – there is always something new to try!

We are moving along with our ABCs in the preschool. Miss Kelly is beginning that first run at reading words, and Miss Amy is in hot pursuit of letter sounds and handwriting skills. It’s a busy classroom time.

Have a great day.

Only great minds can read this. This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna
rae d tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too

Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe
out of 100 can.

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to arscheearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a
wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the
rghit pclae.

The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but
the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was
ipmorantt!

Teaching a child to draw is a matter of two things – the child’s willingness to listen and understand. Not all children grasp the concept of drawing. Personality has a great deal to do with the bend and stretch of art. Personalities that are particularly commanding or distracted or even very very reticent will not always take to the instruction of art. The teacher should be someone the child respects.

Sometimes the best way of teaching is to begin by doing – the adult that is. Whenever an adult is employed at something that seems to amuse the adult, children by instinct gravitate toward the busy adult and want to “do it too.” Sitting down with a box of crayons and paper and drawing is the invitation of a lifetime, and kids know it.

But when the child asks to play, the rules must be set. “Yes, you may play with me, and here is your paper and here is one crayon to start.”

“But I want all the crayons.”

“You may have one. You can only use one at a time, so you may have one.”

“But I want two.”

“You may have one.”

If tears pour, it’s time to put the crayons away for another time. If the child accepts the rule of one crayon, the teaching begins. If there is any struggle on the part of the child to dominate the play over the head of the teacher’s rules, that is the signal that the child will not take direction from the adult with the crayons.

“Today we are going to draw a face,” says the adult.

“I don’t want to.”

“Today we are going to draw a face,” repeats the adult. “And you are going to begin with an oval like this.” And the adult draws an oval.

It’s at this point the child must make a decision to learn from the adult or refuse. It is ultimately his choice. The child has several options, and pure personality will dictate success or struggle. Some children will flounce off because they will not give over their own personality to learn. Some children will cry and beg off because they will be afraid they can’t do it. And most children will eagerly wait to see what’s coming next and be excited to do it well.

Children who are eager to learn – which means letting go and taking direction will do a respectable job of accomplishing a drawing of anything if taken one step at a time. Compliant well behaved children are usually remarkable little artists if shown how.

Children who think they know best will botch their exercises until they mature into listeners simply because one must learn to take direction in life. Listening is the whole goal of early childhood – that the child learns to listen and develops an open personality.

Openness is a learned trait and comes from the parent especially the mother. Openness has at its personality root the ability to stop, look, and listen to what is going on in the room. To put away self for the sake of others and to realize that others in the room have a valid point of view that is not only worthy of respect, but worthy of time to listen.

Children mimic adults. It’s painfully apparent when children can’t listen or follow directions that they have learned this from the instructive parent – usually the mother. Turning a child around often means turning the parent around first.

With the teaching of art, the teacher’s point of view is simply one point of view in the room, and the child has another. The gentle meeting of minds is the goal here. “This is how you do this,” and the child mimics the example while developing his or her own design. Drawings don’t have to look a particular way. The experience of the exercise will teach the child how to, and the next step is to interpret what has been lovingly taught and to experiment with it so that the child learns.

It’s the same with painting and clay and colored paper. There are very simple rules that apply to each craft and once the rules are established – “Hold your brush like this. We are not painting a barn.”

“Water, paint, paper.”

“Clay must be warmed by your hands.”

“We cut with our fingers in the larger scissor hole, and our thumb in the smaller hole, and then we make an open shut them motion wrists strait!”

“You must sit with scissors.” The production of art can peacefully and intelligently commence.

Children who listen will go a long way quickly. Then art becomes an enormous exploration, a treasured time when the exploration leaves the materials and crawls up the arm to the brain. It is then, when the rules have been absorbed, that we see what is in the child’s mind’s eye.

Good morning.

We are closed as of 8:00 this morning. Again…when either Warrick or Vanderburgh county are out, delayed, or sent home early, we will follow suit. I’m sorry if this is an inconvenience, but for me it’s a lifesaver because I live on a big hill in Newburgh and that hill empties into the river!

We will be back to school bright and early tomorrow morning.

Have a great snow day, and get those kids outside!

This is a little note Michaela wrote for us at the Garden School. Micheala has been one of “our people” for eight years. She’s now a little helper at the school and I treasure her friendship.

The Garden School By Micheala Jayne Higgins Dec. 15 2008

Hello my name is Micheala Jayne Higgins and I am going to tell you why I like the Garden school. First I like the garden school because it is fun. They serve the best food, and the teachers are awesome.

Well, I think the garden school is fun because the teachers always come up with something to do. They have very creative minds.

Their food is like addictive trust me you would say they same thing if you tried it, and I went there when I was two and three so I’m not just telling you to try it I am just saying it is really tasty.

Now lets gets to the best part – the teachers .The teachers are the best part of all because they are the ones that create all the fun and make the delicious food . And they are just the best.

In conclusion, soow you know these things about the school it is fun, the teachers make the best food, and that the teachers are awesome. So check out the garden school I am pretty sure you will love it.

Today it will be freezing. As of right now, it’s -3. We will stay indoors again today. The kids are bouncing off the walls and are eager to get out and ask if they can play outdoors. We tell them,”As soon as the temperature rises. ” Then I open the door to let them feel how cold it is.

Today is Pokemon day. The kids can bring their cards or games or dolls, and enjoy a day of looking at cards and trading if mom and dad say they can.

We have two new students: Jasmin who started this week, and Justin who starts next Monday.

We have been watching the Wizard of Oz, and the kids are really loving this small increment style movie watching. It’s been a wonderful success. Next week we are going to see the Iron Giant. It’s a great little movie with a message.

One of the new favorite toys is a Rescue Heroes set, but the pieces are ancient and falling apart. If you have any men or cars or Rescue Hero parts and would like to donate them, we would love to have them. We can no longer find parts in the store.

The International Feast on Wednesday was a huge success. Ten parents came and shared a wonderful spread. The kids were delighted, and enjoyed the Asian foods especially and asked if they could have Asian food next week. I agreed to make something Chinese next week.

Today is a pizza day!

The picture is of Molly’s dog and pups. Aren’t they cute?