The Votes are In!

Apparently, a motion was passed in the lower (penisula, that is) house in Michigan, and it is hereby mandated that I post some new news! The democratic process that makes this country great has superceded my procrastinatory tendancies and as I am a law abiding citizen, I will proceed to do my duty to home and country.

(If you are not a voting citizen of the house and the aforementioned motion makes no sense, please read the comments on my previous blog)

So, one day I was sitting in the hallway giving Thomas a test. He got distracted by my dangly earrings and started to play with them. "Teacher, where did you get these?" "I got them at the Piercing Pagoda, in the mall." I replied. "Oh!" he said, "I thought maybe Walmart!" Their frame of refrence concerning the outside world begins and ends at the Walmart!

We had an Emmaus group and I had a student in my class the entire week before spring break. That was really nice and I got some good ideas.

Spring Break went well and we got to visit a lot of friends and family all across the country.

The first week back went well. Six weeks to go and we have a busy month ahead of us. We had a group from Salon Biblico (Bible Hall) in Colorado came out to visit. It was really nice to meet them; their church has been supporting the mission for years, but we had never met any of them. We have begun the process of building a new building for the shop class building. This included moving a trailer and gutting it; the boys from the group really helped to get that done. Then we had a big bonfire on Friday night to burn all the stuff that came out of the trailer; lots of people from the community came out to watch and we all had fun.

I am going to try and plan a field trip for my class at the end of April or early May . There is a natural history museum in Farmington, with stuffed animals (taxidermy) and a section with live animals too. That should be fun.

I am also going to Albacurque with the 5th and 6th grade class for their trip. Aunt Ruth is going to substitute for me. Pray for her!

Also please pray that we find a 1st grade teacher for next year. I would be the next option (Yikes) and I would perfer not to teach first. But Uncle John thinks that we will get a teacher. We have two new teachers coming and one of them is married with at least one child. It will be nice to have some young kids living on the mission.

Hope that is enough news for now.

Hockey Town!

So the carnival came and went and was a success.
Anne Denny ran the thing, and signed me up for the hockey booth. Very appropriate for a girl from the Detroit area. I got to work on my slapshot all night. It was fun, the only sport I could actually help the kids with, so it worked out very well. It was really neat because I got to meet some of the kids from the neighborhood who don't go to Immanuel Mission School, and some who may be my students next year!

The next day I went with some friends to a place called Canyon de Chelle (pronounced shay) or Rock Canyon. It has cliff dwelling ruins, including one called "White House", and we hiked down 1.5 miles and then back up to see them. I got a lot of amazing pictures that I will try and post, once I figure out how to upload them and all.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Mel

Sometimes you feel like a ......

Nut! I almost always do!

That is not really the topice for today's blog, I just had that in my head.
So, I am down to 7 kids now in my class, and they are for the most part well behaved, for kindergarteners and we are starting to learn how each other work. I think I am beginning to get the hang of some things, but I still worry if I am teaching them what they need to know for first grade and is it sinking in! We are so behind in math, but then sometimes we aren't and I skip lessons 'cause they already know that! So, I can only really say that things are going. We are working on putting letter sounds to letters in a word, and writing a letter when they hear a sound. I have found some things that they like, and found that when I just let them play a little more, things in the lessons often go quicker! Go figure!!

One of my kids who had been a major discipline problem is doing so much better!! Praise the Lord!! He really is a sweet little guy and just gets over excited about thing and wants to hit alot, but he is really doing well now!! I know this is also the Lord granting me patience to get through to him, before I lose my cool!

Pray for me and my kids as we seem to be the sickies in the school. I have been sick at least once a month since September it seems, sometimes twice, and almost always have someone in my class staying inside for recess because they are sick! The germs abound and we have regular group hand sanitizer sessions! But, on the upside, no one got the chicken pox.

Here comes the carnival! Friday is the annual school carnival and I might be doing face painting! How did that happen? I don't know how that will work, but I will let you know

Spring Break is coming up in March and I am heading to Kansas and St. Louis with the Blooms. Hurray!

Hope every one is doing well and enjoyed this little update. See you later!

Here I am, back again with my kids! Sounds like everyone had a great break, and they are getting back into the swing of things. I was a little worried that thy would have forgotten everything! But they seem to remember most things and some are even doing better in some areas!
Our classroom is rearranged and seems to work for the kids, so far at least. We have a group here from Cedarville University, and they are going to do Bible Club for the kids all week. They have been spending lots of time with the kids and are doing a great job. This afternoon they did a puppet show and songs and games.

This weeks memory verse is Romans 3:23, and I had my kids write it out. They did great. Some are still working at where on the page to put the letters and some you can barely read, but you can tell that they get the general idea. I do have one little guy that I can only get to trace things, so please pray that I might be able to figure out away to help him.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and have a Happy New Year.
Mel