Now, Here's A Girl Who Is Going Somewhere . . .

Unlike her brother, Charming Child has always struggled a bit in school. Mostly she struggles with Language Arts, which makes me just absolutely crazy because L.A. was always my strength. She tries so hard though, because she is so motivated to do well, remember she is convinced she'll be attending Yale, but still she struggles.

She has, however, taught me a lot since she started Kindergarten (she's now in Fourth Grade) . . . lessons that I can carry with me forever. For example, there are multiple ways to spell the word 'cousin' and it is perfectly fine to use all of the multiple spellings in one essay! She has taught me new words such as 'tooken' and 'brang' and 'teached'! Finally, she has taught me that if you try to spell a word phonetically, and you sound it out V-E-R-Y S-L-O-W-L-Y, you can create many different sounds, thus adding more letters to the word . . . try it with the word 'friend' . . . it turns into 'fuhrenduh'! See, isn't that fun? This last lesson is why I am absolutely flabbergasted that I still see the words 'becase' and 'relly' repeatedly on every single High Frequency Word test!!

In education, baby steps are so wonderful! They just make you want to sing to the world . . . trust me on this! You know when your precious little, oh let's say, Sally, starts Pre-school, you get so excited when she learns to recognize the words 'a' and 'I' . . . then in Kindergarten, you are so thrilled because Sally can write her name and the letters don't resemble swimming sperm as much as they did in Pre-school . . . then in First Grade it is spectacular when Sally can form words into written sentences . . . then in Second Grade it is wonderful when Sally learns to read fluently . . . then in Third Grade it is amazing when, not only can Sally read fluently, she can also comprehend what she is reading, as well as respond in writing about the reading . . . then in Fourth Grade you can just jump for joy and sing to the world when little Sally can write this paragraph (I use the word 'paragraph' loosely) . . .

"We have a new boy in our class. He is a foster child. I feel sorry for him, but he is mean to me. I think he likes me, my teacher thinks so too."

. . . I know, you're asking yourself, "What is so great about that paragraph?" Well, I 'll tell you . . . notice the very last word, the word 'too' . . . IT IS USED PROPERLY, AS IN ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Hang on, I'm jumping and singing!!!)

I found this paragraph in C.C.'s journal, that she left face-up and open in my car, which means it is free to read! I was so impressed, as she has struggled with the concept of 'to, two, and too' as well as 'there, their, and they're' for the past TWO years.

Watch out Yale, she's on her way!

Baby Steps!