the Garden School Tattler

The kids invented a new game today. They got a hold of two dozen Walmart bags and used them as kites. The light weight bags flew all over the playground, over the fences both ways, into the trees and out and delighted the children for an hour. Now if we had bought an expensive toy that did the same thing, they wouldn't have had nearly as much fun. If you have a sack of sacks, why not bring them along tomorrow. Most of ours have fallen apart, and I know the kids will want to do that again tomorrow.

Alexa re-joined us for the morning. She's such an excellent child. We miss her terribly.

Mrs. St. Louis is doing a section in Scholar's Club about good and evil. It's an interesting subject. There is the good and evil of nature, the choices of good and evil in the human mind, and the perfect good and evil of the supernatural world. The kids seem to like the subject.

It was Morgan's birthday today, and we had an outside party. We had cupcakes Amy brought in which were delicious, and I had a bottle of soda that we broke open and shared. The kids loved it. Parties are such wonderful business. Morgan is such a treasure. She is big now, you know, and she wants to be in Miss Judy's class.

We are doing math sheets now. The children proved without a shadow of a doubt that they can write their numbers. We practiced today, and all of them could do a reasonable job. Then we did a long math sheet. It was a follow the directions work sheet, and most of them did a fair job.

It's so interesting to see the children who really want the perfect papers and those who couldn't care less. I wonder if this will follow them right along through the years. The class is really divided.

We are going to intro the letter e as an "air sound" (vowel) stuck between two "mouth sounds" (consonants) and make words. If they can read the words they make they get a penny for each. Parents are welcome to count the pennies in their boxes.

The project lately is to draw a complete picture. No sloppy stuff. I want to see sky, clouds, sun, grass, mountains, desert, a character "clothed" with arms and legs - no people bugs, no people blobs, no hairless, armless, toe-less creations. It's time to begin to draw for real.

We had tacos for lunch with rice and beans and about a quart of sour cream. This group is sour cream nuts. I once mixed it with peanut butter, and the kids loved that. Goes to show the children have exquisite taste. We had a salad, bananas, grapes and a new orange that is black when you cut it open. I suppose it was "fused" with a plumb. I can't tell you how alarming it was to cut into a lovely orange and find a black center. I almost threw out the first one, but I realized it was not rotten, just odd. So I sampled one - peal and all of course, and it was plumby. The juice is red. Dawson wore it across his face for about an hour, so I know it stays on the skin with great charm.

Tomorrow it's pot roast and mashed potatoes.

All in all a splendid day.