The Garden School Tattler

This young lady helps close the school two days a week. She is really quite harmless; she's my daughter. She is modeling her Abaya that she wore every day the first semester this year in the UAE. Anne returned at Christmas time to finish her junior year at the University of Evansville.

She reports the children were absolutely wonderful today.

Everyone thought we had a really nice day. The weather was "get out and play" weather. But we did our best to keep the kids in class for at least a couple of hours. Our class time was really interesting. Logan was promoted to Miss Kelly's class and did beautifully. Madison will be promoted on Monday to my class. Two of my little ones had been doing a left over math page with 0+1 and 2+1 type problems, when they saw a First Grade sheet that was mixed in with theirs. They asked to do it too. Justin and Taylor would not give up until they had mastered the sheet. The answers were 6,7 or 8 and they invented a scheme where by counting on their fingers, they could figure out the problems. It was fun to help. They were like two little scientists eager with discovery. Later the two boys stayed in to do a 96 piece puzzle of Tutankhamen.

As I watched my class perform today, I thought about some of them. It's remarkable to be a part of each child's development. When you see a child come in from another place with a bunch of nasty titles pinned to his record, you just want to spit. When you watch as the child relaxes, and then begins to grow in a loving and warm environment, and then blossom into someone marvelous and special and talented, you just want to howl how unfair people can be to pass judgment on a four year old.

There are so many reasons why a child deviates from the main road. My grandson, Jack, had a terrible beginning. He couldn't eat; he couldn't even nurse. Everything that went into his mouth hurt him. To this day, his entire menu could be written on the back of a business card in large letters. If he doesn't think it's safe, he would rather be hungry than face that stomach ache again. Picky eaters usually will eat anything sweet, but if you ask Jack if he wants a candy bar, he will probably tell you no. He likes perhaps three kinds of candy, and that's all.

Other children deviate from certain social or intellectual behaviors we would love for them to exhibit. It's always a shocker to parents when a child is odd. But the odd child is really the child who has the greatest potential. Remember that Einstein couldn't open a door when he was six - at least that's a story about him.

We made monasteries today, out of colored paper. They were cute. I'm really proud of my group. They are a spectacular little team.

For lunch we had chicken pot pie. We use a cheese sauce that is loaded with cheddar cheese and sour cream the kids just love. It was full of potatoes, carrots and chicken.

We had cookies on the patio - homemade chocolate chip.

Tomorrow we begin the play. There's a lot of work to do. I am looking for a large sheet of aluminum to make thunder. We will be using a lot of costumes this year.