Time Capsule

As I was cleaning up some files on my computer I came across my journals and thought it might be interesting to post some entries of the children's early educational experiences mixed with their current ones. This first one is from 1998 and Alexandra would have been six years old and Fox had just turned one.

12 September 98

While Alex and Rob are out having their “Daddy-Daughter Day” at the Outdoor Fair in Imlay City, I thought I’d steal a moment for an update. Last month we had a psychologist friend of my mother’s run a few standardized tests on Alex to get some base-line information on her skill levels. She scored in the Very Superior and High Average range on everything. Her lowest scores were in Numerical Operations, Math Reasoning and Spelling but she was still above average for her age. Her best score was in Humanities and Reading Comprehension, both near a 5th grade level. I’m starting to concentrate slightly more on Math without being too pushy. When she’s ready she’ll be a little math wizard, she just needs a project to apply it to, and with us moving to this new property there will be plenty of projects! She has just recently taken initiative to write words on her own and I’m confident spelling will be steadily improving.

She is now on her sixth chapter book! I bought a series through mail-order of the Baby-sitters Club Little Sister books and Alex absolutely adores them. She couldn’t wait for the next shipment. She had finished the last of the first four books and two days later new ones were here! She always reads on our way down to practice, dance or art class.

We went and checked out the Mt. Clemens Railroad Museum and learned more about Thomas Edison. And we’ve started reading biographies about Henry Ford. Next month I’d like to go to the Henry Ford Museum as a field trip. Last week we visited the Robot Zoo at Cranbrook and investigated their new Nature Place. Fox had as much fun as Alex seeing all the animal replicates.

Our study of Mexico has brought on an interest in learning Spanish and we’ve been listening to tapes and playing Spanish ‘Go Fish’ in addition to reading books and viewing videos about Mexico and its celebrations. This year we are going to celebrate the Day of the Dead and make some authentic crafts. We also learned about Spanish artist, Diego Rivera and next weekend when we go to the DIA for the ‘Angels of the Vatican’ exhibit we’re going to see the mural he painted there and some other Mexican artifacts.