Tuesday Time Capsule

As my oldest lies suffereing from chicken pox I am led to post from a journal

that she used to dictate to me when she was six years old.

Saturday, September 19, 1998

I started choir this week. It was really fun, we sang a Hercules song. Yesterday Dad and I started reading a Samantha book, she’s an American Girl Doll. Today we went to the Angels Exhibit. We saw a coffin and each thing in the museum had a symbol of something. One was a wreath it meant victory and when it was on a coffin it meant victory over death. I would want that on mine cause that means you go up to God or Heaven, cause they’re both the same thing. And I have a guardian angel, I think it’s Great Gramma Parton. Everyone does have one. We also went to the Detroit Festival of the Arts across from the museum. I got my face painted, we saw part of a puppet show, and the coolest part was this tent by the Metropolitan Children’s Museum. They had parts from a raccoon, squirrel, opossum, fox and deer that you had to measure, and then you got to stamp footprints of each animal. Also they gave out Safari hats. I made a clay tile with a peacock too.

(almost every time she journaled she would include a poem and some type of prayer.)
Guardian Angels
Guardian Angels mean that they’re guarding us every second
They’re always by you even if they’re not watching.
Guardian Angeles mean a lot to us.
They could be our grandma or something like that,
They’re very important to us.
You never treat your guardian angel bad.
Angels could be in stories, pictures and maybe even in programs,
But they’re always what you believe in them.
Angels are flying around. Guardian angels mostly, with helpers.
They can circle around you all the time,
They hopefully give us hope and a future for the world.
I have to talk to my guardian angel now,
See you later angelater!

PRAY OF THE DAY: God helps us do everything. He made all of us so we could move and when you pray you feels God’s heart in you. In every bow or curtsey you take means love to everyone. And a smile means friendship too.

Alex is very upset because she may loose her role in the spring play that is set for performance next Thursday-Saturday. We're hoping the director will not find the right replacement and still let her keep her role even though she can not make rehearsals this week. Please join us in sending good karma into this situation!

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.