Journaling

Usually about once a week, I give my students some time to write in their journals. I often give them a specific question or topic to write about, but sometimes I just let them write and tell me news about their life, etc. I ask them to write in their journal like a letter to me, and then I respond to them in the same manner.

Here are a couple recent entries of lament.

"Dear Anna,
Hi! Today on my shous has a pope, it so yucky to."
(This was followed up by an illustration of a man looking alarmed with dark substance on his shoes.)

I showed this entry to Michael, who read it to himself and said, "Clearly, he's a protestant."

But that's not my favorite. The following is my favorite.

"Today I am sad, because my "that that" don't "that" me, so I am so sad, but, I "that" she."
(This one was followed up by a sad face crying tears. And it should be noted that the student did use the quotations around each "that" or "that that." Very cute!)

This one confused me. I showed this one to Michael too. (He's usually helpful in appreciating/deciphering students' writing.) He glanced and it and said, "Clearly, he's broken hearted." We discovered that this could have very well been the case. If you change every "that" to "love" and the "that that" to "my beloved", it works. Now, this is a bit sad perhaps, until you take into account that he is ten and that he followed up this paragraph with, "Tomorrow my school will has many people go, so I am happy. I like tomorrow. my mother and fathe will come"

See! He's over "that" already!

I just got a good chuckle out of both of those and that you might too!

In The Meantime...

Here is a kindergarten student checking out some piggies on a recent field trip.

Hey, all! Praise God for a wonderful Christmas season full of activities and, best of all, the celebration of God's gift of Jesus Christ who is Immanuel, God with us! I learned this year that Christmas can very easily become a lonely and sad time... I had always heard that, but it's hard to believe it until you get a taste of it yourself. Thankfully, even without the warmth of friends and family and candle-lit devotions around the Christmas tree, the truth of the matter is still the same, and that truth is still the best part of Christmas. What's that truth? God has kept His promises. He sent us, the world, a Savior. There is hope and life with the baby in the manger! Even though I sympathized with lonely grouchy anti-Christmas Ebenezer Scrooge from time to time this season, I overflow with thanksgiving for God's gift of love, given in His Son at the first Christmas.

I hope to put up a few pictures from Christmas, but my computer is being a little funny. Instead, I'll put up a few pictures from a field trip I took a couple weeks back with the kindergarten students. Thus the title, "in the meantime..."

Here's an ostrich we met on our field trip. There was a huge egg in there with it. It wasn't in a nest or anything. Do ostrich's usually have nests? Or do their eggs just roll around in the dirt?

Getting a little up close and personal with this ostrich... but don't worry. It couldn't bend it's neck down over the fence to actually hurt anyone.

Two students were having a hay day working on fixing my hair... about five others were taking turns taking pictures with my camera.


Here is one of the student's snacks in a school-issued silver bowl. Students use these for lunch, and I believe they're responsible for cleaning them then too. They keep their own bowls and spoons in a their own personal lunch-pack bag. Actually, I've got one too, but it's blue plastic. Is this interesting enough to be blogging about? Hmm.


Here is the class I was assigned to for the day. There were eleven different classes marching around this place we went to. Ha. Good times.