Thankful Thursday

I haven't taken any pictures since Sunday, but I did take two videos yesterday of the kids practicing their verses for AWANA. It's the first (and only) time Nadia and Ian are in the same book in AWANA. It's Nadia's third year in T&T, and her 8th (and last) year in AWANA. It's Ian's first year in T&T. The last two years Nadia only passed the bronze level in her T&T books. I told Nadia and Ian this year they were required to at least complete the silver level each week. If they went for gold, they'd have to memorize about five times more verses each week; thus far neither have selected that option. I might require Ian to rise to that challenge sometime in the next two years because he memorizes verses very quickly. Silver only involves looking up more verses and answering questions about them in the workbook. Next year I will need to come up with a new plan for Nadia as far as Bible memory since she won't be in AWANA. Last night at AWANA they were supposed to bring in something from another country. Nadia wore a t-shirt I got in China that says I climbed the Great Wall. Hence the reason she's wearing a t-shirt that's too big for her in the video. It's my shirt. Right before AWANA Ian switched into a shirt I got in Aruba, and Oliver wore a Chinese shirt that one of my former Graduate students gave me. His was a bit on the small size as it's a child size 4, but we made it work for one night. Ian and Nadia have finished 1/4 of the AWANA book thus far. Oliver is off to a much slower start, but he's making progress. Within two weeks hopefully he'll be able to say the books of the New Testament. He learned them last year, but since we hadn't reviewed them in many months, he had forgotten some of it.




Today I'm giving thanks...

1. For AWANA, the children's program at BSF on Monday nights, and the Middle youth group Nadia sometimes attends on Sunday nights. Our church offers a program for kids on Wednesday nights, but I like AWANA so much that we send them to the Alliance Church for that instead of our church. Actually none of the three things listed are offered at our church. Not to leave our church out, I am grateful to be in the choir (rehearsals are Wednesday nights at the same time as AWANA) and an adult Sunday School class (when I'm not teaching in the children's department).

2. As of today I have completed 35 of the 72 visits to student teachers I will need to make this semester. By next Friday I should have done 40 of 72- more than half! Thus far I *think* I'll only have 5 student teachers in the spring. Given how much extra driving is involved, I am pretty sure if I return to the university next year I'm going to be part-time so that I can avoid having student teachers.

3. Paul was able to take the kids to a "We the People" musical in Wilkes Barre last Thursday and a Young Person's Concert at BU this Tuesday morning. Although the kids sing in a choir at church and take piano lessons from me, I have been trying to beef up their music education this year. I've been having them listen to more classical music (Tuesday they listened to Haydn for an hour for example), Nadia and Ian have been playing the recorder with me on Fridays (we'll skip that tomorrow due to the field trip), and we've been singing more hymns together at home (and reading about the individuals who wrote them). They are also taking a music class at Lycoming College for seven weeks and the eighth week presenting a small concert. They had their first class this week. Oliver is in a general music class (he said playing the drums was his favorite part), and the other two are in a choir. Over the course of the year there are three more goals I have for music - #1 taking them to more classical music concerts, #2 working more on music theory, and #3 teaching Nadia and Ian to apply the skill they use in reading music when playing the piano to reading music while singing, which seems to be a forgotten art now that churches just display words on a screen and hymnals are no longer used in most churches. Next year I'm thinking of having Nadia join the Susquehanna Valley Youth Chorale which meets on Monday nights because she will be too old for the kids' choir at church and too young to be in the adult choir at church. Once she's in high school she could join the adult choir with me.

4. I was able to take the kids to the Warrior Run Heritage Days event on Saturday. It's really nice when a field trip is less than ten minutes from your house! Some years we've skipped it due to rain; I'm also thankful it wasn't a rainy day. Today is a DRENCHING sort of day, but today's outing was for a reading circle plus bowling activity with other homeschoolers at a bowling alley. That event could be held rain or shine!

5. I am feeling less stress than I did at this point last year. I think this is primarily due to the fact that I had more advance notice so everything was planned out before the semester began and that these courses (elementary math methods, student teaching, and assessment) are far more in my comfort zone than the ones I taught last fall (reading methods, fine arts, and math/science in early childhood). It was my first time teaching the fine arts and reading courses. Nothing I'm teaching this semester is a new course for me, although it had been six years since I taught the assessment class. It also helps that Paul has been taking the kids to gymnastics, picking up the books I request online from the library, mowing the lawn, and sometimes cooking one meal a week. Although I have less stress, I still am far busier than I'd like to be, hence I'm praying for God to make it clear whether I should stay home next year or work 50% or 75% (I've pretty much eliminated 100% as an option to consider). I'd like to have fewer headaches for one thing, but the upside to this challenging schedule is that we will be able to pay off the retirement loan and truly be debt free for the first time in our 17 years of marriage (as I took out a mortgage 8 months before we got married and Paul came into our marriage with school loans).

6. Although the game wasn't aired in our area, the Steelers had a solid win on Sunday. Paul's game was aired on Sunday, but his game didn't have a happy ending. He'll be up tonight cheering for his team. I'll be asleep, as I am totally exhausted.

7. Our department chair observed me teaching at 8:00 this morning. It went well. I was observed regularly from 2003-2007, but then from 2008-2012 I wasn't observed at all because I was tenured. Tenured faculty are only observed every five years whereas adjunct faculty are observed every single semester.

8. OLIVER IS READING!!!! He has really taken off. I need to take another video because he's made so much progress. This is a huge relief. It won't be too long before he'll move to Level Two of reading and start Level One of spelling. Yahoo!