It's begun....

I never went through a phase of using the phone a lot when I was an adolescent, but I know that most girls do, although maybe nowadays they text more than they talk? At some point last year, I can't exactly recall when, Nadia and Rachel started talking to each other fairly regularly via FaceTime in the evening. That has continued, but Nadia has been spending far more time on FaceTime recently because now she's also using it to talk with three friends from church. The three 7th grade girls are all on her Bible Bowl team. They all attend our church and the Christian school at our church. I purchased an app for Nadia that they use to practice quizzing. It was created by the Nazarene denomination, and it covers the books the youth in our denomination are also studying this year (Hebrews, I and II Peter). The girls use the app while on FaceTime to quiz each other on their knowledge of Hebrews. Nadia was blown away the first time she used FaceTime with all three of them at once when all four of them were at home. She didn't know that was possible. Tomorrow night will be her first time

attending the Bible Bowl meeting at church, which is held every Wednesday from 4:30-6:00. She'll be at church from 4:30-8:15 on Wednesday nights through the end of June as the middle schoolers meet from 6:00-8:15. Nadia hasn't asked for her own phone (yet). Paul and I will have to come to a decision at some point about when we will allow our children to have their own phones. For now she's content to use my phone or an iPad to FaceTime her friends or cousin. I almost never use FaceTime myself. I prefer just to talk rather than have a video chat.

These pictures are from yesterday, but we actually got more snow this afternoon and evening. I received texts from the Christian school and the gymnastics center that things were cancelled this afternoon and evening due to the snow, but Ian and Nadia's basketball practices were still held as planned. I was nervous as I'm generally a big chicken when it comes to driving in snow or ice, but we made it there and back safe and sound. I haven't heard from Paul yet, but I'm assuming he made it safely to Baltimore earlier today. We still don't have a shower we can use, but he did fix the leaky pipe under the kitchen sink last night and also helped me make the tracing for the company in Indiana that is making our kitchen table pad.

Over the past 12 months Nadia and Ian have made tremendous strides in their writing skills. Ian draws for fun (all. the. time), but he never writes for fun. Nadia occasionally writes for fun; I think mostly because her cousin Jenna does. Older cousins can be a good role model!  Anyhow it hit me today that it would be nice to sometimes post what they have written. At the minimum their grandparents would probably enjoy reading their writings, and it will make it easier for me to look back down the road at some of their creative writing. Yesterday they were each to write one paragraph from the point of view as if they were the American flag. Over the year they've worked on various dress-ups and sentence openers such as using an adverb clause, prepositional phrase, who or which clause, etc. The new one that they just used for the first time yesterday was to write three very short sentences in a row. The definition of short sentence is one with 2-5 words. At some point I'd like to post some things they wrote in 2019, but here is their first composition for 2020. Lately they've mostly been writing five paragraph essays so it was a change of pace to only write one paragraph.

The American Flag 

by Ian Kennedy

In the morning junior counselors at Camp Good News raise me high in the air while campers sing beautiful songs about God and our country. I stand for liberty. I wave at the White House. I stand for justice. If you come there you  might notice the President, who hopes to be a pillar for our country. I stand for freedom at a school where children pledge their allegiance to me. Proudly, I observe African American and white children playing together at the playground. I stand for America. Astronauts placed me n the moon. Sometimes I see the space station noiselessly floating by. I am the American flag, an important symbol for our country.

Flags are important

by Nadia Kennedy

Proudly I wave at schools. In good weather and in bad, I wave. School children, who watch me as I go up every day, sing beautifully for me because I am the symbol of America. I am on the moon. Neil Armstrong paced me there. I stand there still. I am on Navy ships as they bravely fight for our country. I smell the salty air as I wave. I am at Camp Susque. Raising and lowering me every day is a routine. I am important to our country.