Catching up

Katrina is 11! Here is our new favorite picture of her! She is often very shy around people she doesn't know, but this is the real Katrina - showing here her delight in life and her love of animals!


OK, so it's no secret that I'm NOT keeping up with the blog! You would think that a half-time job with only 10 students would leave me with time for my favorite hobby - writing! Planning for 10 kids is the same - actually more work - as planning for 25. It's the grading that's much worse with more kids. The issue with my class is that I have SIX grade levels with 10 students - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 8th. I know the one-room school houses did this all the time, but how??? I have a gifted student that I can never challenge enough. I have another student who just arrived from Korea. He knows almost no English and can barely answer basic questions. The students were so sweet on one of his first days. I was tyring to tell him something and he just wasn't understanding. Finally, two of my students disappeared and came back in few minutes. They had opened Google Translate, typed in my sentence, and written the whole translation out in Korean! The smile on Jun's face when he read it was priceless! I have arranged and rearranged my class routine so many times that the parents must think I'm crazy! But I love what I do so very much. And it's neat that I get to work with Katrina. I know there are lots of warnings about teaching your own kids, but for us, it has worked out great and we are closer than ever!







Here's a lenten thought written Monday:



Today Katrina explained that we rode donkeys at Tarmilat at school for her 'weekend report'. When the Moroccan students asked why, I explained that we were reenacting when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. Before I had even finished my sentence, the students burst out laughing. "Ha ha! On a donkey???" They slapped their knees and guffawed. Katrina and Claire sat a little stunned. But as I looked at their laughing faces, their reaction made two things very clear to me: Just exactly how significant Jesus' choice of a disdained animal was - and how, in spite of this humiliating entrance, people were drawn to him and welcomed him as they would a king. Even though many of their praises proved to be hollow, there was a recognition that here was someone amazing. Even on a donkey.