Semester 2, Week 9

What I’m Reading: Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian
This is another one of those books that’s been crossing my radar for awhile that I’m finally getting around to reading.  I must confess that the main reason why I finally gave into buying this book was the fact that I didn’t enjoy reading Pinocchio with my son.  Even thought I’ve kept it on my daughter’s free read list for next year (my son loved the book), I have been dreading listening to it again. Guroian’s book didn’t convince of the merits for me, but this book and heeding the advice of a few others who’ve said the repetitive nature of the book doesn’t even phase kids but helps solidify the heart of the story.

Tending the Heart of Virtue is definitely a must read for parents who don’t see the value in reading old stories.  I wish I had read this before we started my son in Ambleside Online Year 1 because I removed several of the readings of fairytales because I DID NOT understand them and wanted to avoid the topic of witches since this was a sensitive matter in part of our family. I don’t think if I had read this book before we started AO that it would have changed my mind about reading the specific fairytales, but it would have sparked my interest in doing more research (and fact checking…to say I can be a bit cynical is an understatement).  

I have a completely different view of fairtytales now.  I grew up loving them and remember checking out a particular book from the school library in second grade.  I checked out the anthology so many times because I loved the rhymes and Rumplestiltskin. I liked fairytales until I saw the glorifying of Disney princesses. At that point I had little interest in fairytales (my college class didn’t even redeem them). While I don’t think I’m a fairytale expert or feel like I want to analyze them (with the knowledge I’m acquiring from my class), I am enjoying them more than before.  

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  I’m finally seeing the regularity of a hummingbird.  It’s taken far longer than usual to see activity, but I’m glad to see it.  I was concerned we wouldn’t get any since we cut down our {lone} mimosa tree.

Co-op

Wrapping up co-op was fun! We celebrated with a Mexican dinner for all. Then the kids shopped in the maker’s market.  My kids sold potholders and Mother’s Day cards.  (My daughter quickly spent every penny she earned.) Then the kids moved over to the talent show. Both kids played piano well. (I should also say that my daughter is completely obsessed with playing “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.” She plays it multiple times each day and in every voice on the keyboard and records it and plays the recording as she walks away to do other things. As her piano teacher, I am very proud.  As her mother, I wish her piano teacher would teach her something new!)  They were also asked questions about the art they had on display.  My daughter showed great confidence in handling the mic and explaining the entire process of her watercolor painting.

Fourth Grade Highlight

My son has finally completed the Usborne Engineering Scribble book.  He’s been working through two of the Usborne Engineering books for several years now, so he was expecting the next one.  I’m not buying anymore of the series especially since he does engineering projects with his grandpa. I don’t know if he’s actually learned anything, but I know it was something that he looked forward to on the days we had it in school.

We also did a lazy mom substitution for our nature walk this week.  We watched a documentary about Hawaii’s volcanoes.  And I fully enjoyed my lazy mom substitution.  I’m getting over a respiratory virus, the rain has been unpredictable, and we’re just trying to make it through the last few weeks of academics.  The documentary was so good that we rewatched it with my husband in the same night. 

Kindergarten Highlight

I’m basically done with kindergarten.  We have a few books to wrap up and are maintaining a form of school routine, but I’m not doing all the things anymore.  I’m letting my daughter choose whether she does math or phonics, she does three little worksheets to keep her amused, she plays piano, and we read.  And I’m trying to get us outside during any good weather we may have.  I do really enjoy seeing her interest in specific parts of school light up.  I know it’s her next step of maturity and that she will be really ready for first grade when we start up the next school year.

Mom Highlight

I am in closer to the end of planning for next school year and feeling far more confident in myself in removing certain books and then adding in a few challenges.  And I’m feeling great in being able to set up all the notebooks before school is out in a couple weeks setting me up for a summer free of planning anything for next school year.

I did have a lapse in motivation.  I began to countdown all we had left and planning out each day so that we could cram it all in and finish sooner.  And then I slept on it.  We aren’t doing that.  We’ve set this course and we are sticking to it.  It’s a good course and it is filling our days with goodness.  We are completely flexible to enjoy other things if they arise.

Semester 2, Week 8

What I’m Reading: Lavender Blue Murder (A Teashop Mystery #21), A Dark and Stormy Tea (A Teashop Mystery #24), and Lemon Curd Killer (A Teashop Mystery #25) by Laura Childs
I started reading the teashop mystery series quite a long time ago.  I would read one or two new ones a year.  By the time I reached the 18^th book, I was frustrated by the formula and the trajectory of the main character.  I wondered if Laura Childs had started using a ghost write because the characters and situations seemed a little ridiculous.  I gave the series a break thinking I would probably never read them again.  Then a year or so ago I wanted a Christmas mystery to read.  I turned back to the tea shop mysteries.  This year I’m finally back in the mood for cozy mysteries.  All of these books increase my tea drinking cravings helping me clean out my never-ending stash.  They’re also good and predictable reads for the end of the day.  Just enough fun mixed into a formula so that I don’t have to do much thinking to enjoy the book.  If you’re looking for a clean, cozy mystery series, this is the one for you.

Co-op
We had two park days for co-op during this school week.  The first park day was one rescheduled for later in the week due to inclement weather.  It was a busy day for us between going to the park, ballet class, and a family dinner.  It was hot, but there was a little bit of shade.  I felt like a great mom because all the kids enjoyed the carrots I brought.  We only had four families come, but I think it was a great amount so that we could really get to know one another.

Our second park day was our end of the year “party.”  It’s basically another park day that includes ice cream.  It was a great turn out.  We were missing a few of our families, but we had a well-attended event.  It’s great that the last two park days have been close to our house.  We also are really enjoying the spring weather.

Fourth Grade Highlight

We are on the final lesson in the grammar book.  I don’t think we will complete the very last assignment.  We are analyzing two sentences a week, and we’ll get through what we can.  We are spending our other grammar day completing a Mad Lib.  Both the kids think the stories are hilarious. 

We started listening to Little Britches by Ralph Moody.  We aren’t very far in, but we’re enjoying it so much.  This book will carry over into our summer reading.

Kindergarten Highlight

We finally finished reading through the Beatrix Potter books! I’m still keeping our nice collection on the top shelf of the kids books, but I look forward to the day I can pass the box along to my daughter’s care in her room.  What a good series of books.

Mom Highlight

I’m busy planning next school year, but I’m in the encouragement phase.  I’ve chosen our books, divided our weekly readings, and now I’m laying out our daily plans.  I’ve been listening to a few podcasts and reading books/articles to remind me of my priorities.  I’m {currently} feeling confident in taking off some of the books and tasks.

Semester 2, Week 6

What I’m Reading: Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson
What a delightful read.  I saw this book mentioned in a book subscription and put it on my TBR.  I ended up getting a copy while I was ordering school books. I found out that D.E. Stevenson is related to Robert Louis Stevenson of Treasure Island.  What a neat connection!

Frances goes to Cairn for her first real holiday.  Her choice isn’t to do anything in particular but because she once saw a picture of Cairn and thought it would be a nice place to visit.  That’s my kind of travel! She goes there at the same time that troops are coming in (WWII) and befriends several of the wives.  She also befriends some locals, but there isn’t very much a focus on them as a particular young gentlemen who is stationed in Cairn.  It’s definitely a love story, but I found that there was so much more depth as she described the places and people.

I was pleasantly surprised at the richness and recommend this book wholeheartedly.  (I read a couple of the Miss Buncle books about a decade ago when one of them was free on kindle.  I enjoyed it very much but have never read anything else by Stevenson thinking they may all be too light.)

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Baby blue birds and irises.  The baby blue birds have hatched in the bird house.  I saw mama bird bringing a worm while papa bird looked on from the fence.  My irises are blooming too.  I thinned them out in the fall, so it’s so nice to see them growing all nice and straight and sans aphids. 

Fourth Grade Highlight

Right now my son is reading about Paul Revere in his independent history reading.  I like hearing him make some connections to other people we’ve discussed. 

I’ve noticed in the past with other assignments that my son’s reading comprehension isn’t always spot on.  I’m not sure if it’s a maturity thing or something we need to focus on a bit.  Narration is helpful for me to hear what he knows, and I try not to ask too many leading questions.  This summer we’re participating in the library reading challenge but I’m also setting up a reward system of my own for the kids.  I’m hoping this will help me better guage where my son is with his independent reading comprehension.

Kindergarten Highlight

I’m having so much fun listening to my daughter learn how to read.  She really likes Bob books and is not going to be left behind in our reading challenge this summer.  We finished one of her nature books this week, so she asked when she can start picking her chapter books like her brother does.  I told her she’ll get to do that more as she learns how to read, but it’s also coming up in the next school year and I bought a few for to choose from this summer.

Mom Highlight
We (mostly I) needed a school reset this week.  We are half way through our semester (not counting exams), but it’s feeling like February.  And technically, we should have been where we currently are by the end of February. We have had quite the school year.  I drastically reduced our school load, but it seems like we haven’t made any headway.  I’m sure by the time I do our evaluation, I’ll feel differently, but I’m in a will we make it through the hump funk.  We have also received some discouraging news about a close family member who has a cancer battle in the upcoming months.  It’s been a lot. 

Thus, a reset in the form of a nature walk.  I realized while we were at our favorite nature preserve that’s been a year since we’ve been.  I can’t believe it.  We enjoyed a slow walk, stopping at every bench to eat snacks.  We saw so many things that we’ve been studying in recent years.  We saw mushrooms, wildflowers, spring blooms, working ants, butterflies, a caterpillar, nesting birds, chirping birds, bees, deer, nuts.  We also brought along a picnic.  The kids always love running around afterward looking for pecans and walnuts.  You know what we didn’t see? Squirrels and chipmunks.  That’s a first.

I felt far better after our morning out.  We still took it easy with school work since I had to be away for a day and we needed a work day to go through all the kids’ clothes.  I’m not sure how my attitude is doing going into the second half. I’m still feeling a little discouraged that we aren’t farther along, but I also don’t feel like we have so much that we can’t make it through.  I’ve been trying to look on the bright side that school going into June at least gives us some routine. I would love to just be done, but I also really think our curriculum is worthy of our time.  I wouldn’t be soul satisfied if we were to leave things undone.  It’s too good to neglect.

A day has passed since I wrote that.  I received a message from a(nother) friend who is researching Charlotte Mason.  I kept my affirmation brief in reply, but it’s so hard because that’s how much I love CM.  I could talk about all the things we do and the philosophy and the soul feeding we’re doing every day.  My little explosion of how lifegiving our schooling is was enough to encourage me for these upcoming weeks.  Yes, it’s not been a breezy season of school, but school isn’t a burden. If we were to set it aside right now, it would be a break but we would just be seeking these same things to fill our days.  When we miss tea and poetry or art or nature walks or our variety of books and subjects, the kids are sure to be asking when we’re going to do it again.

Semester 1, Week 5

What I’m Reading: An Experiment in Criticism by C.S. Lewis
I don’t know what prompted me to finally read this.  I’m so glad I did.  I thought it would be a very difficult read.  While there were parts I didn’t understand, I got the gist of what he was saying.  I think it also helped inform my view of grace on other’s reading (and entertainment/educational) lives.

What I’m {nature} Journaling: Spring is quieter than usual in the backyard this year.  I am not planting my usual wildflower garden or attempting vegetables.  The puppies are too busy exploring every nook and cranny and below every nook and cranny.  We cut down our only tree in the fall.  Our backyard is a bleak mire of mud and weeds.  Sad, rather.  BUT in the midst of the bleakness, there are small reminders of life.  Many of our native weeds are flowering.  I have spotted grape hyacinth, orange fameflower, baby blue eyes, and sweet William.  I also saw the first hummingbird of the season the first week in April (later than previous years). That is still the only day I have seen a hummingbird at the feeder.  I assume I won’t see as many due to the loss of our mimosa tree and complete lack of flowers.  

We also watched the eclipse.  It wasn’t quite as amazing at 2017 since we weren’t in totality.  However, it was still really cool to watch it get twilight over the hour.

Co-op

We had class day four.  I pulled double duty assisting in my son’s first class and then teaching his second class.  It’s a watercolor class, so it was pretty easy finding a project for us to follow.  The kids painted a coneflower.  I loved all their interpretations and color choices.

Fourth Grade Highlight

The major highlight of the week was finishing The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis.  This was the reigning favorite of mine when I last read the series.  I still really liked it, but currently The Silver Chair is my new favorite.  My son also really liked this book.  He says it’s one of his favorites right now, but I don’t know if I unduly influenced him or not.

Kindergarten Highlight

All is going well in the kinder land.  Spring is a pleasant time to be outside picking all the weed flowers!

Mom Highlight We’ve had kinda a crazy week.  I’ve had more requested of my time and attention than usual, but I know it’s a very temporary season.  And today I finally have a little respite.  When I have these times, I do my best to maintain a routine and set aside time for reading or knitting as a bit of rest. The downside of these times is that I usually start reading too many books at once because I have a shorter attention span.

Semester 2, Week 4

What I’m Reading: Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad and The Wanderings of Odysseus: The story of the Odyssey by Rosemary Sutcliff

My husband’s favorite books are Rosemary Sutcliff’s Eagle of the Ninth series.  I will eventually get around to reading them, but I thought I’d start with some familiar stories first.  I read The Iliad and The Odyssey in high school and college.  My son is reading the Mary Pope Osborne Odyssey aloud to me while my daughter is in her ballet class.  I’m enjoying these summary versions of the stories as they are reminding me of the full story.  It is also interesting to see which aspects the authors choose to tell.  Rosemary Sutcliff versions are story driven rather with little to no dialogue.  I don’t think I would have noticed that these books are missing dialogue if it hadn’t been for the Mary Pope Osborne version.  If you want a summary of the full stories, I think these are good books.  However, I do look forward to reading the full poetic version again in the future.

What I’m {commonplacing}:

Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.
And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.

Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1, Duke Senior   

Co-op

We have a couple weeks off from co-op, but I did have a board meeting.  It’s fun getting involved with leadership since I really enjoy our group and want my kids to really feel like they’re part of a good community. I will be helping with membership/registration.  It fits well into my past life experience.

Fourth Grade Highlight

We are in full preparation mode for co-op family night.  Piano song(s) have been chosen and crafts are being designed.  We also had some great moon viewing in the morning hours this week. 

We did end up having one day with a longer than usual math lesson reviewing all the problems my son got wrong in his lessons this week.  Most of his misunderstanding came from not reading the problem well and not giving his full focus.  Some of the concepts are tricky too and I can see that he’s relied heavily on his memory or a formula rather than learning the concepts for himself.

I’ve increased the copywork time from 10 to 15 minutes.  I did the same with his grammar only because I handed him the worksheet to do on his own.  He seems to be doing fairly well labeling all the parts.  We also fit in a couple games of geography BINGO. 

Kindergarten Highlight

My daughter completed her very first potholder this week.  It was fun to see her thought process as she began her second.  She has about a 15-20 minute attention span for working on her potholder.  Even though I only have it on the school schedule for every other week, I may start pulling out the handicrafts for other times to give her more opportunities to work on her potholders for the family night sale.

My daughter also had her first lesson with coins.  She loved it.  I don’t know how much she’ll remember, but it sure was fun!

Travel

We ended up taking the puppies with us on our family road trip.  We found a family friendly Vrbo and brought them along.  It worked out so well.  One of the pups is more nervous than the other, but she did well in the end.  It was such a delightful experience for us to snuggle with them during the drive and all the downtime we had during our visit.

Semester 2, Week 3

What I’m Reading: Murder at Vicarage and The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
A few years ago I completed my quest to read all of Agatha Christie’s books.  Now I’m making my way through the Marple mysteries in order.  I was so scattered in my read through of all the other novels that this is giving such good continuity.  I’m able to focus on one mystery solver, get to know a smaller area of the world, and see different characters pop up again. Despite previously reading these books, I didn’t remember the specific murderers as I read.  I did vaguely remember that background characters played more of a role than I expected on the first reading.  I know a lot of people recommend the Poirot books when they’re recommending first reads of Agatha Christie, but I feel like the Marple books capture a lot of Christie’s talent.  (The Tommy and Tuppence books are my very favorites.)  The books develop everyday characters and places well.

Co-op
We had our third day of class.  I really enjoy helping in my son’s storytelling class.  During this class the kids were broken into two groups.  Individually they were given specific topics/things to draw on a little paper.  The group got together to put these into the “pool” to create a beginning, middle, and end.  (This is all from Show Me a Story by Emily Neuburger.)  It was fun mixing up all the elements that the boys and girls created.

Fourth Grade Highlight
We’ve already hit a groove in this semester that I feel like there’s nothing fun to talk about.  My son did finish reading Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare and then we watched the movie.  I also ended up buying my son his own copy of As You Like It to make it easier for him to follow along reading aloud. Oh, and he had engineering with grandpa.  They made a fan of some kind…

Kindergarten Highlight
My daughter is doing well with phonics.  While she doesn’t feel confident in what she’s doing (since it’s a challenge), I think she’s doing really well.  She’s getting quite a variety of the short vowel sounds in her sentences.  She still looks to me a lot for reassurance, but I’m encouraging independence where I can. She is also obsessed with watching Super Why DVDs from the library.

Semester 1, Week 15 a.k.a. the week that took several weeks a.k.a. the time we got two puppies

What I’m Reading: Tex by S.E. Hinton
I was first introduced to S.E. Hinton in eighth grade.  We read The Outsiders and then watched the movie.  The entire experience was great.  I don’t know what took me so long to read more of her books.  The beginning of Tex is even better than The Outsiders and I wondered why this wasn’t the book chosen for us to read.  I got the answer father along in the book.  Tex has a few more scenes that are so relatable that I feel like they might be more influential in real life.  I felt more removed when I read The Outsiders.  Maybe Tex was more realistic since I’m older now.  I guess I’ll just have to go back and reread The Outsiders.  Anyway, I highly recommend Tex. 

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  I made a few notes about our new puppies in my nature journal.  It reminded me of keeping a baby book.

Co-op
Co-op is back in full force.  We started off the semester with our first class day.  My daughter enjoys being with the kids.  My son missed the first day since he was traveling with his dad.  I look forward to hearing his reaction once he’s back in his classes.  I’m helping in his storytelling class and liked to hear the kids retelling about one of their favorite moments.

I went to the mom’s morning out.  It was at a local coffee shop that I’ve been wanting to check out but have never gotten around to.  I had a delicious everything bagel with cream cheese and a honey vanilla cinnamon latte.  If you haven’t had either, go now and get one if not both of these things.

Finally we had our Valentine’s party.  There were several crafts, a few games, and lots of treats.  No card exchange this year.  I liked that it was simple, but I also know how much I enjoyed the card exchange when I was a kid.  I always loved decorating my card box and picking out my valentines.

Fourth Grade and Kindergarten Highlight

This was supposed to be a very quick and easy week.  Of course, every single time management plan immediately got thrown out the moment we decided we were going to get puppies (and we were ready just like you are when you have a child…except a little more because we’ve actually had dogs before). We were completely on track to finish our semester before Valentine’s Day so that I was going to give us a slow start and special few days to gear up for our second semester.  Instead, we were completing the academics during puppy naptime.  The end of the semester is being completely overshadowed by the puppies.

My son has been asking for a puppy for years.  I always said no because our dog was high maintenance.  Since we knew she was reaching the end of her days, we have been saving, planning, and researching for puppies and the best fit for our family.  We decided on two goldendoodles.  We’re in love.  They’re snuggly and playful.

Field Trip or Travel
A perk of homeschool is the flexibility to put school off a few days for last minute travel.  My son accompanied my husband to pick up the first puppy.  They traveled north and I travel west.  The week was chaotic and getting into a new routine even harder.  However, we have faced this bump (is it a bump if it’s joyful) in the road with grace.  I did ask my husband to review geography with my son while they were on the road.  I don’t know if they did, but they did travel through at least one capital, so that’s something!  The trip was definitely a good lesson in responsibility as it was my son’s job to look out for the puppy while my husband was driving.

Semester 1, Week 11

What I’m Reading: The Lonesome Gods by Louis L’Amour

I read this at the recommendation from Cindy Rollins at some point on a podcast. It was hanging out on the free books to take shelf at the library along with many of his others from someone’s collection. I wish I had picked up more of them, but I really didn’t think I’d like him.  I’m glad to have been proven wrong about my initial thoughts. The writing reminded me a lot of John Steinbeck but without the socialist politics or lack of hope.  I liked that this book gave so much personhood to Johannes. I like that his father instilled this confidence in him. 

What I’m {nature} Journaling:  We’re finally getting steady cool and colder days, so I’ve put out food for the squirrels and treats for the birds.  I get a great variety of creatures early in the morning, again at lunch and usually a good smattering in the evening.  I love watching their habits and counting how many varieties I see at one feeding.  I’ve been particularly fascinated by a young male cardinal obsessed with his reflection in my neighbor’s truck.  (Since we cut down the mimosa (our only tree) due to tree damage that could possibly have led to fence or home damage if it fell, we moved the bird feeder to the top of the hill where we can now see the feeder without as much maneuvering in time past.)

Field Trips

We visited two museums worth checking out if you’re ever in Arkansas or Oklahoma.  We broke up our long road trip by planning a stop at the U.S. Marshals Museum in Fort Smith, Arkansas.  I’ve been wanting to go there for quite awhile as I have a great-great-grandfather who was a marshal killed in action.  His name is in the memorial room along with his story of moving to the area he served and how/why he was killed (along with his posse).  While we weren’t quite as interested in the entire museum, there were specific exhibits that were very interesting to us as a family and to the children.  They’ve done a very good job curating a museum and creating interactive exhibits.  My son wants to go back.

The second museum we visited was Woolaroc in Oklahoma.  This has been one of my favorite museums since I was a little girl.  Driving in seeing the bison, native and exotic animals is a great way to elicit excitement. We happened to drive in at feeding time, so we saw the bison excitedly running to the area to eat.  Woolaroc is a museum dedicated to historic Native American culture and artifacts moving its way into ranching and oil industry in Oklahoma.  There are also rooms dedicated to art, hunting, and technology.  There’s more than you will ever see at each visit.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been, and I still see something new every time I go.

Holiday School

Have you ever felt like you’ve had the longest week of school…EVER!? We started week 11 before we went out of town for Thanksgiving.  We took a couple extra days off when we returned, did not very much school before my daughter got sick, and then were well into our first day of being on track to finish the week well and start on the next week when my son got sick.  SO we have finally finished week 11.  I had hoped we would complete through week 13 by Christmas, but that is definitely not going to happen.  I don’t think we’ll finish week 12 either.  We are down to doing the really important things – any Spanish activities related to Christmas, completing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader so that we can watch the BBC version of Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and reading the rest of The Christmas Compass.  I’m also throwing in a short daily math lesson, piano, and a sprinkling of a few subjects to keep us in a routine.

Holiday rhythms are very important to me.  Family is a high priority, and we’re busy with extra activities.  It’s not the time to go crazy or to stress out.  Slowing school down is the best decision I make each year.  While I’m fine with completely setting school aside, I also find that routine really helps us maintain other good habits. 

We don’t get started until later in the morning.  We always complete coloring two ornaments for our Jesse Tree.  This year I’ve been reading a book from our Christmas picture book pile.  I still do a little school with my daughter first; I spend less time doing school with her because she has already spent quite a bit of time coloring at this point.  My son is next.  We’re only doing four-eight things from our schedule keeping our reading as a priority.  If we don’t already have an outside activity planned for the afternoon or evening, I plan something fun for us at home – a Christmas cartoon or game with a treat or special snack.  Two or three times a week, I cook us a nice dinner that I serve in the dining room.  This is our fourth year to go through Cindy Rollins Hallelujah.  Even though it’s technically a daily advent, we usually do 2-4 days each time we sit to this special dinner.  It has become one of our favorite traditions especially at such a busy time of the year.

Inspiring Ideas

We were visiting family ranging in ages from one to ninety-four.  It’s inevitable that the topic of homeschooling will come up.  On both sides of my family, there are two generations of public school educators. Education and ministry are a high priority amongst many of my family members.  While I don’t think I was very articulate in explaining Charlotte Mason, I do think I was able to express my love for reading good books. I was definitely not there to change anyone’s minds.  While I want everyone to homeschool because I love it so much, I am also mindful that we need Christians in the public school system.  I am very, very thankful for those I know who teach with a passion to share Christ with their students and make a positive (and hopefully life-changing) impact.