Where did February go?

Last month just flew by and here we are in March. Every month seems to just get shorter and shorter. I sound just like all of my Aunts, who kept saying the same thing when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. And now... my cousins and I are ‘the old guard’ in the family. How in the world did that happen?!

I have been busy with The Magic Wand Book Club.... a good busy. Seems like I am always looking for books, buying books, separating them into the grade levels and then searching for bookmarks. It gets me a little nuts when the kids are picking out books based on the bookmarks inside them, but if that’s what it takes to get them reading and keep them reading, so be it.

The fifth and sixth grade girls are reading Anne Frank’s Diary, and I recently re-read my own copy of that book. Still makes me cry, no matter how many times I read and re-read that book. We have had some good discussions about Anne’s diary, and I hope there will be more to come. Next week is Spring Break for the elementary school, so I just about pleaded with the students yesterday to save some time for reading every day during their week away from school. One of the students asked me if I would be reading during the break also, and I told him that I never take a break from reading. He looked at me skeptically, but I think he knew I was serious.

My husband has begun the After-School Baseball Club, based on the Strat-O-Matic Baseball Game. We both go on Tuesday afternoons for that program.... I help to set up and take note of which students show up. So far, that program is a hit (pardon the pun) and the kids seem to enjoy playing coach and picking out their own players for the teams. We give out peanuts or Cracker Jack at the end of the game, plus baseball cards to each student. An eBay seller in Michigan has donated boxes of baseball cards for the students, in addition to the ones we initially purchased for the program. Such great people in this world... you just have to find them.

The book club kids stretch my patience at times, especially the fourth graders who can lose focus in a heartbeat, but they are also stretching my imagination and compassion. In an area where these students have so little to look forward to, when I see them running into the school library to give me hello hugs, my heart just melts. And expands to the point of bursting. I just love those kids.