56:365 Last Hurrah

Savannah had her last basketball game today... and she was actually able to play in two games. Luckily she did, because she made her first basket of the year in the second game, which was an optional game for her to play in. She's already looking forward to next year :-)

Savannah's Basketball Team

Here's a short video of Savannah playing basketball with her Bent Elementary School team:



She's had a lot of fun playing and gets so excited before the games! And I really love watching her smile from ear to ear the whole time she's playing :-)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Pinewood Derby 2011

Andrew had the opportunity to participate in his first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby this year... His troop's derby took place this past Tuesday, February 22nd. Here are a few images from the event...

What a FUN time for the whole family :-) Andrew had the 6th fastest averaged time for his four races. He won one race and two others was beaten by a nose (literally)... He was smiling from ear to ear throughout the whole derby, keeping a close eye on the screen showing the results of each race, who was up next, and current leading times. He was pretty disappointed to find out it the derby is only for Cub Scouts and he won't be able to participate next year.

Busy Family Night

Thursday night was quite the busy evening for our family... we had three events going on at the same time for Andrew and Savannah. But, amazingly... they were all three at the kid's school, Bent Elementary School!

To start the evening, we had Andrew's FIRST band concert...

Andrew played "Ode to Joy" on the trumpet with two other classmates

Then we went to Andrew's blue & gold banquet for Boy Scouts...

Andrew proudly lead the other scouts in the Boy Scout pledge :-)

Then it was chow time on some fried chicken and potluck dishes...

While we ate, Savannah made "sit-upons" at Girl Scouts...

What a busy but awesome evening of family time!!! Laurie and I were quickly reminded how wonderful our children are and how hard they work in their activities. We are so very proud of Andrew and Savannah and the effort they put into school, band, scouts, piano, church activities, friendships, BSF, and family life. 
We are blessed :-)

"Old School" Memories

I love the look of our kid's school, Bent Elementary School - it reminds me of the original Garfield Grade School that I attended in my home town of Monmouth, Illinois... Stone, brick, archways, columns, decorative pieces...














- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Classroom Fire at Bent Elementary School

Many of you are already aware of a tragic event that took place at Bent Elementary School Saturday, February 21st. For those of you who aren't aware... Bent Elementary School was broken into and a classroom was vandalized and a fire started. Due to this senseless act, Mrs. Koch and her 26 students have lost all their materials and supplies for teaching/learning. The class has been temporarily moved to the music room at Bent School unil their room can be restored. (For more on this story see The Pantagraph)

However... the loss for Mrs. Koch and the students is significant. Mrs. Koch has been teaching for 25 years... She had accumulated a tremendous amount of materials, resources, books, supplies, etc. for her teaching. Student records, lesson plans, portfolios, pictures, bulletin boards, carpets, etc. have all been destroyed. Daily worksheets already copied for the remainder of the school year, workbooks and reading books are gone.

Many tears were shed on Saturday and Sunday when the tragedy was reported to teachers, parents and students. But, when I took Savannah to school on Monday morning (she asked me to walk into the school with her)  I was very impressed with the setup of the "music condo" (what Mrs. Koch and the students are calling their temporary home). Wall decorations, pencil/crayon boxes on every desk, computers... it appeared to be a completely supplied classroom. Mrs. Koch was smiling and eager to start their day.

However, there is a lot missing from this classroom and it's an incomplete learning environment... The parents of the students effected by this incident want to make sure the environment, supplies, resources and materials are returned to normal or better as quickly as possible with as little learning loss to the students and burden to Mrs. Koch. But, we're going to need some help in doing this.

Two things are being organized:

1. Collection of donations for supplies, materials, resources and room decorations through a local school supply store
   
2. Bookfair/gift card purchases through a local bookstore
   

All of this is having to be planned quickly due to the complete loss of supplies, materials, resources and books. Like I said before, we want to return the classroom to as normal a learning environment as it was before, or better. Mrs. Koch had 25 years invested in her classroom... she had the "daily operations" down to a loving routine. But that routine has been severely interupted.

As we finalize the above plans I will pass on the information for how the community (and beyond) can help.