MaeLyn's Musings

Have I ever mentioned here that John loves to run? He does. He runs or walks home from school as often as I'll let him. Sometimes he walks to school. During recesses he runs around the school's 1/5 mile track 6, 7, sometimes even 8 or 9 times. For every five miles a student walks, he or she gets a "shoe token" (a washer with ribbons tied to it that can be attached to a shoe.) John got more shoe tokens this year than any other student at his school. Recently Steven has been taking him to the nearby middle school after school where he runs the 1/4 mile track, as many as 10 laps at a time. John really loves to run. Every year his gym teacher takes the school's best runners/walkers to participate in the Cottonwood Classic, a 5K race that is put on by our community. John ran it back in 2009 as well, but he hadn't really known what to expect, and wasn't as prepared for it. This time, he had trained, and he was ready. He could do this! Before the race began

One of the greatest things about having all my children in school for some hours of the day is that I am now free to go to the school to help in my children's classrooms. I love it! I started helping in Peter's class at the beginning of the school year. I usually come for half an hour one afternoon a week in the middle of their school day and play games with small groups of them during "centers". I've had a chance to get to know his teacher  better, and to see how Peter interacted with the other children in his class. In January, while I was running an errand to the office for Peter's teacher, I ran into Josh's teacher, who asked if I would be willing/able to come help her in her class a couple times a week in the morning. Normally I wouldn't be able to do it in the morning because I still have Peter at home then, but since Steven was at home, I could. So I started helping in second grade working with some of the slower readers, doing speed drills, p