my baby girl

I just found Easter sleeping, alone in her room, with the lights on, with a book open under her arm. To really understand why this discovery almost made me cry, though, there are a few things you need to know. Reading is still very hard for Easter. She isn't yet able to read independently. Almost everyday she reads out loud to me for at least 30 minutes. I do my best to always be positive and loving about our reading time, but some things are hard to hide, especially from a kid who is so astute. I think she knows that I wish she was making faster progress and that I sometimes feel frustrated. And---she often sees me reading to myself, in my bed.

At Barnes and Noble this afternoon she asked me to help her find a chapter book, "to read to myself in my bed." So we picked out a hard cover Magic Tree House book. In the car, on the way home, she was reading it, but she was struggling with so many words that it was hard to follow the story. I told her we'd read it together, later. But I was talking on the phone all evening and didn't go in to read with her until she'd already fallen asleep. But she didn't give up. She so wants to become a strong reader, and make me feel happy and proud, that she layed in that bed and tried hard to read it on her own. And I so love her for how hard she's trying, and for her lovely spirit, and for her sweet, sweet heart. She'll get there, someday, and I'll do my best to assure her that she has my love, regardless of how long it takes.

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's back to work i go....

Well, I managed to get some solid hours of restful idleness in this past week. We are loving our new DDR game, and I think it even qualifies as legit cardio exercise. I quite enjoy how I can compete and exercise and dance, all at the same time. Plus--spend some quality recreational time with my bambinas.

I finished my master's project Friday and emailed my paper to my adviser. I hope the rest of the process isn't going to be too painful. I hope the whole thing is good enough, so that I can graduate already.

So, it's back to work tomorrow. There are only about six weeks left in this school year. And then we will see if I can continue to have hours of restful idleness, or if not working will make me crazy.

10 Great Things About My Girls

1. They are worthy opponents on Dance Dance Revolution
2. They love Calvin and Hobbes
3. Easter and Clara both aspire to become teachers at Washington Elementary
4. They do all the dishes
5. They like to play outside
6. They like basketball
7. They have great taste in movies, i.e. Lord of the Rings, Shrek, and Star Wars
8. They are kind
9. They are funny
10. They are beautiful

Trudging Along

Bryan, my advisor for my master's project, hasn't responded to any drafts that I've emailed him in the last two weeks. So, I'm just plugging along, assuming that it's all fine. It's going much better these days. I wrote my "theoretical framework" and "methodology" sections, and now I'm just filling in examples of how the whole Lesson Study mentoring model worked out this year, according to these standards of success that I've already established. I've found that I can get about three pages of solid writing in every morning. Something happens to my brain at around 12:30 p.m., and I can't really get much more academic writing accomplished after that. It's a bizarre, but manageable phenomenon, this inability to write very much in a day. This week is Spring Break so I can afford to move along at this snail-like pace. As long as I can keep up the three pages per day, I'm on track to be done by Sunday.

I've been working a lot on my book blog. I might start leaving comments with a link to it on some of the kid lit blogs I'm always lurking around. I want it to be very presentable.