The McEldowney Family: October 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Hello Again ,
I seem to never get on here more than once a month for a post, sorry. Well, we have enjoyed our summer immensely, we are sorry to see it go, but we are anticipating a nice fall. We really took in the time we had being with our family in Canada and were so happy to have had the opportunity to share that experience with my Parents. I got to reconnect with my beautiful cousin Julie, and we really caught up on our lives nicely. We don't ever want to lose contact again. The kids finally know who we are talking about now when we speak of Canada, because now they have their own memories with the wonderful people we have always had. It is so nice to have friends everywhere we go.

We are doing great in our new home. We really love it and feel very comfortable here. We are planning to get some chickens soon, we are looking forward to that. We are trying to build a little coop off of the side of the barn. The kids are planning their home economics dinner party and they are attending a Math class every monday down the road at a private school. We have alot of things planned for school this winter , I am sure it will go by very quickly. The kids and I are auxilliary pioneering this month and we are having a great time getting to know some more of the brothers in our hall. And we have had some good experiences.

I have two cleaning jobs that I do every other friday and that is working out well. I could stand to get another one for the in between week to help out more financially, but we will see how that goes.
Make sure to click on the link about our vacation to Canada, the pictures are really great!

Until next time,
Danita

My current favorite quotes about education and life

"What does education often do? It makes a
straight-cut ditch of a free meandering brook."
~Henry David Thoreau, Journal,
1850

"Learning can only happen when a child is interested. If he's not interested, it's like throwing marshmallows at his head and calling it eating."
- Barbara Lamping
"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience."
-- Anne Sullivan (Helen Keller's teacher)