100 days and wonderful news

On Wednesday we celebrated the 100th day of school in my classroom. Like last year, I put aside the regular math and language arts curriculum, and instead we filled the day with activities like making necklaces from 100 fruit loops, measuring a row of 100 objects, and drawing pictures of "what I will look like when I am 100."

Just before lunch, they worked in teams to put together 100 piece puzzles, and I thought back to the previous year when I had done the same activity. Last year's class had a great time assembling the puzzles and working together. This year - well, it didn't go so well. Two of the three teams almost gave up after trying for only a few minutes. To keep them going, I cheered on every success and nudged pieces toward the correct place. The third team worked harmoniously and completed their puzzle before the others had finished half. I assigned the two from that team to help with the other two, and the activity went a little better after that. Each class has its own personality.

A few times in this blog I have mentioned my most difficult student. He is the one who is farthest behind in all the subjects and who is very easy to distract. God has answered prayer for him in part by supplying a man who comes in for an hour, sometimes more, almost every day. He works one-on-one with this student, helping him to learn letters and sounds and also helping him to focus better. The rest of the day remains a challenge, but it is a great blessing having an hour of help so often.

I have also mentioned my boyfriend Abraham in previous posts. He is not my boyfriend anymore...He is now my fiancé. On Tuesday last week he asked me (on bended knee ;-) to be his wife, and I accepted. We are planning to have the church ceremony on June 20th of this year. There remains significant paperwork that we have to complete in order to have the civil ceremony which is required in Mexico for marriages to be legal. We have not set a date for the civil ceremony, since it depends on when we can file the variety of papers necessary.