Amazed

It never ceases to amaze me to see the eagerness of children to learn. Due to the heavy and frequent snows this winter, two of my daughters had school today to make up some of the excess snow days. It would have struck me that most kids would have talked their parents into letting them stay home on a Saturday school day, but it seems a good majority actually attended school. My youngest daughter Grace went to school and the teachers used today as a day to invite parents into the classroom to view the classroom and projects the children were working on. My wife had to work today, but I took advantage of the initiation and was amazed to see the eagerness of the kids in her class. Grace's 4th grade teacher Sarah Olkkola was doing a project in science called a water table, and when she was going over the project I witnessed kids very attentive to what she was saying and actively participating in the reading of the instructions. When it was time for the actual project, I saw the whole class participating. They all jumped in and took a job in the experiment which was to pour water into a water table and create a stream, then to observe how the stream reacted to the terrain in the soil that was in the table. The group my daughter was in was very observant, and readily picked out the features they were asked to, as well as trying to understand what was happening on the table in front of them. It was very refreshing to see the inquisitiveness that prevailed in the classroom.

The children were also very eager to bring the parents that came into the project and show them what they were learning. Kudos to the school for inviting the parents in, and kudos to the parents who attended to see how excited their children were to learn. Keep up the good work.