SCHOOL VISITS! Shout out to Advent Episcopal School and Calera Elementary School! (other school reports coming soon!).
Had a great time at Advent School for the annual Thanksgiving/Grandparent Day yesterday. Enjoyed meeting Powell and Blakely's sweet teachers and seeing a bit of what they experience every day at school. I found out that Powell's class really does some cool things, besides regular schoolwork! (He is in 3rd grade now and Blakely is a first grader). Powell's class visit was fun---the kids read some poems they wrote about grandparents and the teacher showed some slides of what they've already accomplished this year. Because Advent is a "downtown" school--the kids can benefit in lots of ways that I didn't realize. Like going to the Downtown Public Library each week and having their own library card(where I spent many hours in high school doing research papers!), that is just around the corner. And, visiting local downtown art studios where they watch pottery being made , for example. And, my favorite, taking their iPads and making pictures of the architecture around town ! Awesome! Also, they write "celebrities"---some local B'ham peeps and then they visit the class!...Blakely's class was great as well. Her teacher is just precious. You can tell the kids LOVE her!!! For the first couple of weeks of school, Blakely didn't really like First Grade. (or so she thought for a couple of weeks!). She was missing her free time/ coloring/playing. But it didn't take long for her to get into the groove of being a first grader, in large part due to her amazing teacher. Now she loves it!( Going from Kindergarten to First Grade is a hard transition and I remember that from my own kids). She now loves it and was part of that adorable presentation they put on for the grandparents during the worship portion of the morning, of the Pilgrims coming to America, that they performed at the beginning. They truly memorized a LOT! ....After visiting the classes, we got to go to the worship service. It was beautiful, as always. My breath is always taken away momentarily when I enter the Cathedral. Such beauty. Immediately, you enter a worship stature as you look at the amazing stained glass windows. Advent is a very traditional Episcopal church steeped in tradition and beauty. As a new Anglican, I am even more aware of the rich tradition that is present in everything from the hymns to the procession to the service in general. Very similar to our church , yet a few slight differences as well. I had to give a special thanks to God that these 2 sweeties get to go to school there and worship there , too. There's something to be said for children who get to include GOD in their every day lessons that warms my spiritual soul very deeply. (such as Powell's class learning scripture!)! Not "putting down" public school at all, but thankful that the freedom to worship in a private school is a beautiful thing (however,:expensive, lol).
All in all, it is always a treat to get a glimpse --truly just a glimpse---but still able to see the day to day life of 2 of my grands!
First of all, pix from Advent School.
Another day in the life of a special grandson was at Calera Elementary School! Can't say enough about Ryder's school , either! A wonderful Public School but with almost a private school feel.Such loving community school and the program for the Veteran's Day was beautiful and done with such love and attention to detail. My heart truly soared hearing all the Veteran's tell where they served/when they served and the attentive children showed me that they were all taught the solemnity of the day and it showed in their respect of the adults who spoke. And these were little ones!!!! How proud I was to see Patrick and Terry participate. Who knows, Ryder might one day decide to follow in their footsteps! Loved seeing my little Ryder who is in K-5 at Calera and hard to believe he is already starting school. (where did my blonde baby go?). His teacher is so young (and pretty) and was so sweet to let Ryder come sit with us during the program. You can tell she has a lot of patience and love for her little kindergarteners! Precious teacher/precious PTO that put on an amazing service for our Veterans!
Here is the awesome Veteran's Day service from Ryder's School!
How blessed I feel to know they have wonderful teachers!!! Actually, ALL my grands have wonderful schools, (but these are the latest I've visited so the reason I am posting about them--others will come soon!)....
* Others in attendance at wonderful schools: Lily at Homewood Middle/ Kemp and Daisy at Deer Valley and Brock's Gap/Carter at Trace Crossings and even little Ella Kate at Riverchase UMC K-3! Beyond Blessed / beyond thankful for all the teachers in these schools who have blessed the lives of me and my grands. More to come on the others schools, soon! *
