Sandy

As you no doubt know, Superstorm Sandy came to seriously mess up Nj and Ny at the end of October.

We have so much for which to be thankful in the storms wake-our home was undamaged, unlike many of our neighbors our power outtage was brief, and our parents and their homes are safe.

Of course the same is not true for many in our state; my hometown as well as much of the area I still call home has many uninhabitable homes (primary homes in most cases; while there was certainly damage to second homes and those of the rich, a lot of the devastation hit those with nowhere else to go) and the same is true in the town and area where M works.

We spoke with A about what happened; he now calls the red weather symbol for hurricane "Sandy" and seems to appreciate that there are kids like him who lost all their toys and books.  He donated a small amount of things on my first donation trip to Manahawkin but more importantly took two trips with his Dad and me to help.

Our first trip was disappointing from a helping standpoint; we arrived at noon and after some organization and directions happened, folks got on buses to distribute donations.  The problem for us was that we had to get E from school by 430 and the bus return time made that impossible.  But, we'd brought another carload of donations and supported a small restaurant in Atlantic Highlands in the process.

Since the boys were out of school longer than me, they went to volunteer again, this time organizing supplies at M's school.  A even got his picture on a school bulletin board!  He made friends with two of M's students, one of whom is becoming a penpal to him!

I feel there is so much more we could be doing, but childcare for E creates issues.  We plan to go to M's school again next week to help, and hopefully we can go down to the LBI area over winter break while E is in school.

School

I am so incredibly proud of A after meeting for a teacher conference last night!  He seems to be the perfect student, and his teacher remarked that he wishes he had a class full of A's.  He is proficiently reading "C" level books and is work on "D" level (the teacher said kindergarten starts at "A" level and 1st grade starts at "E" level) books.  His behavior is top notch; he is always happy to help the teacher or classmates, he is incredibly polite, and is always trying to challenge himself.

When I mentioned to the teacher that we have been hearing a lot of "I don't want to go to school," he seemed flabbergasted and said he's not seeing it at all--A is smiley from start to finish and embraces learning.  I'm hoping this is just an adjustment thing or that he picked it up from another kid and is using it in his morning tiredness.

He's excited about the Book It program, for which he has to read 16 books a month (piece-a-cake!) and draw a picture/write a sentence about one of the stories.  Here's one he drew for November; the sentence was written without any help and says "Boot and Shoe sleep in the same bed."