OK, I am a pretty bad grandfather. My first (and so far only) grandchild had her 1st birthday on March 2, 2009. Unfortunately, last year when I added her birthday to my various calendars, I put down March 3. So not only was a day off, but then I turn around and forgot to put a blog post about it.
Oh well, at least she doesn’t know yet.
My mother has taught my grandmother how to get on the internet. At first it was just to read email, but they have now graduated to lessons on Google. Since the first result on a vanity search for “Ansonia Walls” is this site, it is pretty hard to miss.
Welcome.
Tags: nonnie
I finally remembered to post birthday wishes on the birthday in question. My brother Devin turns 21 today.
Even though his name is Devin Darnell Ponder, I have almost always called him Billy. Before he was born, I was sitting around with my mother and stepfather, talking about names for the baby. My stepfather (who I believe had been drinking alcohol) said that if it was a boy he wanted to name it Billy for ‘Dollar Bill’ and if it was a girl CC for ‘Chump Change’. It was a joke (and not a very funny one), but the nickname stuck with me. I think that my family (Patti and the kids), friends and I are the only ones who call him Billy, but everybody knows who I am talking about when I call him that.
To keep up with the running theme, as a website owner, I am a horrible father. My youngest daughter Jazmyn had a birthday on February 8 and I forgot to blog about it. In my defense, I spent a great deal of the morning with her, so I wasn’t completely neglectful.
She turned 19, so her mother, sister and cousin took her to a casino in Windsor where the legal drinking age is 19. I’m not sure if she drank or how much she drank, but I’m pretty sure she had a good time. Jazmyn is one of those good kids that always looks bored but most of the time isn’t.
The above picture is from her Baptism and even though it is out of focus, it is one of my favorites of the two of us.
As a website owner, I am a pretty bad brother. My younger brother Charles had a birthday on February 3 and although I called him, I completely forgot to announce it on the site.
Charles currently lives in Washiington DC, so I don’t get to see him as much as I would like, but as long as he is happy, then I am happy for him.
With a lot of my attention focused on the inauguration yesterday, I completely forgot to do a post congratulating my nephew Dwight on his 18th birthday. I did however remember to relay birthday wishes to him through my mother and youngest brother. Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to actually talk to him.
This is a picture of Dwight and my younger brother, Charles.
At the last Parent-Teacher Conference, my son’s teacher mentioned “some concerns” that she had with him. Specifically his behavior in class. I don’t want to go into the details about what she said, but I don’t agree with her. Today a small plastic bag was sent home, containing a stack of flash cards and the following letter:
Parents,
In this bag are words your child needs to know to help them be successful readers in Kindergarten. Please practice these words with your child as much as possible. When your child is able to read all of the words listed below and on this set of flash cards we will send home a new set of words to practice.Thank you for your participation!
all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, blue, brown, but, cat, came, dad, did, do, dog, eat, four, get, good, green, has, he, into, like, love, mom, must, new, no, now, on, orange, our, out, pink, please, ran, red, ride, saw, say, she, so, son, that, there, they, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yellow, yes
The words in bold are the words he missed. Keep in mind that he only had to read the words and not the accompanying letter.
There are the words on his flash cards, which he got all correct:
million
opposite
therefore
cover
various
wouldn’t
general
doesn’t
method
beyond
would
ancient
we’ll
century
shook
believe
capital
where
especially
necessary
temperature
attention
kitchen
electric
I really need to get his reading level tested because he is in Kindergarten and has no problem with the vast majority of words that he comes across. Unfortunately, when he is in the classroom, he doesn’t do any work. He’s not rude or combative about it, he just experiences a work stoppage and stares into space. No coloring, no using scissors, no using glue sticks and if he doesn’t feel like it, no writing. We cannot figure out why he just stops, but he does.
I would be a lot more worried if he ever got that unresponsive like at home. However, he has no problem engaging with other people and regularly has intelligent conversations with people who older than he is. I will admit that he has a problem playing with kids closer to his age, but he finds them boring. He would much rather play computer games or with his trains.
I am not one of those people who confuse the ability to learn in a classroom setting with intelligence. So while I may worry about his ability to sit down in a classroom and do the assigned work without someone wanting to label him with a learning disorder of some sort, I have absolutely no concerns about his intelligence.
Tags: education, intelligence, kindergarten, reading, stephen
