Happy Fall, Happy Fingers

We're typing apace in the Lower School lab, with 2nd and 3rd graders working on Type to Learn 3 and the 4th graders beginning their Keyboarding for Kids adventure. There'll be much more on "K4K" in coming weeks, but suffice it to say that we're gearing up for keyboarding homework! The chance to work every day, even if only for 15 or 20 minutes, is something not every elementary school child has, and for those kids who take it seriously, it's an opportunity that will change their academic lives for the better.

We're even typing in K and 1 this week, as we use the freeware "Drawing for Children" program to learn about fonts, font styles, colors, and sizes in 1st grade and simply learn how to use the ABC typing tool in K to type our names. The Kindergarten children are simply typing their names, just once, but the 1st graders are typing in as many sizes, fonts, and colors as they can do in their computer lab period. Next week we'll practice locating a file with Drawing for Children's "file open" function and we'll add even more instances of their names as time will allow. I think we'll end up with a really nice bulletin board out of the deal, don't you???

On the personal side, I put my son Colin on the bus this morning to travel to Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina where he'll engage in team building fun with his 6th grade peers for three nights in the woods. Wow. I couldn't help thinking how this must be the definition of ambivalence: We want them to grow up, but we don't want them to grow out of the best moments of childhood, and, hence, away. My HS senior daughter is in a country music video (for like a second and a half, but if you're watching for her you can see her pretty sunglassed self) that sums it up: Kenny Chesney's "Don't Blink," it'll be gone before you know it.