Godmother Cathy

Andrew's Christening Day

The most wonderful thing a child can have in addition to their blood-relatives are those special people who gently get  inserted into your life and who, over time, become as important and wonderful as any in your immediate family. Andrew's God-mother is a friend from years back who has stayed by my side through the good and the bad. One of my best life decisions was to ask her to be Andrew's God-mother. While this title has remained, she has gained a dual role into into a very special aunt as well. As a make-up artist she has created some incredibly authentic looks for Halloween and she has included my son into her family until he has gotten a status of his own, a "cousin" to her precious nephews and neice. They seem to look forward to spending time with "big" Andrew as much as he does with them.  Andrew has visited her extended family so often that  Cathy's mother has his room ready for him when he visits each summer. This past week God-mother Cathy did one of her favourite traditions which involves a shopping trip with Andrew for his birthday. She added on a special treat with a trip to Upper Clements Park for Andrew and her nephews. They had a day of roller coasters and log rides and waterslides....so much fun for all. Hallelujah for God-mothers and for all they do.

His make-up looked so authentic
 that folks thought he was
 really wounded.

Fun at Upper Clements

Lest We Forget...

Many of my male relatives, both currently and from the past, have played a role in the armed forces. I am proud of my cousin who is currently serving as well as my many great-uncles who fought in the Korean War. My Grand-dad was a Merchant Seaman for the Canadian Forces and when my Grand-dad and Great-Uncle Tom on my Dad's side fought for England, they were captured by the enemy and became POWs during WW2. I am thankful that both were eventually able to return home. The world looked at war differently then; it was considered exciting to join and fight for your country and many young men even lied about their age to get the opportunity to go overseas. 

In grade 7, we have been reading the "Rememberance Times", a magazine about Canada's role in war and peace-keeping. The class was told to go through the many interesting articles and then pick out and write down ten interesting facts about the many wars and peace-keeping missions we have been involved in.

Next, each student had to create a character from WW2 who would write a letter from that time period. The character could either be someone from home, a mom, sister, factory worker etc., or someone overseas, a nurse, soldier, pilot, or other person serving. After creating a profile for their character - things like age, job, family background - students became their character and, using some of the facts found from the articles, are now in the process of writing a one page letter to someone - those overseas would write home and those at home would write overseas.  

It is so difficult for us to comprehend what it was like to be so far from home for perhaps years at a time, all to help millions of people we didn't know. And yet, over the years, hundreds of thousands have done just that. I hope that through this exercise, we will continue to learn from our past. Lest we forget...

A visit with my Mom

Yesterday in grade 7 we had a guest speaker - my Mom, Linda. Each year she comes in to be interviewed about what it was like in Halifax when she was growing up and what some of the similarities and differences were between grade 7 then compared to now. It is a really fun way to teach proper interview skills and more importantly, to learn about history and how each of us has a story which is an essential part of history.

Our class spent almost 1 hour and 30 minutes listening about poodle skirts and penny candy and how she got to go on the bus at a very young age all by herself. The students then asked some really great questions about technology, differences in school, cars and tv. I think the students really enjoyed hearing about her growing up years.

As the major Social Studies assignment for quarter one, I am assigning an interview to the class. All of the information will be sent home. I encourage you to become involved with this assignment, especially with choosing who to interview and the best kinds of questions to ask. The key to this assignment is that it must be someone at least two generations away (grandparent/great-uncle etc.) preferably from your family. Last year some students who did not have relatives living close by chose to do long distance phone interviews, while others interviewed a close family friend or someone from their church.

I hope they have fun with this assignment. This is the fourth time my Mom has come in and I am still learning new things about her childhood. Who knows what I will learn next year!