Two new postcards

We received two new postcards this week through our Postcrossing adventures.


The first we received came from Caridee in Taiwan, who reports that the images on the front come from her favorite stationary set. She says she has some friends in America, and that she hopes to visit the U.S. someday.


The other came from a Postcrossing member in Lithuania. I love cards of children doing fun or cute things, like this little boy playing under a sprinkler with an umbrella, so this was a fun addition to our collection.

A few more to share

We have received three more postcards in the past few days. I wanted to make sure I got them posted here so that I will be all caught up again.

This first postcard came from a Postcrossing member who reports that Santa comes from Finland. In fact, she says, his reindeer take him anywhere he wants to go. My kids, who love Christmas as much as I do, were thrilled with this postcard.



The next postcard came from Yosemite National Park in California. According to the description on the card, Yosemite covers 1,189 square miles in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The falls are all beautiful!



This last postcard is not from a Postcrossing member, instead coming from my best friend. She picked this card out to send to us while on her honeymoon. Their cruise took them to Grand Cayman, where she stopped in Devil's Hangout, a shop on the island.

Berlin

This great postcard came to me from Wilhelm in Germany. Wilhelm shared with me a little about his life with his wife, dog, and three cats. He told me that he was recently lucky enough to attend a U2 concert. His postcard will go great in our scrapbook.

Russia

This postcard came from Irina in St. Petersburg, Russia. She reports that the card shows her favorite park and a monument to Catherine, empress of the Russian Empire. It truly is a great postcard, and it will look good in our scrapbook.

It has been a while

It has been a while since I have updated my blog with the postcards I have received, and I apologize. To tell you the truth, there have not been many postcards since my last post. Things have been crazy here, too, so that has added to the delay in posting.

I wanted to make sure that I got the most recent postcard added to my blog, though, as it was a very neat card that the Postcrossing sender made herself. It features her pets... this is her dog and three birds. She reports that she also has cats that are not on the card. The card comes from Italy.

This card was such a great addition to our collection, and I had to share it immediately (the cards that I have missed posting will be added to my blog soon).

Four New Postcards

This first postcard arrived on Monday from The Netherlands. The Postcrossing sender reports that it was through images like this that she was taught how to read back in the 60s. What a great postcard to share with me and my children!



This next postcard also arrived on Monday. It is from Germany, more precisely from Cologne (or Koln, as it is written there). The different images show everything a cathedral built more than 750 years ago to the local chocolate museum. It's nice to see so many different views of Germany.



As the sender of this postcard from Finland reports, the image is kind of self-explanatory. This postcard shows a farm with a field full of hay bales. It is another unique addition to our collection, and we're thrilled to have it join our other postcards from Finland.



This last postcard arrived today from the Netherlands. The sender is from Bladel, a small town close to the border of Belgium. This is another great addition to our postcard collection.

An Interesting Turn of Events

Many of you who know me personally know how exceptionally advanced my Monster Man is. Many also know that he'd be up a grade if he'd been born only five days earlier. Since he started school, this has been a constant battle. Monster Man read two Harry Potter books in kindergarten, and was helping Angel Baby with her math homework (she's two grades ahead of him) by the beginning of first grade. Needless to say, keeping him challenged has been a big issue when it comes to school.

Last school year, I was promised that Monster Man would be evaluated to move up to the next grade (on top of being enrolled in the gifted program at school), but I recently found out that the evaluations were never completed. They were performed last week, and he did well (though his math score was a little lower than the county had hoped, which we already expected and had announced our intentions to work with him to bring him up to speed on that. He's a fast learner, so we know it wouldn't take long for him to be completely on track with the rest of the class). However, the county still decided it was in his best interest for him to remain in the third grade, despite recommendation by many of his previous teachers that he be advanced, as well.

The county made it perfectly clear in their communications to me that they have no intention of insuring that his educational needs are met. They said they would be willing to work with him on his reading, giving him a little more challenge, but that doesn't offer him the full challenge he needs in the rest of his schooling. As a result, we decided to go with the back-up plan that we already had in order for him. As of next week, when the materials arrive, Monster Man will be home-schooled.

I must say that - given the struggles we've had with teachers not knowing how to meet his needs, kids bullying him for being "the smart kid", and the emotional issues that Monster Man now endures as a result of his previous treatment in school - knowing my son's education is in my hands is a HUGE weight off my shoulders.

I may be a little on the crazy side for taking on home-schooling on top of being a full-time mom of three AND a full-time student, but the end results will be worth it all!