tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-39205768042633180522024-03-14T03:18:20.636-07:00Undiscovered GoldCathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10729089331013448546noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3920576804263318052.post-40959750792250542732013-03-15T09:39:00.003-07:002013-03-15T09:49:08.702-07:00<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqlPmgvrVRkM8ZHXlKVh37SKOeOa1cU-O2s8TUBvS-OsVVQPOX0YCMcASngcN_DktwKvwBCuZII4S2i8DBg7s4IAXcebN-bhpiM7Z8u8pdHHYIulkhB9XSPy-wZO33BKmeDEsiuGGW3rc/s1600/IMG_2432.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqlPmgvrVRkM8ZHXlKVh37SKOeOa1cU-O2s8TUBvS-OsVVQPOX0YCMcASngcN_DktwKvwBCuZII4S2i8DBg7s4IAXcebN-bhpiM7Z8u8pdHHYIulkhB9XSPy-wZO33BKmeDEsiuGGW3rc/s320/IMG_2432.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">What is IQ?</span></b></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sandeep Gautam wrote in </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; text-align: center;"><a href="http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/mindcafe/entry/why-iq-is-a-myth">“Why IQ is a Myth”</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">To me, to be frank a score of 162 or
whatever on a test means nothing, and I hardly care if the test is
Cattels , WISC or stanford-binet. When a lay person sees a score of
100 or 160 he assumes that a) intelligence can be fully measured and
quantified and b) IQ is that measure.”</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It
is very true that IQ scores divorced from their context are pretty
meaningless. It's like saying, “Forty-two is The Answer to the
Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” [Douglas
Adams, <i>The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy</i>] Forty-two what?
What was the question? </span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We
can list a lot of things that an IQ score isn't:</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /> It
isn't The Answer to the Ultimate Question about a person.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It
isn't an immutable number carved on your brain.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It
isn't able to measure the full range of a person's abilities.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It
isn't a measure of someone's worth.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It
isn't a map of someone's destiny.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It
isn't a limit (or an expectation!) placed on a person's potential.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">But
instead of underestimating the “lay person”, perhaps we should
attempt to explain what an IQ score </span><span style="color: black;"><b>is</b></span><span style="color: black;">.
It is information about how a person performed certain tasks, under
certain conditions, on a particular day. A full-scale IQ score makes
sense only when we understand it in its full context, including: the
type of test, its standard deviation, its ceilings, its error ranges,
the other composite scores, and the subtest scores. A good tester
also makes behavioral observations about how the person approaches
problems and emotional factors that may have affected the results.
To interpret the subtest scores, we need to understand the specific
cognitive abilities being drawn upon by those tasks. A full-scale
score is only the broadest summary of someone's performance ranked as
a comparison to the scores of others in the same age group. It gives
none of the details about strengths or weaknesses.<br /><br />A typical
full-scale IQ score (such as given by the </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wechsler_Intelligence_Scale_for_Children">Wechsler
tests</a><span style="color: black;">),
is called a standard score. This score corresponds to a percentile
ranking of the sum of the scaled scores of selected individual
subtests, which are themselves rankings of the raw scores for each
task normed for each age group. It is essentially a measure of
“unusualness”. The more unusual subtest scores someone has, the
more that will be reflected in the sum, resulting in a more unusual
full-scale score. The logic of this process can be confounded in
situations where a person's scores in one area are unusually low and
unusually high in another, giving the appearance of an average sum.
This is why we need to look at the other composite scores (for
example, Verbal or Working Memory) and the subtest scores in order to
interpret the full-scale score.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">An
unusually high score, </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/05/indian-girl-iq_n_2812709.html">like
Neha Ramu's</a><span style="color: black;">,
is possible only when all or nearly all of the subtest scores are
unusually high. What does this tell us about a person? It means
that in comparison to others her age, she excels in skills that are
predictive of academic success, which is what most IQ tests have been
designed to measure.<br /><br />In its various incarnations, IQ has been
linked to certain personal characteristics and learning outcomes—I'm
not going to summarize those volumes of research here. The important
thing to remember when reading about such research is that
statistical correlations can tell you only about the likelihood of a
given outcome. They cannot be applied to individuals. We cannot
know ahead of time whether a person is part of the majority who will
experience a given outcome or the minority who will not. The fact
that there is such a minority does not invalidate the research, just
as the fact that IQ scores may be misunderstood by some does not mean
they are useless or absurd. </span></span></span>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">No
psychologist trained to administer IQ tests would claim that
intelligence can be fully quantified by IQ. I completely agree that
it is sloppy journalism to report Neha's score as evidence that she
is smarter than Albert Einstein, and equally sloppy to compare her
score to an estimate (Einstein never took the test Neha took). But
instead of dismissing IQ tests as nonsense, let's set the record
straight.</span></span></div>
Cathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10729089331013448546noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3920576804263318052.post-35948356258265266852012-04-04T20:30:00.003-07:002012-04-04T20:36:34.363-07:00Alert to Gifted Advocates: We Need to Change This Meme!<p align="CENTER" style="text-align: left;margin-bottom: 0in; ">I just saw it retweeted:</p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in; ">“<span><span>If you’re 130 IQ you're as different from the mean as if you were 70 IQ on the other side. #NAGC ”</span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>Once again, I pointed out that IQ scores are not measures of amount of ability (or need). They are only a relative ranking of scores, corresponding to percentiles. A 30 point interval on one part of the IQ scale may mean a much greater difference in abilities than a 30 point interval on another part of the scale.</span></span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>This meme is everywhere in the gifted universe:</span></span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in; ">“<span>The child of 160 IQ (top 0.01%) is as different from the child of 130 IQ (top 2%) as that child is from the child of average ability.” </span> </p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in; "><span>~Leta Hollingworth, <i>Children Above 180 IQ</i> (1942) <a href="http://www.pegy.org.uk/page2.html">[1]</a></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in; ">“<span>There is the numerical answer: a child of IQ 160 is as different from a moderately gifted child of 130, as that child is from an average child of 100. “ <a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm">[2]</a></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in; ">“<span>Now move in the opposite direction from 100. An IQ score up to one standard deviation above 100 is considered normal, or average. Move up one standard deviation is mildly gifted. That means that a child with a score of 130 is as different from a child with an IQ of 100 as is the child with an IQ of 70, a score which definitely qualifies a child for special services. Move up one more standard deviation and we move into the range of moderately gifted (130-144). The same range on the other side of 100 is the mildly retarded range.” <a href="http://giftedkids.about.com/od/gifted101/qt/IQ_scores.htm">[3]</a></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; margin-bottom: 0in; ">“<span>Let’s pretend that you take an average child with an IQ of 100. Take this child and put them into a classroom where everyone else’s IQ is 70 and below. In other words you are taking an average child and putting him or her into a school environment where all the classmates are mentally retarded. Not only are these classmates mentally retarded but the curriculum is also geared for the mentally retarded children. “ <a href="http://www.alifeofthemind.com/2011/02/13/mensa-iq-the-30-point-gap-and-the-outsiders/">[4]</a></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; ">“<span>What's the difference? Gifted children tend to think differently and learn more quickly than their peers. Compare a gifted child (IQ = 130) to an average child (IQ=100) you will see the difference: the gifted child learns quicker, thinks deeper, and draws conclusions more easily. Compare that gifted child (IQ=130) to the highly gifted child (IQ=160). Again, you will see the difference, in many of the same ways. Now compare the highly gifted child to the normal child, and you face a chasm that by the end of elementary school may place these two children as much as 5 years apart in mental age.</span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; ">“<span>There's another way to look at it. The difference between the exceptionally gifted and the average child is the same as the difference between the average child and the mentally handicapped child of IQ 40. That's a big difference!” <a href="http://vcbconsulting.com/gtworld/gttest.htm">[5]</a></span></p><p style="font-size: 100%; margin-left: 0.49in; "><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><span><span><span><b>Why does this matter? </b></span></span></span> </p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <ul style="font-size: 100%; "> <li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>As advocates we should strive to be accurate. Our credibility is at stake! </span></span></span> </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span> </span> </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>As advocates we should strive to educate—not spread misinformation just because it is a handy analogy to make a point.</span></span></span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> </p> </li><li><p style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>Think about how our advocacy is perceived by others: When we make a comparison that implies average people are mentally impaired compared to gifted people, we alienate most of our listeners.</span></span></span></p></li></ul> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>I understand that the goal is to build awareness of the very real needs of gifted children. So instead let's use the real meaning of IQ scores: a high (or low) score is <i>unusual</i>. Unusual kids are likely to need unusual accommodations.</span></span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>Please, make a small change, gifted advocates! Be accurate, educate, and build awareness without alienating others. Let's start using a new meme:</span></span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span><span><b>Unusual</b></span><span><i> </i></span><span>kids </span></span></span> </span></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span><span>are likely to need</span><span><i> </i></span></span></span> </span></p> <p align="CENTER" style="margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span><span><span><b>unusual</b></span><span><i> </i></span><span>accommodations.</span></span> </span> </span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><br /></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "><span>[1] <a href="http://www.pegy.org.uk/page2.html"><span><span>http://www.pegy.org.uk/page2.html</span></span></a></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>[2] <a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm">http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm</a></span></span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>[3] <a href="http://giftedkids.about.com/od/gifted101/qt/IQ_scores.htm">http://giftedkids.about.com/od/gifted101/qt/IQ_scores.htm</a></span></span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>[4] <a href="http://www.alifeofthemind.com/2011/02/13/mensa-iq-the-30-point-gap-and-the-outsiders/">http://www.alifeofthemind.com/2011/02/13/mensa-iq-the-30-point-gap-and-the-outsiders/</a></span></span></span></p> <p style="font-size: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in; "> <span><span><span>[5] <a href="http://vcbconsulting.com/gtworld/gttest.htm">http://vcbconsulting.com/gtworld/gttest.htm</a></span></span></span></p>Cathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10729089331013448546noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3920576804263318052.post-58857932279204853692010-04-01T18:13:00.000-07:002010-04-01T18:23:50.203-07:00Our first month of homeschooling is behind us. We are still revelling in our freedom: the freedom to choose what to work on and when, the freedom to go hiking on a Friday morning, freedom from homework...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiomRA-ESpQpL_c3O1miepLBJfDHPs4zxitkH2RFBAXeZjqXGUXkRvs8P7r9RBfsfQo1ZYtSaZ_6seCLqCymvHOa_CcMTGNM6cCBOOcKSyWEmRsbmsC7B9-oSgX-9hiJSwnGf4Qqcarek0/s1600/Mac+wading.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 243px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455343192653795090" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiomRA-ESpQpL_c3O1miepLBJfDHPs4zxitkH2RFBAXeZjqXGUXkRvs8P7r9RBfsfQo1ZYtSaZ_6seCLqCymvHOa_CcMTGNM6cCBOOcKSyWEmRsbmsC7B9-oSgX-9hiJSwnGf4Qqcarek0/s400/Mac+wading.jpg" /></a><br /><br />We are meeting more people and making connections with homeschoolers in our area... there are so many activities and exciting opportunities it is difficult to choose what we want to try first!<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyYpmzOHiNohUzQ3ll-90p4EvnEWrraS3_9FKbxcf5c0MJWW8BQCfZ1gYD_fmg8RDDkAD3g8_N7vshf9uWifIpm2hOPt5EF9ig53Z7F5IfziXUJu85TWO0-b-fDE3qv9R9ztv5J2bN5Ps/s1600/ladybug.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455343181591098674" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyYpmzOHiNohUzQ3ll-90p4EvnEWrraS3_9FKbxcf5c0MJWW8BQCfZ1gYD_fmg8RDDkAD3g8_N7vshf9uWifIpm2hOPt5EF9ig53Z7F5IfziXUJu85TWO0-b-fDE3qv9R9ztv5J2bN5Ps/s400/ladybug.jpg" /></a> </div><div> </div><div>Part of me worries that this is too good to be true... is this some sort of honeymoon period? Even if it is, I want to enjoy it while it lasts!</div><div> </div><div><br /><br /> </div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj62WqI3GTYA3IzTW-FWgSvoaPL64oj3ZDuYI6tmFzPwDXcQR5OZNhU7J84nytbQygMaSpTyDmNcNuTp-hLpMA1tHAnNGMqSskClvM-iGKRWobjrwrT0o7DqEnZyOcSk6M2mc31HHGuK6U/s1600/IMG_2802.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 300px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455343176536046162" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj62WqI3GTYA3IzTW-FWgSvoaPL64oj3ZDuYI6tmFzPwDXcQR5OZNhU7J84nytbQygMaSpTyDmNcNuTp-hLpMA1tHAnNGMqSskClvM-iGKRWobjrwrT0o7DqEnZyOcSk6M2mc31HHGuK6U/s400/IMG_2802.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi62Y8pnoSVqMbL9P-PZ9u4As9piVuqso9bAkJLhbR1-KwpKVPIj-pC_CEnGmVWTF34xHAxFuYfwkl8g3Gm2L-lAQ58mjrGc77yQ5r5WT17vWI-YUlUshnoY-liN_1YNV5f-lAt66fR-x4/s1600/IMG_2802.JPG"><span style="font-size:+0;"></span></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiqU0vMyf7QKZEPB5_2_QZa5BEVHiWol14hQsjCCJJWfj842bgbR2acGaGxT5Y8K0SsHJmrzFeykLlLgoiGgd6J59OELPJgzXOihRzkMOpJiOU7819XVEWwy742GaLuR8JjvYJx9TLeec/s1600/Mac+wading.jpg"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUUguUrpjf8xIDW26FghVRagzTjFhrmX8USTmhzLUSv89Gajhi9uDlO4I9RlUw-sV85jAWZC_g-kRqsHesU9NbH8KnD4518i5AJecUbShYsCIDr4ylLnTMvVWO8z5wMwZeEfgtW4Lojfw/s1600/ladybug.jpg"></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div></div></div></div></div>Cathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10729089331013448546noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3920576804263318052.post-58159092803169630562010-03-15T20:54:00.000-07:002010-03-15T21:52:15.349-07:00A New Path<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHc-ZYvPEsN6T8O65UfRSNhfww2KaigoQcf2Gfp3WQ4QH2Uh8q5C5lX9cpUf8wPwlBteaX8C6mEWpjJOasyWZnV1pMEdNDPgSw_TPCCWNfEL45HoSLSyea6CClUyweNpE5InWqo-OjEm0/s1600-h/ElenaBoulder.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449089358723756226" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHc-ZYvPEsN6T8O65UfRSNhfww2KaigoQcf2Gfp3WQ4QH2Uh8q5C5lX9cpUf8wPwlBteaX8C6mEWpjJOasyWZnV1pMEdNDPgSw_TPCCWNfEL45HoSLSyea6CClUyweNpE5InWqo-OjEm0/s200/ElenaBoulder.jpg" /></a> <em>You cannot take itself</em><br /><em>From any Human soul-</em><br /><div><div><div><em>That indestructible estate</em></div><div><em>Enable him to dwell-</em></div><div><em>Impregnable as Light</em></div><div><em>That every man behold</em></div><div><em>But take away as difficult</em></div><div><em>As undiscovered Gold-</em><br /><br /></div><br /><div>~Emily Dickinson</div><br /><div>Somehow, I found the courage to jump off a cliff. It wasn't like me at all... I don't like change, I don't like to take risks... but here I am, homeschooling my two children, Elena and Mac.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJkAj-zes3SLisBXb9XJ6ZK_Fk1TCh90dkSSQDIr0GpUsT3DbzrsjR16k0eBbnQgxxZI-ACulOPi_KsvdA6PL06_brGJl_RLJJRd9QftS9QSEx9JUI7VNcFeluJQPmWrzyKCo7H5MpWk/s1600-h/IMG_2667.JPG"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 150px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449083660065635666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCJkAj-zes3SLisBXb9XJ6ZK_Fk1TCh90dkSSQDIr0GpUsT3DbzrsjR16k0eBbnQgxxZI-ACulOPi_KsvdA6PL06_brGJl_RLJJRd9QftS9QSEx9JUI7VNcFeluJQPmWrzyKCo7H5MpWk/s200/IMG_2667.JPG" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-BPn5ZJ6_32p_VchyGffCb8cer6lksOsgkPYvdxzFREVYKgOHM0GdjW9ryBhjUn_7nGGdP3T8g94Hf6X6cCr0iyLXBCe2edN9pk5_h8u5p45R3kA4X1t0ghjGXp8xU4eyfLBWpjlmuY/s1600-h/Giants.JPG"><img style="WIDTH: 150px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449087288138552402" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9-BPn5ZJ6_32p_VchyGffCb8cer6lksOsgkPYvdxzFREVYKgOHM0GdjW9ryBhjUn_7nGGdP3T8g94Hf6X6cCr0iyLXBCe2edN9pk5_h8u5p45R3kA4X1t0ghjGXp8xU4eyfLBWpjlmuY/s200/Giants.JPG" /></a> </div><p align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxV2yXduY7Cc2RnVhPC1UprzBpZeytWjrZ3sli3YtptSIhd2AmCecv-mgWw3D2zx3Mpt_ba8G_5kP8NXg-Z2_a8KLDzPfkl96YdsnPLKE1xFxkJLYmAbCGE9BMBSRHQ6gvQ4BcjxwHM8/s1600-h/Mac.jpg"><img style="WIDTH: 124px; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449087273505212850" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxV2yXduY7Cc2RnVhPC1UprzBpZeytWjrZ3sli3YtptSIhd2AmCecv-mgWw3D2zx3Mpt_ba8G_5kP8NXg-Z2_a8KLDzPfkl96YdsnPLKE1xFxkJLYmAbCGE9BMBSRHQ6gvQ4BcjxwHM8/s200/Mac.jpg" /></a></p><div align="left">Our first weeks have been spent rediscovering their interests and passions. As the days passed, my anxiety has turned to relief; my joyful, curious kids have reappeared. Mac has suddenly found that he likes to draw, and is producing a detailed imaginary world. </div><br /><div></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 246px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5449086052850425714" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBeeMIuyw7guvSCBuBKIwrtN5P8DJxhDlV1MQmvOd4ceJx5DviVKOfDzV7s46ALRaok4GqYutvBSVcDNRplb4fJZDmufyerR0Wb4Mh5eU56h0THSgQaLwE8eSYTZutZHUV6rdvd78PljQ/s320/ForkHeadCastleAndVillage.jpg" /><br /><div>Elena was inspired to learn and write about Elizabeth Blackwell... I am amazed by their ideas and questions, and I'm excited to find out what they will come up with next!<br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div></div></div></div>Cathyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10729089331013448546noreply@blogger.com1