love to paint

Wow.  I feel like I just ate at a fine restaurant that served me a superb meal!  I just finished reading Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan .  It is a new book that is going to be coming out in February.  This book was quite a surprise for me.  I haven't read the author's previous books, but was intrigued by this book description.  I have struggled to find contemporary fiction that I feel comfortable assigning to my teenage daughter for her homeschooling.  Periodically, I have been lucky enough to find a few treasures... The Friendship Doll, Flipped, Paper Things (which I'm going to write about later in this post), the Vine Basket by Josanne LaValley... and now I can add this book to the list. Echo begins with a little boy who gets lost in the woods and encounters three sisters.  Magic and music are interwoven in a way that creates wonder.  As I read this book, I found myself unsure of what was going to happen next.  There were multiple cliffh...

Yesterday as I was reading a book, I came across a phrase that I've said to my kids many times and even said to my fifth graders years ago when I was student teaching.  The phrase is: Everything is Difficult Before it is Easy. I've made a printable pdf poster of this here .  I laminated it and put it up in my classroom so I can remind my kids that it will get easier!  But, it's going to be hard before it's easy.... whether that's Math, Writing, Science, playing piano...