Christmas Letter 2011

December 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

We hope you had a great year!! We have been busy, but we have had a wonderful 2011.

Shawnie was recently released as a councilor in the Primary Presidency and is now an Activity Days Leader in charge of helping the children obtain their Faith in God awards. This past year she has enjoyed the  opportunity to fit in some sewing between the children's activities.

Kyle was called to be the Ward Employment Specialist and is also teaching Sunday School to the 14 and 15 year-olds in the Ward. Kyle's big home improvement project this year was to remodel our hall bathroom in September.

Brittany is now twelve years old. She is in the 7th grade at Brooks Wester Middle School where she participates in Pre-AP (Advanced Placement) classes, the school's Concert Choir, and was among the largest group of students in the school's history to try out for the All Region Choir. While she was not chosen to sing with the choir, she learned a lot and she hopes to make it next year. Brittany also joined the Young Women's program this year where she currently serves as the Beehive Class Secretary and loved Girls Camp. Brittany is a great help around the house and has begun baby-sitting for Mom and Dad (whoohoo!).

Megan is ten and is in the 4th grade at J.L. Boren Elementary. Megan is a very inquisitive student and has stepped up to the challenges of 4th grade. We were excited this fall to watch Megan use her physical talents as she played soccer again with her team, “Super Stars.” It was awesome to watch her work ethic on the field  and her desire to assist her team mates to succeed. Megan has also joined Brittany and Kyle to sing in the Ward Choir.

Joshua is eight and is enjoying 2nd grade, also at J.L. Boren Elementary. Joshua chose to be baptized this year and also joined Cub Scouts. His first week happened to be the Pinewood Derby! Josh also played soccer this fall and was picked from the draft to play with the Mansfield Venom. He learned a lot from a very good coach. We were excited to see his growth.

Paul is five and loving Kindergarten, also at J.L. Boren Elementary. He is a friend to many. We watch as he always seems to have a new good friend to lift and have fun with. Paul also played soccer this fall. It was a joy to watch his team, Lightning, grow from running around aimlessly to a well-oiled team of Kindergarteners! Paul loves to ride his new bike and playing with his siblings.

Erica will be four this December. She loves helping Shawnie at home, especially cooking and playing with her little sister, Lydia. Erica took dance lessons this fall. If you can convince her that she really took the class, she might even dance for you. Whether she acknowledges it or not, she really does enjoy dancing!

Lydia is 18 months old and is our friend maker. Wherever she goes, she loves to look at people until they acknowledge her. Recently, she learned how to say hi, and will say 'hi' to complete strangers. She definitely knows how to lighten up someone's day. At home she loves giving hugs and kisses.

As for the coming year, we look forward to the addition of our seventh child in June 2012! We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

The Kyle and Shawnie Leonard Family

**Thanks to Brittany for writing the letter this year.

Brittany (12)

Megan (10)

Joshua (8)

Paul (5)

Erica (3, almost 4)

Lydia (18mos)

The Little Red Hen & Why projects fail

Do you remember the children's story "The Little Red Hen?"  Wikipedia reminds us of the storyline, it is a story about a Hen who...

"...finds a grain of wheat, and asks for help from the other farmyard animals to plant it. However, no animal will volunteer to help her."

"At each further stage (harvest, threshing, milling the wheat into flour, and baking the flour into bread), the hen again asks for help from the other animals, but again she gets no assistance."

"Finally, the hen has completed her task, and asks who will help her eat the bread. This time, all the previous non-participants eagerly volunteer. However, she declines their help, stating that no one aided her in the preparation work, and eats it with her chicks, leaving none for anyone else." (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Hen)

Let's add a new modern twist to this story. What if the Farmer came to the Hen after planting the seed and told her "Good job! You've succeeded at planting the wheat. Now change your focus to work on making the bread. I need to justify to Mrs. Farmer the need to have you around."  The Hen may protest, "But I don't have any flour yet."  The Farmer's arrogant reply is , "It doesn't matter, I need results now. It doesn't even need to be a full loaf, one piece will do!"

It does not matter to the Farmer that a project plan was vetted through him and Mother Nature.  It needs to be changed now, even though following the original plan will get the Farmer a great tasting LOAF of bread. He just wants the Hen to throw something together by next week and 'prove Her worth' or to 'meet Mrs. Farmer's need for one piece of bread.'

Isn't this the typical reason projects fail or are extended?  What seems at the moment a great pressing need to succumb to outside pressure to change the scope of the project, is allowed to creep in and change everything up.  "Oh, we don't need to weed the soil or harvest the new wheat, or thresh & mill any new wheat.  We can use the pile of old flour over there.

If the project is just allowed to progress, the bread will be made at the end of the project. Or maybe a new project will need to spin up concurrently to make the fancier bread (raisin or multi-grain bread) being requested.  Non-the-less, either the natural progression of the project is stymied and ground is actually lost or the results of the project are not the full results that could have been achieved.

"But," goes the argument, "Mrs. Farmer got her piece of bread!"  And to that I reply, "Yes, but next time, the old pile of flour will have been used up and more work will be required to get the same results." 

So are we going to be a people of 'get rich quick' and rush to the results or at some point are we going to wake up to the fact that the foundation steps are required to achieve great results?

August 2011 photos

Weed through the many photos taken by the kids and you'll find birthday photos/videos.

First Day of School!

July Photos

June 2011

Click the photo for the whole album (with lots of video clips).

May photos

I've been waiting to post these photos until after we returned from my Brother Keith's wedding. Mostly because of the pictures of the quilt Shawnie put together in a matter of days for their wedding gift.

I love my talented wife!

Easter Photos

JWL as a referee

Soccer has begun

How to Match Your Clothes, by a 3 year old

When getting dressed this morning, Erica chose a skirt with blue and purple flowers. Then she wanted me to choose her shirt. I pulled out a purple shirt. She said no. I pulled out a blue shirt. She said no again. I told her to pick her own shirt and left the room. A few minutes later, Erica came out dressed. When I said that the pink flower shirt didn't match the blue and purple flower skirt, Erica said, "But they're both flowers," in the most matter-of-fact way.

So if you see Erica, or another 3 year old, in the store with an odd outfit, you should know that she did in fact choose matching clothes, just according to her own rules.

One room school-house learning

What is wrong with education today?

Schools have become too socialized in their approach. They look to the institution too much, rather than the individual. Our mega-schools are geared towards saving a dollar and mass producing students, rather than meeting the individual student at his or her level and helping him or her learn and grow. Decisions are made at the district and principal level, rather than at the classroom and individual level.  In other-words, decisions are made for the whole rather than for the individual. A socialized rather than a democratic approach to education.

How to solve it?

I believe the solution is found in the basic ideas that made America great.  Individualism, hard work, and local community. We need to recreate the local structure in the neighborhood where students can be nurtured at an individual level.  Provide support and use a structure which promotes the individual rather than the class or group.  The Boy Scouts troops and merit badge model is a good example of this type of learning.  Or the model we have in universities and colleges.  Take the child out of the group and create small groups that meet specific needs.  When those needs are met, restructure for the new needs, all the while meeting group and societal goals for learning.

At a young age (up to age 6), larger groups of children working together in a classroom setting to learn collective ideas of community is important.  However, after this age -- or more importantly-- after the list of basic skills achieved today in Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st grade are achieved, the notion of community has been established and the building blocks of the child have been established.  (reading, writing, basic arithmetic, etc) I'd suggest keeping these building block classes in place.  All children should participate.  However, it may be at different ages (earlier or later) than currently implemented.

After establishing that the children have these basics down, the next step is to add knowledge in each of these areas.  The approach to learning found in the Boy Scouts is the closest model to what I'd think matches best the philosophy I am suggesting. Create small groups where the focus is on a list of badges (learning objectives) to earn.  Classes at schools may still be offered in mathematics, science, social studies, etc. but instead of being assigned by age, it is assigned by the merit badge or list of topics being mastered. 

The other aspect of the Boy Scouts merit badge model that is important is the notion that the student has responsibility to accomplish the goal. However, the student cannot have all responsibility or the goal will never be met.  Instead, it is a shared responsibility among a group of people all focusing on the individual: the student, parents, teacher/mentor, counselor. To this end, small groups of students with an adult mentor and student leaders could be formed with the purpose of encouraging students to accomplish goals and report their progress to each other.

A similar structure to what exists in schools today could continue.  However, the difference would be in how the student is held responsible. A higher level of individual attention would be needed.  Parents would need to take more time to help make sure the child is achieving each learning goal (Merit Badge), school structures would need to change to provide a more ad-hoc approach to learning.  Support systems at schools would need to change from classes of students to groups of individuals working to help each other achieve learning goals.

I see this as a one-room school-house approach to learning.  Children at individual levels learning side-by-side the different lessons they need -- meeting their individual needs, rather than the group's needs.

What do you think?  What did I miss?  How would you improve education?

Lydia Speaks

Celebrating the New Year -- in pictures