02.18.2003 | 9:43 pm

I sighed a DEEP sigh as I came to the end of the day with only one guestbook entry that was negative about my thoughts on our country. I�m sure many of my friends were being just that, friends, and were nice enough to keep their disagreements with me on the subject to themselves. I did get about three times as many people reading my humble pages today as I receive normally. Thank you to all who were kind.

The nut tree was dandy today. We were learning long e today. You would not believe the lengthy list of words the little squirrels generated containing the long e sound. I separated the list into spelling categories so they could get a visual of how all their words looked. Did you know that the art of spelling is as much visual as it is anything else? It�s true. Often times we take a good look at a word after spelling it, only to discover we have spelled it wrong. We rely on our visual memory of the word.

Thankfully Valentine�s Day is behind us and we can move on to the study of Washington and Lincoln. The squirrels love to learn about the times, customs and peculiarities of those long ago days. They are especially fascinated with the schools system of yesteryear. Children during Lincoln�s time often attended school only two months out of the entire year. The remaining time was spent working the farm, building, planting, harvesting and performing the myriad of tasks youngsters were required to do 150 years ago. All my little squirrels are glad for modern conveniences, but would love to have only two months of school. I�ll join that club too, thank you!

The snow is thigh high in Pennsylvania this fine winter day. Upon calling the M�s x5, I was informed that there was no getting out of the driveway this morning without arduous shoveling. Finally, a neighbor with a snow-blower came to Matt�s rescue, and he was able to get to work. The neighbors are in awe of the fact that Matt and Marie are in love with snow�its whiteness, depth and beauty. Being from the desert, it is such a new experience for them. I�m sure by next winter the newness will have worn off, and they will treat the snow like all native Pennsylvanians. Till then�let it snow!

catsnapples~ in first grade and at life

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