Dinner with Friends at Ditka’s in Robinson Plaza

 Due to the pandemic, a lot of school events were cancelled.   So all the plans are put to a halt but glad these youngsters are creative enough to go and have a little fun by creating a diversion by themselves.  Since they can go with the normal or traditional homecoming dinner, they decided to to do it by themselves.  They went to Ditka’s, an upscale steak house restaurant in Robinson Plaza in Pittsburgh, PA.

Our daughter went with close friends.   They went with their homecoming partners.

We took some photos before they left to capture the moment.

Time sure is flying by.  Both of our kids are now taller than me.  It makes me sad and happy at the same time, sad because  I miss the babies in them and happy because I witnessed their growing up years every single day.  I am fortunate enough to be a stay at home mom and be their primary caregiver.  I am blessed and I am grateful for that.

Higher Graduation Rate and More Life Earnings: The Benefits of Reading

As well as providing endless enjoyment for both parents and children, reading to children has so many social and educational benefits! These benefits carry all the way through to college and working life, making it the perfect activity for preparing little ones for a successful future.

 

Extensive research has been done to show how valuable reading to your children is. It has been stated by The 90% Reading Goal that 77% of children who begin reading at a second to eighth-grade level at the beginning of their third grade will graduate high school. As well as this, only 27% of children reading at a lower level than this will graduate. Reading aloud to your children is a fantastic way to boost their confidence and familiarity with reading from an early age, ensuring they’re much more prepared to reach this reading level at elementary school. Just 20 minutes a day is enough to obtain the amazing benefits.

 

One major benefit of reading aloud to your children is faster development of communication skills, making children become more familiar with language and expression. Personalized books are amazing for developing this skill, since children will be able to relate to the story and in turn communicate the tale and the setting to their parents in a more effective way. You can find some fantastic personalized children’s books here!

 

While nurturing your parent-child bond during those 20 minutes a day, children will also be likely to perform higher academically. They’ll learn to be educated in different environments, as well as learn literacy skills from a young age when they delve in a magical world of adventure and learning.

Not Enough Parents Read to Their Kids for Long Enough

In The Book, a children’s book publisher, then wanted to discover just how many parents were reading to their children for 20 minutes a day. After surveying a thousand parents of children aged 0-5, they found out that only 18% of parents were reading to their children for 20 minutes a day! With keeping children engaged sometimes a difficult task, being more creative and active with story time is a great way to keep children looking forward to the activity. Even more, 20 minutes a day seems like no time at all to achieve the benefits for their development!

Even more fascinating is the discovery by The 90% Reading Goal that a child’s lifetime earnings, if they graduated high school, can increase to over $500,000 dollars more than dropouts. Therefore, reading aloud to them will better prepare them for high school graduation, and ultimately enable them to earn more in their lifetime! By making reading with your children an exciting activity and one you can share together, they’ll get to experience so many academic and monetary advantages, as well as create fond memories of time with their parents.

Graduation Reception at Holiday Inn #Class2019

After the mass and the graduation rites, students and their families  went to Holiday Inn for the reception and awarding ceremony.  Graduation here is a lot different than the ones we have back home.  Never the less, it was a great moment for our first born.  I can't believe that she have graduated  from St. Joseph already.

Their homeroom teacher, Mrs. Ferguson made this Name initial project and have them decorated it with pictures.  They were displayed at the reception hall.  I thought that was a really nice touch to the  special occasion.

I got the chance to take some photos of these beautiful young ladies before before the awarding ceremony started.

With Lizzy, Lyd, Jul, and Ally.

I thing their homeroom mom, Rose A, baked this cake  for them.

I'm not quite sure if these cakes were also provided by the homeroom moms or  by the caterer. It's hard to recall the details since a year have passed already.

The white and black gang, me, Darla, and Rose.

Looking  at these kids made me realized how time flies. I can remember how little they were when they all first met in kindergarten.  

Here's the list of awards my daughter received.

• -Athletic Recognition for Volleyball 5th-8th
• -Academic Award in recognition of maintaining a perfect 4.0 GPA for 8 years
• -West Virginia History Bowl 2019 participation
• -President’s Education Awards Program Award for Outstanding Academic Excellence 
• -Yearbook Cover Contest Winner
• -St. Aquinas Medal recipient

Yearbook cover winners

With her friend Emily.

With her close friend Lydia M.  They've been friends  since Kindergarten.They're still friends even  now that Lyd goes to Weir High.

The combination of St. Paul and St. Joseph, they all gotten close because of volleyball.

Lyd M., Emily, Mack S. Julia W., Jul V., Olivia, Ally P, Lizzy E., Hannah B., and Rye.

We chose to continue her education to Catholic School.  It's true that it's expensive but I think it's worth every cent we spent for our children.  They're smart and seeing their grades is like our reward for a money well spent.  Our son will be  in 8th grade this and hopefully, Covid19 will be gone by the time he graduates.

Our Daughter's Middle School Graduation at St. Joseph School #Class2019

Our first born has graduated from St. Joseph the Worker School on May 21st of 2019.  Wow, it's been over a year and I haven't even  blog about it wahhh.  I am so slow with all the events that happened in my family especially my kids.  I haven't even wrote about her freshman year at Madonna High School, ugh.  I really have to catch up on things or else I'll miss to document a lot of my kids milestone. Ever since my  computer crashed, it's been really tough on getting back my  mojo on writing.

 I am so glad that she graduated before this Covid19 pandemic hits.  She got to enjoy the graduating ceremony with her friends.  Some of these  kids went to other school but  some went to Madonna High School where my daughter  goes to.

 With Ally P.

 With Ally and Hannah B.

 With Aly and Julianna V.

 Six of these kids went to different schools.  They are great group of kids, I wish they could have stayed in one school together in high school but there's nothing really you can do.  Some moved to other state (Benson), some went to Weir High and some went to Brooke High.

 One thing I must say, even though they went on different schools, some of them remained close friends. 

 Below with Mrs. Craig.  She no longer teach at St. Joe's.

 Rylie's former art teach, Mrs. Wright and English teacher, Mrs. Bischof.

 With her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Betty Lou Gain.

 With Benson Zhao.  He moved to New York.

 With Mrs. Plesa, her 2nd grade teacher.

It was nice that the some of the teachers who retired already have attended the ceremony.  I thought it was great seeing them.  I am sure they feel a sense of pride too seeing their former "little"  students have grown.  I am going to post the reception next, so tune in.