Good News

Cary has been a graduate student at Pitt since the fall of 2000, and this is his last year of university funding. He applied for two fellowships for the next school year, either of which, if awarded, would provide funding for one more year without teaching and coursework requirements attached. We were informed earlier this month that he was an "alternate" for one of the fellowhips and would not receive the other. That sent Cary into a bit of a scramble to look for work.

Well--drumroll, please--we received another letter yesterday which informed us that he is no longer an alternate! He will be awarded one of the fellowships and will be able to focus completely on his dissertation instead of trying to write it while working at another job. Woohoo!!! (That's exactly what I said when we read the letter, along with a big sigh of relief.) We feel very blessed.

MOMs Night Out

Warning: This post actually contains information which may be useful to parents of preschoolers. If you will find this boring, you may not wish to read any further.

Since becoming a mother of four, I have joined two MOMs clubs (Mothers Of Multiples). I never thought I would do anything like that, but it's really nice to get out and have some adult conversation and relaxation once or twice a month! One group, which I attend more than the other, is really informal. We just meet for dinner once a month at different restaurants. The other group has social events too, but they also have professionals come in to speak about various subjects.

I was really interested in the topic tonight, and am excited to try out what I learned at home. We talked about handwriting, and in particular, a method called "Handwriting Without Tears" that seemed like a really good idea to me. The letters are grouped into categories that make sense. You start with letters that begin with a vertical stroke on the left side (L, F, E, M, N, etc.). In a nutshell (from what I learned tonight), the method has three basic parts.

1. Using a rectangular foam mat and wooden pieces shaped like letter strokes you demonstrate to your child how to build a letter on the mat. Then they build the letter. (At some point they will be able to build it without seeing it first.)


2. This part is called "wet-dry-try". You write the letter on a small chalkboard. Your child takes a damp piece of paper towel or sponge and wipes the letter clean, following the strokes you made three times. They then do the same with a dry paper towel. This is something that will encourage "muscle memory".


3. You demonstrate how to write the letter with pencil on paper. They then write the letter.

I'm sure this is a watered-down version, but you can visit the website in the link above if you're interested. When I asked the speaker how much the kit costs, she said that she usually recommends that parents buy foam sheets from Wal-Mart or a craft store and cut out pieces to make their own kit. The pieces are listed in the products section of the website.

I've discovered that Everett is a bit of a perfectionist in some ways. (I wonder where he got that.) When he tries to write letters and they're not "just right" he wants to erase them. He gets frustrated or loses attention rather quickly despite my encouraging words, so I'm hoping this will make it easier and more interesting for him. We're not putting a lot of pressure on him, but I'd like him to learn and enjoy it too!

This is one of the things we were working on before I heard about the HWT method. (I would have shown the "E" page, but Everett erased all of his "E's" and my elephant looked rather gimpy.)

Cary is ABD

I just realized that I forgot to post Cary's exciting news:

Cary is now ABD! For those of you who are normal people and think that sounds like some form of disorder, it actually stands for "All But Dissertation" in nerdy scholarly circles. This means that he has finished all of his coursework, his prospectus has been approved, and he has been formally accepted as a PhD candidate.

Though I never expected his studies to take this long, I'm very proud of what he has accomplished. We celebrated his success with a nice dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse. (Yes, an actual date, and we had a great time.) Cary thinks they should make a steak-scented candle. Mmmmm

So he had one brief sigh of relief after his defense, and has now buckled down for the long haul of actually writing his dissertation. I keep trying to dicker with him to cut down the time for completing the degree, but I guess it doesn't really work that way!