Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Tracy Coat of Arms


Last night JJ needed help with his homework, “It’s too hard Pepaw.” I took a few minutes to read the assignment which had been stapled to another sheet where he was to originate a family coat of arms.

There was a banner where he was to put his last name and below that a shield with four separate areas to fill in with important information. He was to draw or paste a picture of his family, show where his family came from, put two words describing his family and something the family does for fun.

JJ and I looked through the digital images on my computer and found a group picture taken after Thanksgiving from a year ago. I showed him how to import that to a blank
Word document and size it down so it would fit within the borders on the coat of arms.

JJ was worried about how to show where all his family came from until I explained all he needed was a big map of the US and another of Mexico. The internet took us to several maps which we then shrunk down to size and printed so he could paste them in yet a different block. The smile returned to JJ’s face as the light at the end of the tunnel of success appeared.

What does your family do for fun? “We play video games on the Wii.” JJ was off to the races with his marking pen making the best letters he knew how. The temptation was to print out the information on the computer and let him paste it like he’d done with the other information; but that wouldn’t have helped JJ practice making beautiful easy to read letters. Being a grandparent has its responsibilities; a tough life but somebody has to do it.

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