MPT - Third Grade (and Gratitude Day #4)

Today I am Thankful for Memories.
I had a wonderful childhood, and I count that as one of my greatest blessings. So here are just a few stories from the year I was 8.

This is the fifth in a series of blogs I'm writing for Mommy's Piggy Tales . Janna has provided a forum for members to write and share stories from their youth. It's a great adventure! Feel free to join in here.
I forgot a very important piece of history last week. When I was in 2nd grade my parents bought a piano and I started taking piano lessons. That made a huge impact on my life, particularly as I got into junior high and high school. My first teacher was Rita Peterson. She was Canadian and so I remember working my way through the Royal Conservatory of Music books, but I'm sure that was after 2nd and 3rd grade. First I had to learn the basics. I just remember enjoying the opportunity to practice, go to her house each week (and play with my good friend Collette while my sister had her lesson), and surviving the anxiety caused by yearly recitals.

"The summer of 1970 I turned eight and was baptized. My birthday was the Saturday before Fast Sunday, so my father baptized me on my birthday. It was part of a stake baptism and we used the font at the Cherry Street Stake Center in San Jose. That day I received my Book of Remembrance from my Beckstrand grandparents, along with a birthday cake from the bakery. The next day I was confirmed by my father, who was also the bishop of the San Jose 11th Ward. That was neat because I got to go to the church to have my interview with the bishop.""I remember having a garden every year, including strawberries, raspberries, oranges, lemons, rhubarb, and walnuts. Harvesting was usually fun, especially when we had races to see who could fill their box first. This year, I got to plant my own garden with whatever I wanted. I sent it in to some contest (I think through Sunset Magazine), but nothing came of that. I loved being responsible for my own work, including the organizing, planting, watering, wedding, and harvesting. "
"When school started that fall, I was in Miss Straub’s third grade class, and Josephine’s sister, Arlene, who was a year younger than her, was living with us. Third grade was exciting because we learned to play song flutes, multiply to 8x8, and draw charts of the body’s nervous system. I also remember doing seek-a-word puzzled. Often I would only need to find one more word, I would go to Miss Straub to tell her it wasn’t there, and as soon as I said that, “Voila!,” the word would appear. I enjoyed reading and was good friends with the school librarian. That was the year I went through the “Eddie’s Green Thumb” series." I also remember having the "early" and "late" reading times. Each class was divided in half. One half went to school from 8-2, for example, and the other half from 9-3. Reading was done either the first or last hour, so as to provide more individualized attention.

Another thing I remember from grade school was the endless experiments with household chore charts. I'm glad my mother kept trying! I remember having to clean the bathroom before school each day and helping with dinner dishes each evening. One of the more memorable charts involved little round paper discs and a board with a series of hooks. Mom wrote our assignments on the key tags (that's what they're called!) and we were responsible for moving them to the "done" hook as we completed our chores. Although I don't remember acting this way, apparently I wasn't always an angel child. Maybe it had something to do with the requirement to help around the house!

Just one more picture for the fun of it. What do you think? Have costumes changed much in 40 years?