“Everyday is a new day which gives us a new opportunity to shape a child’s life.”  Thus begins the little jewel of a book called Life’s Little Lessons…An Inch-by-Inch Tale of Success by Joanne Scaglione and Gail Small.  This tale for children, parents, and teachers, inspires with a simple message, in fact, the authors have this to say:  “We hope to teach children that although life has it’s twists and turns…if we face life with our chin up we can accomplish anything!”  The story centers around a caterpillar named Cyrano who lives with his mom and spends a great deal of time in trouble with the school’s principal, Mr. Tweeterman.  Cyrano cannot make or keep friends, his teachers are so hard on him, and his dad has left home.  He is sent to Mr. BeeCallus’ class (known as the Bee Better class) where Mr. B recognizes his talent with a baseball…and you can probably guess the rest of the story.

Resonating throughout the book is the importance of learning life’s lessons when we’re young and how knowledge can lead us to greatness in the future.  When a young learner looks at me and asks, “Why do I need to know this, Mrs. Van?”, it is my sincere hope the WHY is always more important than the WHAT.

As we begin to start a new school year, there is great excitement and anticipation on the road ahead.  Here’s hoping you savor these last few days of summer time, family, friends, and fun…and here’s hoping the new school year allows each learner the opportunity to make multiple home runs of success!