New Windows

*new windows!*

We decided when we first bought the house that we wanted to take advantage of the government rebates for energy savings and replace our original (rope-pulley) windows with new, energy-efficient windows. Although I was sad to see our unique windows torn out, we're very happy with our new windows!

*goodbye old windows*

*hello new windows!*

Happy 2 Years!!!

*love pancakes :)*

Julian and I celebrated two wonderful years of marriage together earlier this month. After the craziness of buying our house and moving in, we decided we would have a much-deserved day of rest. We slept in, had a nice romantic breakfast, and then went to see Avatar (great movie!). We had dinner at an Irish restaurant to try something new-- we shared a Shepherd's Pie and a quesadilla (in case the Shepherd's Pie was not very tasty). It was a wonderful, relaxing day, and we look forward to many more anniversary celebrations together :)

*Julian brought me a new flower to plant for each year of our marriage-- a great surprise!*

*happy with our new flowers!*

*anniversary brunch*

*Julian is enjoying his love pancakes*

Our Home

*proud new home-owners!*

We're finally in our new home, and semi-unpacked! It looks wonderful, and feels wonderful to be in our little place. We're very happy with the paint colors-- it feels much warmer here than in our white-walled apartment :) We're already learning the joys of owning a home, with a leaky shower faucet that we're repairing to little ant friends in the kitchen... but they really are joys because it's exciting to have our own place to fix!!

Here are a few pictures of our new home:

*Julian and Dad, hanging out in our living room*

*kitchen!*

*our bedroom*

*guest bedroom*

*Home Sweet Home*

*our new home, the left side of the duplex!!*

After about year of searching for houses, we finally found one that we loved and had been waiting a couple of months to see if our offer was accepted. In January we found out it was, and the fight began! Julian fought with everyone involved in the process to keep them from adding "junk" fees, and he was extremely successful. The Lord blessed us a LOT by lowering the price considerably, a wonderful blessing and surprise!!

This weekend, we finalized the sale!! It is taking awhile to sink in, since we're not moving for another month, but we're very excited to be homeowners. Now comes more work to fix up the house and make it into a lovely home!

Come visit!!

Misc. Winter 2010

We've stayed pretty busy this winter! We were going through the steps of buying a home, and we were snowed in from 2 blizzards! We still managed to have a lot of fun :)

*Washington Wizards v. Miami Heat. Miami was amazing!*

*Bryan and Laney came to visit!!*

*Our romantic fondue dinner for Valentine's Day*

*enjoying yummy fondue*

*Julian with a percussion instrument made from a donkey's jaw*

*with a member of Creole, a musical group from San Andres (a Colombian island) that we saw at the Kennedy Center*

August 22, 2009

*looking forward to our future*

We finally had our church wedding! We were so blessed to have family and friends from all over the world join us as we renewed our vows in a "wedding" ceremony. Unfortunately, not all family was there (Julian's dad was denied a visa), but we know they were all there in spirit.

Here are a few pictures from our day:

*with parents and grandparents*

*laughing with my funny husband*

*with our wedding party*

*at the spot where Julian asked me to be his girlfriend, and later, his wife*

I love AppleTree

I am really blessed to be working at AppleTree Institute. It's amazing to be working with people who know and love what they're doing, and to really feel like we're able to make a difference in the lives of children. Research in the early childhood years shows some pretty powerful things. First, before the age of 4, the brain will have the largest amount of synaptogenesis (the process of making new connections in the brain) for language. So, the period from 2-4 is the period of the largest language growth that will ever happen in a human. Unfortunately, research also shows that the amount of language growth that occurs depends largely on the amount of exposure a child has to different experiences and to language itself. Sadly, the amount of language a child hears differs vastly across socio-economic status. The chart below shows the number of words heard per hour across 3 socio-economic classes. So, by the age of three, professional class children heard more than 3x the amount of words as public assistance children. 

This directly impacts the amount of words a child will use. The next chart shows the amount of words used by children at the age of three, again divided by socio-economic status. You can note that in comparing the two charts, by age three, the professional class children are using more words than the public assistance class adults.

This is all to say that by age 3, we can predict with depressing accuracy if a child will pass their 4th grade reading tests, and even if they'll graduate from high school. (These data are from Hart & Riley, 1995).

This is why early intervention is so important. We're in the process of collecting our end of the year assessments for all of our students, but the general trend that we see so far is that the children at risk for reading failure are able to learn, and to learn more quickly than those not at risk, over the course of our high quality preschool program.

The Obama administration has quoted the fact that for every $1 invested in early childhood education, we'll save $7-10 dollars. Some people may wonder where these amounts come from. Basically, 3 very large studies consisted of thousands of at-risk students have been carried out across many years (some have followed students from the womb to age 30). For students who are at risk and receive high quality early interventions, such as a high quality preschool education, they can continue on in school with few problems. However, those who don't receive any interventions are often places in special education for reading and behavioral problems. The amount of money we can save by putting in place high quality preschool programs versus failing our kids (mainly African American and English Language Learners) and sending them to special education saves about 7-10 dollars for every 1 dollar spent.

Although I knew very little about the importance of early childhood education, I am a convert and feel very passionate about what we're able to do. Frankly, it's amazing to see a child (at age 3!!) write his/her name, talk about rhyming words, identify all of the letters and the sounds that they make, all while having fun and playing. I love my job :)

This is the website of my organization. http://www.appletreeinstitute.org/

I work for the DCPEL (DC Partnership for Early Literacy). :)