Today the 3rd and 4th grade students went to a local printer and made their own campaign buttons as a follow-up to the wood ones we finished last week. The 1st and 2nd grade woodworkers, are beginning classroom study of Indians, so we went on a hike along the Golden Trail at the high school property and gathered materials for making miniature Tee-pees. It was a beautiful day to hike in the woods and offered some insight into the development of young children. There is often a dramatic difference between a 1st grader and second grader in their ability to pay attention and be quiet, and the exercise of walking silently and observantly in the woods will quickly illustrate differences in maturity.

It is interesting that studies of children's abilities to pay attention and listen have diminished significantly over the last 30 years in which they have been studying these particular signs of maturation. It is believed that the amount of television and computer time are directly to blame.

By the time you get to high school and college, rates and range of development and maturity are in a wide spread. So not all students of the same age are necessarily ready for college at the same time, and some parents may find that college is a very expensive place to park their sons or daughters while waiting for them to mature. Many students benefit from a year or more doing something else first and there are lots of appealing options. When college is what they want most for themselves, the time is right.