Leonard at large
Recently, I received a special letter from our oldest granddaughter, Heather Ernsbarger, Conway, Ark. She enclosed a copy of the article that she had written for her school paper. I was not aware that she had been writing for the paper.
Two other times I have used in my column stories she had written in grade school. She apparently has much talent for writing. Evidently, at least one of the two times I used her stories I got the age and/or the grade wrong. It is difficult to realize how fast our grandchild is growing and maturing.
Most of us have had experiences with siblings and remember the relationships. We have observed the relationship with our children as they related with their siblings. Now grandchildren are being observed.
Heather sent a note with the article which said, "Grandpa, I wanted to send you this. Feel free to do with it what you like, but if you put it in your paper, I'm 13 and in the 8th grade. It's my last article for our school paper, the 'Blue Print.'" The article was on one page in three columns.
This is the article titled "The Twists and Turns of the Sibling Roller Coaster" by Heather Ernsbarger:
Siblings are great right? Well, not always. They can be annoying or rarely, kind of nice.
I interviewed a few people about two topics, sibling rivalry and sibling love. The line between the two is often blurred.
I asked various questions to several people who have older siblings and here are their responses:
Q: What's the nicest thing your older brother/sister ever did for you.
Susannah Stengel said, "The nicest thing my brother ever did for me was not talk for a whole day … but, I think he was sick." After a brief moment of thinking Bethany Ahne said, "spent the night at one of his friends house."
Q: What's the meanest thing your brother/sister ever did to you? Bethany answer, "locked me in my room for 3 hours." Lauren Howell said, "My three big brothers are usually nice to me all of the time." Q: What's the nicest thing your little brother or sister ever did for you?
One person who wished to remain anonymous said, "Hmm, this could take a while." Another person who also wished to remain anonymous said, "the nicest thing my little sister ever did for me was not forget my birthday." Greg Sketas said, "The nicest thing my brother ever did for me was bake me a cake for my birthday."
Q: What's the meanest thing he/she ever did to you?
Anonymous 1 replied, "One time he broke one of my game systems, I was really after that." Anonymous 2 said, "my sister took one of my CD players to school and lost it." I have a little brother and sister myself. My sister is 11 and my brother is 6. and although I don't know how it feels to be in the middle or the youngest maybe you just got a look at how it feels.
I hope my article hasn't bored you to death, but I guess if you've read this far it hasn't. This being my last article for the Carl Stuart Newspaper I'd like to say for the whole crew, hope you enjoyed it.
After receiving this article, I had to share it with you. I am amazed at well she is writing for an eighth grader. She is an example of what young people are achieving. If she keeps this type of activity up, she will develop a great future for herself.
As I read her article, it reminded me of the good times my little brother and I had when we were growing up, doing such things as playing catch, going roller skating, riding bicycles and swimming. We had our share of fights, such as the time he was trying to kick me and I kept catching his foot causing him to fall or the time when he hit me over the head with a milk stool.
It seemed like when our sons were young, they were always fighting -- which is not really true. Still, no one had better mess with one of them as the other one would be taking up for his brother.
Heather's writing of the article is appreciated and the manner that she used by interviewing others and getting their thoughts was an effective way for her to write. I am sure that her peers thought it was interesting.
Heather and two of her friends in her class were state winners in a history contest. As a result, they are going to Washington D.C., with their presentation -- a great achievement and award. They were given a subject, did their own research, made their own props, and developed their own program. Their subject related to the Japanese prisoners held in the United States during World War II. Heather and the other girls put much time and effort into their project. The result is a great experience for them.