Spring 2012 - Elementary and Jr./ Sr. High School

New Eden Elementary and Jr. / Sr. High School 2012 - Melody Harris - Kindergarten, Elsa Straight - 1st grade, Bryce Ebadi and Bridget Ebadi - 2nd grade, Lance Huffington - 3rd grade, Kendra First - 5th grade, Sierra Thaytowski - 10th grade, Augustus Thaytowski - 11th grade, Dana Todd, Bryan Carson - 12th grade

 

This school year was going to be a new experience for Hope.  Since the hood had not yet found a replacement for Jessica's position as the elementary school teacher, Hope was going to be pulling double duty.

She gave the older students some brief instruction while the younger children were at recess, then set them up on independent study, doing research papers and preparing oral presentations.

The students had expressed an interest in robot building and the school was able to budget some money to purchase the tools to allow the students to experience shop class as well.

With the older students settled, Hope focused on the younger students.  She knew this must be a confusing time for them, so she wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and felt free to discuss any feelings they had or ask any questions that were on their minds.

She decided to push the desks aside and sit in a circle on the floor and have a little chat before starting their lessons for the semester.

Bridget's metaphor of her mother's passing being like her leaving on a very long trip to a place far away, provided a natural segue to the day's lesson on geography and foreign cultures.

"What are some things you are curious about places that are far away from here and about the sims that live there?"

Bryce spoke up, "I would wonder if they play the same kinds of sports and games that we do."

"I bet they do," Lance added.  "Just think, if you lived where there was snow and mountains, you;d probably go skiiing all the time.  There's no where to ski here."
Melody added, "Other places might have different kinds of birds and animals."

"Those are all good thoughts.  What about food?  Do you think sims in other lands eat the same type of food that we do?"

"No, and I don't think I'd like the kind of food that they eat.  I only like my food."

"You never know," Hope replied.  "If you tried it, you might find something new that you really like."

"I heard in some places around the world, sims eat bugs."

Bryce frowned at his sister.  "That's disgusting.  Can we go back to talking about sports instead?"

"I heard there are even places where sims eat rats."

"Ew.  Seriously, stop it.  Let's talk about something else."

Hope posed another question.  "What do you think about traveling to other nations and meeting sims from around the simworld?"

Elsa thought it would be great to make lots of new friends.  Bryce thought other sims from places far away would be too strange and foreign.

Hope then shared with the students the culture of her homeland, a nation that constantly had to rebuild, that was ravaged by continual storms, and considered the number three, incredibly unlucky.

After their discussion, Hope sent the children to the art room to work on creative projects.

The older students, Kendra and Lance used the easels, while the younger ones gathered around the coloring table.

They were to come up with their own civilization and draw a picture to represent it.

When it was time to break for lunch, Hope continued the international theme, by ordering Chinese food.  Even Bryce, who seemed so adverse to foreign foods gobbled it down quickly and was asking for seconds.

Spring 2011 - Elementary School

New Eden Elementary 2011 - Elsa Straight - Kindergarten, Bryce and Bridget Ebadi - 1st grade, Lance Huffington - 2nd grade, Kendra First - 4th grade

The subject of study for the elementary school this simyear was natural science.  Jessica started the activities with examining aquatic life.

The boots they caught were not what Jessica had in mind as a subject of study.

But, at first, that seemed to be what everyone was catching.

Not catching fish, wasn't the worst part, some of the kids, especially little Elsa Straight, were having trouble staying on their feet.

Even Jessica seemed to have trouble, much to her embarrassment.

But sticking to it was well worth the effort.

Soon everyone was catching one type of fish or another.

Having the children wear their coats and jackets was a good idea.  It was colder outside than Jessica had thought it would be.

So after a few moments of playing inside, the class headed inside to warm up and have some lunch.

A new high school student, Dana Todd, stopped by after her classes to help out with the little kids.  Jessica was grateful for the extra pair of hands and eyes.  The kids seemed to like her too.

After lunch and a potty break, the class headed back outside to look for insects and birds.

Lance: "Ms. Ebadi!  Ms. Ebadi!  May I be excused?  Please???"

He still wasn't feeling well after recovering from food poisioning, so Jessica excused him to lay down in the new teacher's lounge.

Also during the school year, they learned about planting seeds and watching them grow.

Jessica ended up doing more of the activity herself than she's initially planned.  Keeping five elementary school students focused on the activity at hand was no easy task.

Once the seedlings had started to grow, they planned a field trip to the Central Market Square to start planting the community garden.

The girls got to planting right away . . .

but the boys needed some reminders to get on task.  "Save the cops and robbers for recess, boys."

"Look, Mom, I'm planting," Bryce insisted as he got back to work.

Summer 2010 - Ebadi / Elementary School

Jessica (30), Bridget (5), Bryce (5)

Jessica's days were occupied with children.  When she wasn't at school teaching the children of New Eden, she was at home playing with her own little ones.

She was content with her life overall.  Even though it was difficult being a single mother to twin toddlers, she was doing well, but she wouldn't deny that she was looking forward to the twins being old enough to go to school.

When it was time for their first birthday, Jessica had a small celebration at home with just her, Bridget and Bryce.

Bridget seemed to get prettier and prettier the more she grew.

And Bryce continued to look more and more like his father.

He definitely inherited the Lillard nose.

This year brought even more exciting changes for Jessica.  Construction on the new elementary school was going well.  Even though the building still needed some finishing touches, most of the building was complete and ready for the first day of school.

The children were disappointed that it was too rainy to play outside when they arrived in the morning, but the excitement of meeting new friends and seeing their new school soon distracted them and they followed Jessica inside.

James had stopped by the first day to see how things were going with the finishing touches on the building and to see what the teacher thought of the new building.

Jessica had nothing but praise for James' work.  "I love it.  If there were enough room I think this would be a great place for the Jr. / Sr. High as well."

"We might be able to manage that, if we added another story to the building.  I'll look into the possibility."

The first days at the new school went remarkably smooth.  The classroom design worked well.  The students were well behaved.  With only five children in the class, and two of them being her own, the class size was easily manageable.

At the end of the day, the kids seemed happy with their new school too.

One evening after school, Jessica invited her colleagues, Hope and Rich, over for an informal teacher's meeting.  Since they were now working in separate buildings with different groups of students, they thought it would be a good idea to meet to touch base on issues, such as school menus.

Jessica also wanted to host the little party to welcome Hope to the neighborhood and to try to get to know her a little better.  She was sorry to say she found Hope a little bit boring. 

Jessica was in for a huge surprise when she saw Bruce walking on the sidewalk in front of her house.  She hadn't seen him since she left Eden, before she found out she was pregnant, when she saw him kissing an old flame when she thought he loved her.

Her hurt and anger at being cheated on had long since faded and she was no longer furious with him, so she went over to say hello and they talked.  He was in town visiting his nieces at the university.  He had heard rumors about her having twins and he wanted to know if they were true and if they were, if he was the father.

He was not happy to learn that the rumors were true, that Jessica's children were his and she had never told him.  When she invited him inside to meet Bryce and Bridget he was reluctant, but agreed.

When he met Bridget, he didn't tell her that he was her father.  He introduced himself as a new friend and told her that he was the chief of staff at the hospital where he worked.

He and Bridget seemed to hit it off immediately and she even surprised him with a hug before he left.  However, the next day when Jessica invited him over to spend more time with the children, he declined, but told her to expect a check in the mail and more in the future whenever she needed it.

It was not the reply she had wanted to hear.  She just hoped the children wouldn't be disappointed.