Do spelling and grammatical errors drive you whacky? They do for me. I was hoping to escape the problem, years ago, when I resigned from my position as a teacher. It wasn’t so much the students who were driving me nuts. It was the teachers’ mistakes!

I’ve heard that if something is written wrong enough times, it eventually becomes right. Perhaps this is why we now see CD’s with an apostrophe. ABC’s and 123’s often sport apostrophes too. Is this world ‘apostrophe crazy’? Perhaps people are hoping that if something is done wrong, often enough, it will become right. If you check out the alternate spellings on Google, I’m sure that you will find that we are coming close to the tipping point.

One of my favorite grammatical sites was created by The Apostrophe Abuse Society. http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/examples_1.htm

Although the society is no longer soliciting examples of apostrophe abuse for their website, you could carry on the tradition by having your children or students assemble a collage of photos demonstrating incorrect uses of the apostrophe.

Somehow the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar must have hear that I’m fanatical about grammatical mistakes. They now send me their newsletter. Check them out here: http://grammatically.blogspot.com

In short, we should remind ourselves that spelling, punctuation and grammatical mistakes are not tolerated on résumés in this very competitive world. How, then, can we accept them from our students?

Sometimes things happen at the most unexpected moments.

With very little notice, we made our way to Calgary to see my son, Benjamin, honored as one of the parade marshals of the Calgary stampede. What an amazing experience. These four guys, who traveled 8,000 km across Canada last year, via skateboard, to raise money for breast cancer, were honored in front of 300,000 people. The event was covered by media from across the country. Ben is amazing at everything he does. When he is not skateboarding and paragliding, he is a web designer and commercial photographer. Of course, I am a proud mother.

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The “Push Boys”, Benjamin Jordan, Carlos Köppen, Aaron Jackson and Rob Lewis, with me and Rob Lewis’s mother, Lorraine Lewis [left]. Benjamin leading the parade on his skateboard [right].

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The “Push Boys” being honored during the stampede [left]. Me hugging Ben [right].

It’s a very rare occasion when I get to visit Calgary, so I was glad to have the time to visit some of our retail buyers and their stores. Many thanks to my Calgarian sister, Merry, who chauffeured me around, otherwise it might have been pretty tricky to find them!

KidSource was our first stop. This is a neat store with staff very dedicated to finding the perfect learning resource for every situation. I met with Penny Kunitz, Wanda Liski and Marilyn Block. KidSource has a new website, so now you can shop there even if you don’t live in Calgary. Visit www.KidSource.ca.

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Owners of KidSource, Wanda Liski [left] and Penny Kunitz [right].

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Marilyn Block, sales associate [left], and the actual store [right].

After a huge lunch (just like Texas, everything is big in Calgary), our next stop was Canadian Home Education Resources. It was a pleasure to meet Brenda Baradoy, in person, after so many years of phone calls and emails! Brenda’s shop mainly serves homeschoolers however she said that many teachers who stumble upon her place are always pleasantly surprised. Brenda’s store has a playroom where kids are happy to play for hours on end. According to Brenda, parents often come in from out-of-town and spend the entire day shopping for a year’s worth of learning resources. Good thing she has that playroom!

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Brenda [left] and her shop [right].

La Librairie Monette is located in a cute little area of Calgary. I think it’s called Brittania Square. It seemed to be an enclave including bookstores, a toy store, Starbucks and a high-end deli. Even though La Librairie Monette is in the basement of a building, you can see from the photos that the entire store is brightly lit and very cheerful. Bridgette and Claudette Monette carry an extensive selection of French and Spanish resources in their friendly store. You can visit La Librairie Monette online at www.librairiemonette.com.

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Bridgette and Claudette [left] and their store [right].