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Spence continues to teach
Photo submittted by Kathy Spence
Kathy Spence (far left) and her husband Larry (far right) hold a “grandkids’ school” every summer on Lake Roosevelt.
When Kathy Spence retired from her position as an elementary school teacher in the Quincy School District several years ago, she realized that she still had a passion to educate youngsters. In particular, she had an affinity for science.
She also had a desire with her husband, Larry, also a retired Quincy educator, to spend as much quality time with their six grandchildren as they could.
“I just didn’t want to throw all my (learning materials) away from school,” Kathy said with a laugh. “So I kept it and decided to do something.”
For the past five summers, Kathy and Larry have held what they call a “grandkids’ school” at a cabin on Lake Roosevelt.
For four days, the grandparents expose their six grandchildren — their son Jay and daughter Nikki have three children each — to a variety of science-related topics that really come alive in a natural setting. The camp expanded to include the two grandchildren of John and Doris Petersen.
“Each year, we focus our studies on a different animal,” Kathy said. “It’s an animal from the habitat. We study the animals in their natural environments and do all sorts of things — crafts, hikes, field trips. We’ve had guest speakers come in.”
The first year, the camp focused on wolves. The next year, it was eagles, then cougars. Last summer, it was deer.
“I want the kids to love science,” Kathy said. “That was always one of my favorite parts of teaching, the animals. It’s been fun.
“The year we focused on eagles, we just happened to find an eagle that had died on the beach, so we had the chance to see it disintegrate, basically, and see the science up close. It was amazing. Then we walked about a mile down and found a nest. You don’t always get to see it that close.
“Last summer we had the kids make stepping stones, and they put their handprints in the stones, and we put a deer’s pawprint in it.
“We might have to expand to some different kinds of science, though, because we’re kind of running out of animals up there.”
Of course, in most situations, kids aren’t going to be tremendously eager to be put into a learning environment during their precious summers, but Kathy and Larry have found a way to make their camp enjoyable for everybody involved.
“The rule is a grandchild can’t participate in the camp until he or she is 3 years old, so the older kids who have gone have lorded over the younger ones,” she said with a laugh. “They say, ‘Sorry you weren’t able to come. You can come when you’re big.’ They look forward to coming. We try to get a lot of facts into them and do a lot of talking and reading.”
Kathy said the desire to put on the summer learning camp stems from her 35 years spent teaching kindergarten, first grade and second grade in Quincy.
“It’s probably a natural extension,” she said. “I get my (teaching) fix this way. I just want the kids to love to learn.”
Kathy, who grew up in East Wenatchee, knew from a young age that teaching was her calling.
“It’s what I always wanted to do,” she said. “I liked the kids and the relationships I had with them. That was probably my favorite thing.”
Kathy and Larry were originally going to stay in Quincy for just one year to allow Larry to finish up his degree at Central Washington University, but Larry was offered a teaching job at Quincy Junior High.
“And he wanted to coach,” Kathy said. “He got that chance, and we ended up staying and never left. Quincy has been a good place to live. Larry grew up here. We have family and friends here. We’re also involved in our church (Quincy Free Methodist Church). We love our church family.”
When they’re not spending time with their grandchildren, Kathy and Larry enjoy camping, snowmobiling and traveling as much as they can.
“We recently took a trip to the Grand Canyon and Tucson, Ariz., which was a great trip, really fun,” Kathy said. “One year we took a trip to Disneyland. In 2006, we went to Bay St. Louis, Miss., right after Hurricane Katrina and worked on houses down there for a week as part of a church mission. That was an amazing experience. We went to San Francisco during fleet week. The ships came into the bay under the Golden Gate Bridge and we rode bikes across the bridge. It was really fun."
