Erica Allred spends a lot of time around children.
Last Thursday, May 28, she was watching her own young daughter, Elley, from a bench at Cottonwood’s Garrison Park.
There were lots of other kids running around but Allred made sure to keep an eye on her own, standing up occasionally to call her back when she started to get too far away.
Allred was enjoying the beginning of summer with Elley and Elley’s friend; the two had just had a sleepover the night before.
Sleepovers with 5-year-olds can get a little crazy.
“There was a lot of water, sprinklers and Barbie dolls,” Allred said.
The girls stayed up burning the midnight oil until around 8:30 p.m.
When she’s not taking care of her own child, Allred is busy educating the children of other Cottonwood families.
Allred teaches fifth grade at Cottonwood Elementary School, a position she’s held for three years.
It’s where she went to elementary school as a child and said some of the people who were there then are still there now.
She teaches two different groups of students, switching off with a team teacher. Allred teaches them language arts and science.
While science might seem to be a more natural pairing for the study of mathematics, Allred said it was an arrangement she inherited.
“That’s the way it was set up with the other teacher before I got there,” Allred said.
Lately in fifth-grade science studies, Allred said that the children have learned a lot about the cosmos, the stars and planets.
To read the full story, see the Wednesday, June 3, edition of The Camp Verde Journal.
