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By:  Jessica R

My grandmother grew up working class outside of Chicago. It was a different time. Most of us can't really understand, but to her school was very important.

She felt like it was her out her way to a better life. She equated education with wealth. She thought it was important to speak proper English. She would read every book. She even read textbooks and the dictionary--the library being her favorite destination, other than school, she felt like the people she admired spoke eloquently.

And if she did as well, it could help her in life. She dreamed of being a doctor despite how, during that era, it was still a male dominated field. Although she did marry young and have children, she was able to earn her nursing degree. She never stopped reading and learning. My grandmother passed that love of reading to me in the Summers I spent at her home.

We would read, and read, and read.  She belonged to several book clubs and subscribed to all the 99 cent novel services. I'm not sure if those really exist anymore, but they were awesome.

I do know the Harlequin romances arrived almost weekly on her doorstep in a heavy brown box. She had shelves and shelves of books.

She also kept a daily word calendar on the refrigerator every morning at breakfast. She would have me read the word of the day and what it meant. Then she would try to have us use it at our breakfast conversation. She said, it's not just reading something but saying it and using it to make the word stick. I do not know how successful I was at age like seven through 10 at this game, but I know when I was tested in fifth grade, I had the reading comprehension level of a sophomore in college.

I owe that to my grandmother and a little to the word of the day calendar (maybe also to the romance novels but let's pretend otherwise) tackling something one day at a time. Remembering one word, and its meaning, was so useful to me.

So now when sharing all about Absite Smackdown, I cannot help but be reminded of my grandma. Our Instagram is @Daily.Absite.Fact, and it's a fact from the book and/or the test broken down into a sentence or a couple of sentences.  Something to look at and memorize to remember and grow education at everyone's fingertips...one day at a time.

Oh, and while we're talking all about remembering, don't forget:  #AbsiteSmackdown!