McKay's Big Day

Shaking hands with Mrs. Hukill, his principal
Showing his Student of the Month Certificate
Standing with the other recipients

Two weeks ago McKay's teacher e-mailed me to let me know he had been chosen as Student of the Month from her class. She explained that the parents have to hide in the back and then come out later so the kids will be surprised. I love a good surprise so Russ and I had been plotting and planning to go for weeks. Yesterday McKay came home and told us about the assembly and mentioned he was going to earn an award for reading and would like us to come see him. I was trying to downplay it, because I wanted him to be surprised to see us. I told him I thought Emma had ballet at the same time and didn't know if I could make it. McKay made it very clear to me that Emma would have ballet every week for months but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to support him.

Well, I wouldn't have missed it for the world. The second I walked in and saw all the kids sitting there with the olympic music playing I started crying. I was so grateful to be McKay's mom. This year he switched into a more challenging academic program. I was so nervous that he wouldn't be as prepared as the other students in his class who had been in the program for years. Russ kept reminding me that McKay's personality loves a challenge and that he would rise to the expectations. Somehow the presentation today reinforced that he was where he was supposed to be.

McKay has had a lot of homework this year, but he never complains. Some mornings I have to wake him up extra early to finish a project or re-do an assignment. He jumps right out of bed and says, "O.K. mom, I'll meet you downstairs as soon as I get ready".

McKay's Kindergarten teacher was there to see her daughter win an award. It brought back memories of her coming up to me toward the end of the school year saying how concerned she was about his struggle with reading, and that she wasn't supposed to move him on to first grade if he wasn't up to a level 5 by the end of the year.

Today McKay was one of only three students from the school, and the only third grader to win a certificate for having already read and passed tests on the 15 sunshine state reader books. It's fun to see him finding his own and blossoming into a great student. Now we just need to make sure he doesn't get a big head about it, or me either for that matter.

As they were walking out his teacher came over and said to Russ, "Thanks for letting him be in my class, he's such a blessing to me". Now you don't even need to be pregnant and hormonal to cry about that. It's nice as a parent to get a payday every now and again.