School Photos

Me - 4th grade

Wow this picture is so embarassing!

I volunteered to help herd the kids through the school picture day line up this year at my sons school and it finally answered my questions about why my sons school photos are more of a mug shot than a portrait.

First I was so surprised to see how nervous so many of the kids were...  I quickly realized they just needed to relax and as I was the last person they saw before I assigned them a photographer I tried my best to joke around and be silly with them as a way to distract them from feeling like they were about to visit the dentist.

But it was watching the actual photographers that really shocked me. Throughout elementary school I remember having the same photographer year after year.  He makes jokes and poked fun at the kids to help everyone relax and smile.  I remember every year he would make a joke about me being Peppermint Patty from Charlie Brown as he did to all the red heads. This bugged me to no end because she was a tom boy and I didn't want anything to do with being a tom boy!  But at least he was attempting to make some sort of connection with each child.  These photographers were more like the lady at  the DMV, stand over there look over here... click... 

For some reason I still feel compelled to order a package of these mug shots each year for tradition sake... but now I really see why they never capture who my child is. 

Awsumb is now in the 4th grade. At his school 4th grade is more like middle school.  There are about 13 kids in his class.  The kids have a home room, and different teachers for each subject.  The students are required to begin learning how to organize a school planner with their assignments.  4th grade continues to study Spanish and begins learning Latin, which has quickly become Awsumb's favorite subject.  He also gleans the most from simple classes like P.E. and music by asking for more details and history behind the songs and games they learn.

Each year during the many conferences scheduled with Awsumb's teachers I walk into them trying to prepare myself to get ready to hear all about how he talks to much... which often leads to other discussions about him learning to be more respectful and not arguing with teachers.

This week it was so refreshing to hear that his skills of communication are finally paying off and to hear how valued he is because of his leadership and communication skills. Awsumb's teachers also report that he shows empathy for all the children in the class and they know they can count on him to acknowledge other students ideas and to bring other students who may feel left out into the group.

But what I am even more excited about is his voracious need to learn everything he can.  Awsumb comes out of any lessons, a music lesson, Latin class, etc. with slips of paper on which he has written topics and things he plans to research further... because, he just can't get enough!

Awsumb regularly spends the first 30 minutes after I pick him up, talking nonstop about specific lesson he had during the day. He will repeat it word for word and then tell me all the questions and ideas he has regarding the subject.  I am so excited that he has fully gleaned the most out of the Montessori classroom and that he can now see that his education is his responsibility, that if there is anything he wants to learn about to go ahead and read and research and ask all the questions he needs until he gets the answers he is looking for.

And the best thing to hear was that his teachers don't see a disrespectful bone in his body, that they think it would hurt him, to the core, if he thought he had disrespected them in any way.  Here I kept thinking he needed to have more fear of adults so that he would be respectful out of fear, but once again, he teaches me, showing me that respect grown out of the desire to be respected in return is soooo much better than fear.

And that because of this respect, Awsumb has taken it upon himself to approach teachers when he needed more specific direction or to work out a plan to catch  up on work he had fallen behind on.  But even better is that he seeks them out because he values their friendship and is so excited to share his ideas and passions with them because, "We just have so much in common!" as he says about  his teachers.  He truly considers them mentors and friends and I appreciate the time they have each taken to develop a personal relationship with him.

Oh, how I just love, love, love being the mother of the most Totally Awsumb little boy ever!