Thursday, May 29, 2014

It's the most wonderful time of the year....

... if you're a school teacher.

After the longest winter EVER, I have no doubt that our local teachers have a constantly running mental countdown to just how many more classroom minutes are between today and 3:35 pm Friday, June 6.  And I don't blame them.  They are staring down the finish line to a long year and the start of a well-earned summer.

We were so very fortunate to get who we thought has been a fabulous teacher for Seth this year.  The teacher whose class he was technically assigned to was actually out the entire year on maternity leave, so he had a permanent substitute who had been assigned her first kindergarten class.




She has been such a good sport about getting her feet wet in what could be considered a very high-maintenance school system, and I applaud her for dealing well with parents who aren't always the most gracious in their dealings with the school administration.  We have had nothing but good reports home from Seth, and he not ONCE ever complained about going to school or fought me when it was time to get on the bus.  Kindergarten was an overwhelmingly positive experience for him.  And more important to us, even more than his reading skills or word problem comprehension, was that Seth's character stood true, and it did.  The traits of compassion, leadership, and obedience that we fostered in him during his preschool years were both recognized and applauded by his teacher and to me, that is priceless and worth more than academic marks.

I put together a small end-of-the-year gift for this amazing woman and I hope she sees it as more than a way to kick-start her summer, but more, as this mom's meager way of showing just a hint of the gratitude I have for her taking my sweet firstborn under her wing this year and handing him back even brighter than before.

Bucket, beach towel, shovel, and glow sticks all courtesy of Target.