My phone rang this morning while I was at the gym.
It was the kids school.
When I heard Reid's teachers voice I was a little nervous. We had less than a pleasant morning at Casa T and Reid was, as usual, a major player in the drama. I was fairly certain she was calling to announce an unprecedented case of expelling a kindergartner from school.
Imagine my shock when I heard the excited voice of his teacher saying "Mrs T, I had to call you because we've had the Festivus miracle that we had hoped for." Let me explain.
The last time that I blogged about Reid it was to make the announcement that I was going to homeschool him this year. I didn't really want to come back on my blog and make the announcement with my tail between my legs that I was too much of a weakling and I'd changed my mind. When we got to Kansas and the reality of homeschooling was upon me I jumped on the opportunity to enroll him in the half-day kindergarten program here like a drowning woman grabs for a light life raft.
It was a lot of mental justification exercises that I went through to make that decision but I'll spare you those right now. At no point since then have I been entirely sure that I made the right or the wrong decision. The year had a very rough start academically and behaviorally for Reid. While he has made huge gains in his behavior and some gains in his academics, reading has still been an insurmountable obstacle for him.
His teacher has been absolutely awesome in her unwavering determination to help Reid succeed at school. During our many conversations and conferences she remained hopeful that he could, in fact, learn. She assured with me that she had seen it happen before that a kindergartner would come back after Christmas break and it was as if the light switch went on- something she called the Festivus miracle (and thanks to my love of Seinfeld I needed no explanation). I too was hopeful but wasn't holding my breathe. Just this morning as we were driving to school he informed me that he knew how to spell DVD. He paused repeated d, v, d carefully enunciating each letter and then waited for me to applaud his intelligence. You can see why I might've been less than optimistic about his prospects. But then came that phone call to tell me that Reid had earned a spot in her Guided Reading group - something he has wanted all year long!
I totally started crying right there by the pull up machine. Between that and my performance last week when I hurt my knee (also by the pull-up machine) I'm sure my fellow gym goers are starting to get a little freaked out by my emotional outbursts that seem to be brought on my that particular exercise!
So, yay! There is a Reid update.
And a final note that Reid was absolutely spoiled last week with a special package that had shark toys, shark candies and an awesome shark book - yes, he LOVES sharks - as a get well gift after his surgery. That boy felt like the king of the world to have all that attention and love showered on him by a very special family! Thank you Haas family!
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