Zack's First Performance in First Grade

Here he is before the program began. Mr. tough stuff trying to act cool, you can see a little shyness in his face!

Hats off to the "red, white, and blue". I am a sucker for these patriotic programs.

Here he is asking if he did a good job singing. And, actually he did do a great job. Usually he is too shy, but today he overcame his fear. And, that is AWESOME. I am all about teaching and encouraging my kids to overcome fears so that their fears don't control their futures. This coming from someone who never conquered many fears and quite frankly had a lot of fears unecessarily built into me!

I enourage the other moms out there not to let your kids skate through life. Give them tough goals to reach and reward them for reaching them. NOTHING builds self esteem better than a person reaching tough goals after working very hard to do so.

On that note, Zack knows all of the 0-10 addition families! He worked hard for 15 days before he finally succeeded at getting them all right! He earned his video games back and the new Lego Batman game for his DS. He worked very hard, and there is nothing I could have done to give him such a feeling of self worth other than letting him work hard and succeed. This is a little taste of life. He is learning that "it is what YOU make it" and "you're not a victim of circumstances or weaknesses unless you allow yourself to be".

I am learning so much in this process of parenting. It is hard work to be a purposeful parent but seeing his excitement and hearing how he told me over and over that he thought he could never do it, makes it worth all of the hard work and determination on my part as the "strict" mom (LOL). And, trust you me, I am as tempted as every other parent out there to make excuses for why my kid "is just not good at this or that".

It's an uphill battle, but I'm told by those that have gone before me, that the hard work now will pay off in the long run.

Sorry for the hiatus. The wireless connection has been down. I'm at Starbucks now - the wondrous fragrance of coffee brewing, the hub bub of people walking in and out, the urban music playing in the background, Sophia sitting across from me practicing writing her name... a little piece of heaven.