Thankful

As another Friday comes around and I attempt to find the surface of my counter again after a week of paper piling up--homework papers, notes from school, grocery ads, mail, flyers from rec centers, etc.--I pause to reflect on how grateful I am that my children go to school.

I'm grateful, not because they are out of the house for a few hours each day (although some days I'll admit that their absence brings me peace and joy), but because I can open their backpacks and find things like acrostic poems composed by SCC:

Shins (Shines)
Up
Noon

Cool
Art
Limes
Loving
Ice cream
Elmo

Super happy
Acrobat
Ruby
Art
Halloween

(Halloween may have just been on her mind when she wrote that last one, but I'd say that the other words she chose are spot on.)  TEC and I are loving the way SCC writes so freely, not bothering with silly details like correct spelling.

Then I flip through TLC's folder and find a vocabulary assignment that makes me smile and finds its way into my pile of hard-to-throw-aways.  He writes:

I was afraid to go to outerspace and find new planets but AFTER today I think it is awsome.  I think that there are strange creatures.  Yesterday was Christmas but the creatures sneezed insted of sellabrating the holiday.  It is extreme fun on that planet.  On the freeways you have to sneeze.  You can be so playful on weekdays.  You sneeze even more underneath ground.  I love outer space!

I love seeing RVC fly through books and have to repeatedly update her reading goal for her class because she keeps reaching it too soon.  I watch her work through her math homework and wonder how she got such grown-up handwriting without my noticing.

I'm grateful for great teachers who greet my kids each day with a smile.  Who, day after day, patiently lead a class-ful in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a unison "Today is Friday, November 16th, 2012.  Yesterday was Thursday, November 15th, 2012.  Tomorrow will be..."  Who have the full attention and respect of mine and two-dozen others with a simple "One, Two, Three FREEZE!"  And who, between reading and math and science and spelling, still make time for cute crafts like this happy pilgrim.

First semester report cards came home yesterday.  I'm grateful for kids who are working hard at school and excited about learning.  Hope the excitement never fades.