All year long I've been getting notes from her teachers about how they are so impressed with her maturity, leadership, creativity, and so on. And every time I nod and say, Yep, that's my Girl!
Whenever she brings home a report card I tease her and say "You know it's ok to get a B once in awhile!" but at the end of the year when she gets honored for her straight A's I see how important it is to her that she didn't get any B's. (I, on the other hand, was the queen of B's. And C's for that matter!)
Yesterday the boys and I went to an awards ceremony for our Sheesha (as Hunter calls her). We sat a little too far back so I didn't get any good pictures of her receiving her many awards, but that doesn't matter. The look on her face every time they called her name is what matters. The realization of just how hard she worked all year is what matters.
It was an hour long ceremony and I was surprised with how well Hunter was sitting through it. He had a few books to look at, and he enjoyed clapping for everyone. After awhile he decided it was time to go visit Sheesha. He ran over to where she was sitting and sat on her lap. She loves that she has a little brother who looks up to her so much, and he loves that he has a big sister who pays so much attention to him.
She got called for an award, so he sat on her chair until she got back. Then he decided it was time to go see what everyone was walking up on stage for. He ran up to the front and stood by the asst. principal. The AP looked at Hunter and smiled, then he grabbed a program that was sitting near him and handed it to Hunter. Hunter, thinking he'd won an award too, turned to face his audience. He smiled and everyone clapped for him! Most kids would be embarrassed if their little sibling did that. Not Louisa! She clapped for him, too!
There was a very tearful moment when Louisa's gifted & talented teacher was handing out Math Olympiad awards (of which I didn't even know Louisa participated! ha!) At the end the teacher paused and said she had one last special award to give someone who was very dear to her. She got teary and said that she's had a hard year, as most people know. Her grandson spent the past year in St. Judes being treated for leukemia, and the school did a tremendous amount of fundraising for the family and St. Jude. She wanted to give a special award to someone who worked hard and earned the most money in the St. Jude Math-a-Thon. I got very teary and tried hard not to cry. This G&T teacher is amazing and she will be one of those teachers Louisa looks back on someday, knowing what a big impact the teacher made on her life. Louisa volunteered a lot of her time helping the G&T teacher with the younger classes and I know they grew a strong bond. So Louisa walked up to receive her award and I wanted a picture but I was too far away and I was trying hard not to cry. The teacher hugged her and was saying something to her and the award is so cute!
Her other awards include: "A" Honor Roll (all year), President's Award for Educational Excellence, Math Olympiad (although she didn't "place" at the state level this year, she did work on 6th and 7th grade math and she's only in 4th grade).And two big accomplishments for her this year were getting elected as class Treasurer on Student Council, and applying for and getting a job working in the library where she did everything from re-shelve books to helping the little ones find a book to check out.
Also, the school popped a big surprise on us. The 4th graders had their standardized testing this year. In each category the highest score you can get is "Advanced". There are 4 categories, math, reading, science and social studies. Louisa got Advanced in all but math, but she got the next highest score in math which is called "Mastery". The principal said that 27 kids got at least one Advanced score, and because of that the school was giving the kids each a WalMart gift card with $10 for each Advanced! Louisa looked straight at me and you could see the dollar signs in her eyes!! She holds up three fingers, knowing she'll get $30! She was the only 4th grader to get three Advanced, and there was one girl (Louisa's best friend) who got all 4 Advanced. So those two girls really made out!
I'm so excited to see what lies ahead for this girl!
1 comment:
you must be so proud Peggie!!!
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