Determined

Last week, we had our first parent-teacher conference with the lead teacher of Trey's class. Ms. Patricia walked us through Trey's progress in the class, what he is working on, the lessons she will be introducing soon, and what he can work on at home. All in all, it was a solid report. Ms. Patricia said that Trey loves to learn and do "work," and he is good with the Spanish lessons at school. She said he is very well-behaved and plays well with others, and that he tends to avoid those in his class who are the "trouble makers" because he doesn't want to get in trouble. She told us that he is not so good at nap time because he prefers talking to napping, and that if he would nap easily he would be an ideal student!

Ms. Patricia also told us that Trey is working so hard to master their cutting lesson at class. There is one piece of "work" that has little strips of paper and scissors; the kids try to cut the strips into little bits in order to help refine their fine motor skills. If the kids are successful, the teachers help them paste the little bits onto a half-sheet of construction paper with a glue stick. Ms. Patricia said that Trey sees the older kids doing it, and he so badly wants to be able to do it too, but he's just not there yet. She said it breaks her heart because he chooses that particular lesson every day and has been working so hard on his cutting skills.

Bound and determined to help Trey accomplish his goal, I ran straight to Target that evening to buy kid-friendly scissors and a little plastic container to keep the project in. The next day, before Trey had even had a chance to practice this work at home, when I picked Trey up from school, there in his cubby was a half-sheet of construction paper with little paper bits pasted on it, along with the name "Trey." Trey's daily report said he worked on the cutting lesson and that he "did a very good job!"

My heart swelled with pride when I saw that. Seriously, I'm not sure I've ever been more proud of our little boy, who wanted so badly to be able to cut with scissors and had finally figured out how to do it.

Once Trey realized we had brought the cutting lesson home, he has wanted to cut paper nonstop. Seriously, it's all he ever asks to do anymore -- "cut paper." He is so proud of himself, too, when he does it. And we are equally proud of him. I now realize that I never quite understood before the pride my parents felt for me when I reached a goal or accomplishment. But now, on a much smaller scale, I think I get it.