Proud...

Tyler has not idea what he even wrote

Yesterday was Tyler's last day of school and I am feeling so relieved and proud.

Not because the school year is over but because Tyler will be moving up to the second grade.

Not a big deal to many, but to me it means so much. You see, at the beginning of the school year I found out that Tyler was not in fact at grade level but so far behind that he was going to need a lot of school intervention. We moved from a different town over the summer and in his previous school he was doing well with no issues brought up by his kindergarten teacher. I was completely floored when I found out that what I thought about his academics was completely not true, and I felt like a failure as a mom.

I cried a lot when I got home from the parent teacher conference and it just broke my heart that Tyler, through no fault of his own, was not the smart little boy I thought he was. Then I snapped out of it and realized he was the smart little boy I knew he was but that he was not given the same opportunities at his old school as the kids at his new school were given. It wasn't fair that he was so far behind but at the same time instead of being bitter towards his old school system I chose to be grateful that we now lived in a town with excellent schools.

Tyler's school put together a plan for how we would tackle his reading and writing issues- he got lots of extra help at school from wonderful teachers and he and I worked together at home. Sometimes he put up a little bit of a fuss when it was time for sight words or having to read out loud but all in all he was such a trooper. He understood that he needed to work harder than everyone else but that it would all be worth it.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much my heart swells with pride at how far Tyler has come. He can read now and he can write paragraphs that can actually be read and understood by others- at the beginning of the year these things seems unattainable.

I am proud to say that my hard working little boy will be a second grader next year. We are not completely out of the woods academically but with as far as he has come this year I have no question that he will continue to make leaps and bounds. He is only seven but has already learned that hard work equals great success, even if there are bumps in the road.