Some of you might remember my son Dallin's brush with the principal a few years back. It was decided on this board that Dallin would be forever known as Little Ender Poyfair. Well, these past few weeks he's pulled something off that made me remember that he's like our hero more than we think....
So, last year Dallin brings home a bulletin from school announcing the yearly Storytelling contest. Dallin told us he wanted to do it, and we worked with him in getting a good story, 'RinderCella' and worked with him for close to two months in memorizing the story.
He did better than we would have wanted. He beat everyone in his class, then everyone in the second grade. His next step was to get up in front of the school in hopes he would move on to district.
Dallin did valiantly, but didn't move on. We were so happy he did as good as he did, and showered him with praises.
A year passes.
This time around we not only had to work with Dallin, but Katelyn too who displayed a lot more motivation than Dallin in memorizing 'I cannot go to school today' than Dallin did in his 'The Pea little Thigs."
Katelyn was wonderful to work with -- sweet, accomodating and a hard worker.
Dallin on the other hand, was generally disinterested in his preparation. With two days to go before the classroom competition, he decided to change the story he was telling to Lightning Larry.
Karli and I told him he couldn't. He persisted. Finally, we decided this was a good lesson for Dallin to learn -- that procrastination doesn't pay, that going against your parents will doesn't pay, that laziness will result in failure.
So, the day came for him to compete with his class. It was close, his teacher said, but he narrowly won, despite her misgivings.
Fine, we thought. He'll get embarrassed at the third grade level.
But he won that one too.
Well, now Karli and I are feeling a little chastised, but still decided to allow him to manage his own destiny.
Today he went up in front of the school and performed impeccably. He was funny, articulate, and not nervous at all. And he won.
Now he goes to district.
**blink**
Ya, so now I'm trying to figure out how I turned into such a rotten parent. But I'm so proud of Dallin that I don't care. I'm really impressed with his tenacity to do it his way.
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Some of you might have remembered a while ago a thread I posted about Dustin, our baby. He's two now and while he's still about a year behind in his speech, he is finally talking, even using two-word phrases.
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Oh, and Katelyn won her class competition, but couldn't get past the second grade competition. Poor girl. She really worked hard.
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That leaves Krissy who I may have mentioned broke her arm again last fall. She's still crazy, doing crazy things, but hasn't broken her arm in a good 3-4 months.
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That's all.
[ March 16, 2004, 07:40 PM: Message edited by: Trogdor the Burninator ]
Posted by Brinestone (Member # 5755) on :
Posted by Jon Boy (Member # 4284) on :
Pat, I've never seen you with your kids, but it's seems to me that you're far from a rotten parent.
And you'll be pleased to hear that I played Halo for the first time the other day. I downloaded a demo, but it was only one mission long. Now I'm going to have to go buy it . . .
[ March 16, 2004, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: Jon Boy ]
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
My husband had extra appreciation for your story. That was the kind of kid he was (Little Ender) He even knows RinderCella.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Oh, Pat.
Posted by Trogdor the Burninator (Member # 4894) on :
Wow. I got mack to use the rofl smilie.
Posted by mackillian (Member # 586) on :
Dallin cracks me up because of his independence.
Not that I don't have any bias for that...
Posted by cochick (Member # 6167) on :
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)