My Kid...

*I know I start out a little mushy, but keep reading. There are some funny stories in here that you won't want to miss!*

He never cease to amaze me. This son of mine. He's an amazing kid. I am blessed beyond belief that God allowed him to enter my life.

I am so please with how well Zachariah has adjusted to school. First of all he had no educational experience outside of our home until now. We made the choice not to enroll him in preschool, but instead to teach him those basic skills he needed at home. I always thought home schooling was an option for our family. I know I would love to homeschool. But a few years ago it became evident that was not going to work for our son. He is a very social creature, and I could see that he craved a group learning environment that I could not provide at home. If we had other children it would seem more realistic to homeschool. But that was not the case, so we decided to enroll him in public school.

Despite Zachariah being one of the youngest kids in his class, he is thriving. Socially he gets along well with all of his classmates. He's already made plenty of friends and playmates from kids in his class and others from different classrooms too. He is learning to read at a very rapid rate. Of course his teacher is doing a wonderful job, but Zachariah is going above and beyond with his reading (even when he doesn't always realize it). And he was already ahead in math. I'm proud of how well he's doing, and I can't wait to hear more from the teacher at parent/teacher conferences next week.

This kid of mine is so funny too! He already has a nickname in his classroom. They call him Hot Dog. It all started from a shirt he wears. I got it from Old Navy late this summer. It says "Hot Dog It's Friday". He loved it when we were shopping for school clothes. They didn't have it in his size, but he loved it so much I ordered it online (and paid to have it shipped here...*gasp*). It was worth every penny. They don't make it any more, and I so wish I'd ordered at least one more. Anyway, he started wearing the shirt every Friday, and about the second week of school his teacher started calling him Hot Dog. He loved it and his classmates loved it. The name stuff. (I didn't believe it until I saw it myself when volunteering. They all do call him HOT DOG...way more than they say Zachariah.) He loves the nickname, and I guess it's better than others he could have gotten stuck with. I wonder if it will stick through high school. And I'm pretty sure I need to get him this shirt for Christmas. Very appropriate!



Tonight Zachariah cracked us up. Our high school football team is in playoffs. They play a team from Columbus this Friday in tournaments (the team happens to be Z's teacher's alma mater). So they had the football players come to the Kindergarten building today and had a pep rally for the little kids. (What a fun idea!) All the kids wore black and orange and cheered on the team. Zachariah was telling Matt about it this evening. He said something about the football players being pretty neat to see there. Then, completely unprovoked, he said, "I really liked the cheerleaders too!" Ha! I asked him why. I really shouldn't have, but I had to see what he'd say. He grinned this goofy smile and said, "Because they were really cute." Wow! It really does start young, huh!

Oh, just a side note. Last week there was a little girl from Zachariah's class who was chasing him and kissing him at recess. I told him that I didn't think they should be kissing. He shrugged his little shoulders, grinned and said, "Mom, I wasn't doing the kissing." What can I say to that?!!

I just can't wait to see what this kid comes up with next. I love his little personality. He really is a great kid. I know he'll turn out just fine. And I know that he'll never cease to amaze me...or crack me up on a regular basis.