Mateo Monday #1

So since I am SOOOOOOOOO far behind in blogging, I figured I would try to dedicate one day a week to each child.  You see, I am very creative like that.  There are two things that I LOVE about every day.  It completely, totally, 100% . . . . or maybe 100,000% makes my day.  I love being greeted by Mateo's smiling face first thing in the morning and being greeted by his smiling face again in the afternoon when I pick him up from YMCA.

At the beginning of the school year, mornings were NOT a happy place around our home.  Mateo was bored out of his mind (who wouldn't be when you have already mastered all of the Kindergarten Benchmarks and Task Analyses prior to the first day of Kindergarten???)  Since Mateo is so young AND immature, grade skipping simply was not an option.  We had plenty of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the mornings.  Mateo simply did not want to go to school because IT.WAS.TOO.BORING.  He BEGGED to be home schooled every day.  

Short version of the story is that I finally convinced him that just as it is mommy's job to go to school and finish her Master's degree it is Mateo's job to GO.TO.SCHOOL.  Even though it is "boring", he has come to realize that school is a place where he goes to "hang out" for 7 1/2 hours each day so that mommy can get her school work done and now her "work" work done.  His teacher has made Mateo a peer tutor.  He spends most of his days helping other students that need the help.  You know, the students that still don't know the difference between a letter and a number . . . or the students that have no clue what a "month" or "day of the week" is.  Although Mateo hasn't advanced like I had wanted him too, I have REFUSED to help him at home because I didn't want the achievement gap to be even greater between himself and his peers.

Now Mateo is happy to go to school each morning.  He is happy that he can help out his friends who aren't "as smart" as him (totally Mateo's words by the way).  And at the end of the day, when Ms. Stephanie calls him on the walkie talkie to get his things together and meet me at the front . . . he also shows his happiness and excitement. 

Mateo may or may not be a little bit of a rule breaker.  One of the rules he breaks EVERY.SINGLE.DAY is running down the halls of the school.  Every afternoon, when I pick him up I can hear the pitter patter of his feet running down the hallways of the school.  He then rounds the corner and I am greeted by ONE.BIG.GIANT.SMILE. 

So there you have it . . . two things I absolutely, positively love about each day of the week.