Steppin' Into Second

our mascot, drawn in our school colors

I am proud to announce that our first week of second grade is finished and went far better than I could have expected! The J-Rex has had some kind of huge leap in maturity and her behavior all week has been 10x better than her best days last year. On her pre-testing (something new I'm trying this year - more on this in a later post), she broke the rubrics, demonstrating a command of language well above her grade level. Most importantly, we had more fun learning together each day this week than we ever did last year!

...but why?


I thought about how amazingly smooth our week went and all the changes I'm seeing in the J-Rex and realized that, rather than my more common habit of looking at what I did wrong on the past in order to correct it, I needed to look at what I'm doing well now so that I can keep it up:

First, I must look at myself. I've undergone some major changes over the summer, like quitting smoking, exercising, and putting more care into my beauty routines.  I've been doing a lot of inner work, too, by cultivating a gratitude practice, trying out this new thing called "letting go," and putting some checks and balances on my perfectionism.  I'm certainly nowhere near the end of any of these journeys, but I already am feeling happier with myself and my life. My confidence is increasing, my patience is getting easier to come by, and my long-lost serenity is peeking its little head around the corner...and, you know what? I see it all reflected in my daughter (our children truly are our mirrors).

Also, I cannot stress the importance of the preparation time I put into this year. Last year was our first year homeschooling and, honestly, I had no idea what I was doing and was constantly changing the curriculum.  This was torture on my predictability-loving J-Rex.  This year, however, I already have my materials in hand and the curriculum is well enough mapped out that I was able to give the J-Rex a preview of all the things she can look forward to learning this year.  This helps me feel more confident but, more importantly, it gives the J-Rex stability and things to be excited about.

I know the changes I'm seeing aren't all me, though.  The J-Rex deserves the most credit for having worked so hard on her listening, focus, and calming skills over the past year. This girl, who was afraid to even try lest she make a mistake, who  was constantly frustrated and acting out after her public school experiences...this girl has blossomed! She now sees her mistakes as good as long as she learns from them (and she's learning faster once she realized that), is self-motivated to learn and to help out around the house, and keeps getting complimented by friends, family, and strangers on how incredibly polite and well-behaved she is for her age.  Better yet, she's finally (Finally!!!) asking for adaptations when she needs them, using her adaptive aids, and even explaining her vision story perfectly to her peers. 

Seriously, this is all her - the only thing I did was get her out of the schools that were making her feel bad for being disabled and try (often unsuccessfully) to practice patience...

Finally, I can't leave out the fact that the J-Rex has a couple of really close friends again for the first time in almost three years.  I love her "sister-friends" and bubble over with joy when I see, not only how much they care or how much fun they have, but how good an influence they all are on each other.  My little extrovert thrives in the presence of good friends.

As the J-Rex says, "Second Grade is turning out awesome!" I couldn't agree more.