Proud Mother Alert

[SRL]

Today my difficult child (age 10, 4th grade) won the school wide spelling bee. He is bursting with pride and of course so is his mom. ;-)

While the accomplishment in itself is worth a happy dance, what is especially sweet is that it was a preschool performance in which he was clearly disoriented and distressed and unable to keep up with the group that pushed me over to thinking something wasn't quite "right" with him. Today that same boy got up in front of an audience of 100+ kids, parents, and teachers and was Mr. Calm & Confident. YEEEeeeeessss! :smile:

Just wanted to share the good news and hopefully give a little hope to those of you on the early end of the journey.
SRL

 

[KateM]

Awesome! You sure have every reason to feel proud!! :bravo:

 

[tiredmommy]

That's absolutely beautiful SRL! You make sure he knows how very proud we all are of him. :warrior:

 

[DazedandConfused]

Congratulations!!!

I *do* know what an accomplishment that is. Son won his school-wide spelling bee this year a couple of weeks ago. He was runner-up last year.

Though, Son LOVES being on the stage and LOVES having the microphone.

Way to go difficult child! :bravo:

 

[totoro]

Congratulations!!! Good job. :bravo:

 

[helpmehelphim]

Oh, SRL, congrats to your son!!! That is awesome! What a great day indeed... I hope he is feeling the rush! What did he say? I'd love to be a fly on the wall.

 

[timer lady]

Congrats to difficult child! :bravo:

 

[Wiped Out]

Whoohoo!! Way To Go difficult child! :bravo:(I'm the spelling bee coordinator at our school-it's a big deal to our students :smile:)

 

[SRL]

Thanks everyone. My difficult child is Hyperlexic which means he had a natural ability to decode words when he was very small. He spelled his first word at 28 months and was obsessed with the whole business for a few years but now it just translates into being a good speller. His teacher from last year told me she knew no one could beat him at this level. His current teacher told me she was surprised he wanted to do it (nerve wise, I think) but I've been talking with him about it on and on since first grade.

He was sooooooooo excited -- just stood up there beaming while they were clapping for him (well, and covering his ears, Sensory Integration Disorder (SID) doesn't take a vacation at the spelling bee). And when he got home he told me all about how his friends and classmates reacted when he got back to the classroom. We had a family celebration at his favorite pizza place last night to make the memory complete.

 

[Suz]

Doing the happy dance, SRL- how wonderful!

Suz :princess:

 

[LittleDudesMom]

:bravo: to difficult child

:smile: to you

What an accomplishment!!! Brag on...........

Sharon

 

[SearchingForRainbows]

SRL,

What a wonderful post!!! What an amazing accomplishment for difficult child!!! You deserve to celebrate BIG TIME!!! :bravo: :smile: :bravo: :smile: :bravo: :smile:!!!

Thank you for sharing - Way To Go difficult child!!! WFEN

 

[rejectedmom]

SUPER! :bravo: -RM

 

[hearts and roses]

Yeah! Congrats to difficult child! :bravo:

 

[Fran]

Wonderful. Congratulations to him and you. Building on successes is a positive way to move forward. Yay for being comfortable in front of a crowd. :smile: Enjoy every second of his pride.

 

[houseofcards]

I can feel the proud mama glow from here, way to go difficult child!!

 

[BestICan]

Many congratulations! Great, great story!

 

[lordhelpme]

wonderful!!

you have every right to crow and so does he!

 

[Stella Johnson]

That's wonderful! You must be beaming with pride. :bravo: :bravo: :bravo: :princess:

 

[Marguerite]

Way to go! Just goes to show, there are benefits to being hyperlexic. I was always so disappointed that difficult child 3 never had the chance to compete in a spelling bee. But the local school, paradoxically, says they don't want to encourage kids to be competitive, and yet their main focus is on sporting achievement and not academic. I think it's because difficult child 3 could spell better than most of the staff.

It's so wonderful for our kids to be able to USE their special skills and to achieve with them in the mainstream environment.

This is fabulous! I put it at least on a par, if not even greater, than the benefits to difficult child 3 of doing so well in this recent movie shoot. And difficult child 3 has got a lot out of that indeed, because he's at last beginning to watch movies and dramas willingly, instead of rushing out of the room when someone puts a movie on. He was watching a dance number in "Chicago" this morning, 'professionally' eyeing off the number of takes and camera angles, which is something he could never do before.

But your lad - even better! This sort of stuff it meat and three veg to their self-esteem and confidence - I wish I could hug all of you!

Marg