Growing Up

The other day, I looked at Christian and realized that he is really growing up fast. He is getting tall, handling more responsibilities, and acting more mature. This year in school has really been a good one for him. The special advanced program that he is in has been phenomenal. I have been so impressed with his teacher, their curriculum, and his classmates. This is the second year in a row that he has had the same teacher and class, so they have really bonded, That bond has made for a really amazing experience for all of the kids. 

One of the things that I am really happy about is the emphasis his teacher has placed on public speaking. She really wants them to be able to present in front of the class and eventually in front of others. They did a storytelling festival where he presented a Korean folktale called "What you plant, you will eat", did several oral book reports, and just finished a family history oral project on language. It has been fun to see him gain confidence as he practices and prepares.

There has also been many opportunities for extra projects that he can get excited about. The Science Fair in January was a fun experience, and then last month his school participated in a poster contest. The theme for the poster contest was about conserving water. He wanted to make a poster so bad, so we brainstormed together and came up with some ideas. I told him that people/judges really like a catchy rhyme that they can remember. We thought for a bit and came up with "Bring waste to a STOP... Save our water Drop by Drop!" Once he had a slogan, he drew some cute pictures about ways that we can stop wasting water. He spent a lot of time and effort making his drawings nice and writing the words the best he could. I helped him with the basic layout and word spacing, but he did the majority of the work. He turned in the poster to his school and a few days later, he informed me that he was one of the top five in his school (K-6), and his poster would be sent to the district contest. I was so happy for him and glad that his hard work paid off. Each school in the district was able to submit their top 5 entries and there are a lot of elementary schools (61 by my count), so I told him not to get his hopes up. Here is a picture I took of his finished poster. 

A few weeks later, he came home and was so excited to tell me that he had won SECOND place in the district contest, and his prize was $50! I was shocked and thrilled for him. Christian has never seen $50, so he was completely giddy. Another girl in his class won 3rd place. The cool thing about that is the teachers of the top 3 students got $100 each for their classrooms. That meant that Christian's teacher received $200 to buy new equipment and classroom supplies. Everyone was ecstatic. We also found out that his poster was going to be framed and hung at Weber State. I really think he won because he had a good slogan, clear ideas on how to conserve water, and the poster looked like a kid actually made it. Here is a picture of him with his check. He informed me that he is going to save his money for our trip to Harry Potter Land, which we hope to take in the not-so-distant future. Well done, Christian!

Another thing that is making him seem so grown-up lately is the fact that he just got braces. He is only 7 years old, so it is really early for braces, but his front two teeth are really needing some help. The orthodontist explained to me that his front teeth are in a cross-bite where one is in front of his bottom teeth and one is behind. That means that every time he chews, he is grinding and wearing down those permanent teeth. Dr. Luddington put together a plan to correct the problem with a year of braces now and another year when all of his permanent teeth have come in. Luckily, Christian was super excited to get braces because the kids in his class thought it was cool. He got them on May 21, and has really been great with them. I can tell they hurt a little, especially when we have to turn his expander, but he rarely complains and has taken really good care of his teeth. I think he has probably lost several pounds over the last few days though because he find it really hard to eat most things. I'm sure he will get used to it and be back to normal in no time. Here are the Before and After pictures. They actually aren't too noticeable. He chose Gryffindor colors (red and gold) from Harry Potter for his bands. He was sure cute about the whole thing. I doubt he will be so amiable about having them again as a teenager!

Before

 After

While seeing him grow up is a little hard, it is also really rewarding. I am excited to see what this sweet, smart boy does with the rest of his life. He is finishing up the second grade this week and is anxiously looking forward to his baptism in August. There are so many good things in his future if he keeps making good decisions. We sure love him.