Just look at that. ALL good colors for an ENTIRE month! If you think he was proud and pleased with himself after the first week, you should have seen him tonight. As if we weren't thrilled already, seeing him so happy about his success just takes it to the next level.
He loved getting that little Minecraft figurine "prize" after his first awesome week so much that we knew we needed to do something "big" for him to celebrate this month. We aren't the type of parents to buy the kids toys randomly throughout the year (books yes, and sometimes craft projects, but not toys) and generally only celebrate birthdays and big holidays with gifts, but we are not above bribery (ice cream is often used to encourage good behavior) and certainly not against rewarding exceptional behavior. This particular prize was very well deserved. He was even "above purple" a few days this month (in which case, his clip gets moved off the chart and onto his collar, and at the end of the day he gets to pick something from the teacher's prize box). I've never seen him smile bigger than at the end of the school days when he got to tell me he was ABOVE PURPLE and show me the little trinkets he picked. I'm tearing up just writing this, honestly. You have read it here, but you have no idea how hard it was for him last year to have to come home with all those "bad colors" (deserved or not... since we certainly stopped worrying about them near the end of the year after his diagnosis, but he never stopped worrying about them) and how frustrated we felt (and how sad/hurt we felt for him that he was often trying his best and still not "getting it"). We are so grateful for the changes that second grade has brought to him already.
Since we haven't mentioned it here yet, we have some other exciting news about James - he tested into the GATES (Gifted and Talented Educational Services) program this month. He had qualified for the second round of testing at the end of last year and was tested during the second week of school this year. As exciting as it is to hear his IQ scores, we are far more excited about the opportunities that the GATES program will provide him. The goal of the program (which he'll be in from 2nd through 6th Grade) is to develop life-long, self motivated learning in each student, according to their own personal strengths. He attends GATES all day on Fridays, where he'll study new topics, spend more time socializing and working in groups, get to work with his hands more (he's a visual learner - his highest IQ score was in Nonverbal Intelligence), go on additional field trips, and receive greater individual instruction (the group is very small compared to his normal class size, and combines the 2nd and 3rd Grade GATES students, so he gets to spend time with a few of his closer friends - bonus!) Obviously, we are very proud of him for working hard and getting into this program, and can't wait to see what it does for him both academically and socially!
James had been eyeing his behavior chart for days, just knowing he was going to make it through the end of the month with greens and blues and purples, so he started hinting at a "prize" (as he calls it) a few days ago. Jay and I quickly made a decision (based on his current top interests: Legos and the Lego Dimesions Dr. Who characters) and thanks to Amazon Prime, we were able to have something wrapped and waiting for him this evening to celebrate his accomplishment. That smile was totally worth it! Congratulations Bubs, you did it!
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