Puttin' On My Braggin' Pants

Yeah, I don't know what the hell that means either. It just sounded funny.

I've been remiss lately bragging about my daughter.

Yes, I'm going to brag. I'm a mother and it's my right. Says so in the Constitution (since everybody seems to say everything says so in the Constitution, I thought I'd add to the list).

My kid is awesome.

Truly, truly awesome.

Since Kindergarten, she's made straight A's. She's been on the Principal's Honor Roll every year. Granted, she's only in the third grade, but I feel that she's gotten her education off to a good start.

She actually ENJOYS homework. After she comes in from the school bus and has her snack, she ACTUALLY ASKS my mom if she can do her homework now.

She LOVES to read. Serious, hardcore reading.

Back when we were living in Flowood while our house was being repaired due to Hurricane Katrina, she was in Kindergarten. In the state of Mississippi, they administer a STAR test to test the reading level of each student.

As an aside, I heard this morning on NPR that Mississippi is one of the only states (if not the only state) that reading levels are actually INCREASING. All across the nation, the reading levels in each state are DECREASING while ours is rising. Granted, they're probably not even close to being on an even level field. We've had a lot of work to do to get it to the point where ours is rising. But, it's getting there. This makes me happy.

Anyway, Light of my Life, along with the rest of the Kindergarten class, was tested and she scored in the above average level. At that age, it's not so much a test about how WELL you read but about comprehension and listening and recognizing words.

Of course, being her mom who happens to have a LOVE for reading, I was proud as all get out.

One of my biggest fears when I had a kid was "what if he/she doesn't love to read?" I could not comprehend having a kid that didn't love to read. My whole family is a family of readers. My uncle, both my aunts, my mom, my grandmother....everyone.

I can remember when she was about 3 and I would read her stories at night, she would get so frustrated that she couldn't read. She would actually cry about it. She wanted to read so bad.

Eventually, she learned to read and has been reading ever since.

She got hooked right away on the Junie B Jones series and then graduated to the Magic Tree House books.

In the third grade, the kids take the STAR assessment again to check the reading levels of each kid.

This time, not only was she above average...she's actually reading on a 5th grade level! Technically, she's reading on the same level as a kid that's been in the 5th grade for a month.

I was tickled pink. Not only is she reading above her level, but she's actually reading 2 grades above hers!

We were at a Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago (it has recently been built in a town about an hour away...same place as the nearest mall...yes, I keep trying to tell you people we live in the country...did you think I was making that up?) and as usual, she beelined for the children's section.

This time, instead of me making a beeline for the bargain books, I followed her in and started checking out the older kids' book section. I figured if she's reading and comprehending on that level, we needed to start getting her books more on that level to ensure that she keeps that level of comprehension up.

Wow! I want to read half of those books. There are some incredible books out there for kids ages 8-12. I mean some really incredible books.

Most of them appear to be in the fantasy genre and I think I remember reading about the increase in fantasy books after the Harry Potter boom. But still! All I remember when I was growing up was Judy Blume and Ann M. Martin and Francine Pascal (of which I DEVOURED).

I showed her the section of books that she needed to start looking in for any new books that strike her fancy and left her to her own. I told her I could buy her one book that was $6 or under (I hate putting a restriction on books but what can you do?).

I went on my way and after a while, I heard her calling me. We found each other and the poor thing had found 2 books (my mom had said she would buy her one as well) and it was two books she already had (two of the Ramona books). I explained this to her and she got so frustrated. We went back to the kids section and she said that it was too many books to choose from and she wanted to start crying.

We sat down right in the middle of the floor and talked about what kind of books she was interested in. She said that she likes adventure books but prefers adventures that are semi-based in reality (my words, not hers) as opposed to fantasy (with unicorns and ogres, etc...).

So, we sat there and in about 10 minutes, we had several for her to choose from. She ended up getting a book called Mandy by Julie Andrews (yes, Mary Poppins herself) and one called The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler and Sarah Gibb.

Well, she has utterly fallen in LOVE with the Emily Windsnap series. It's now a request from her to Santa to get the other books in the series.

I'm also gonna brag on her humanitarian skills.

In addition to her helping us out at the Methodist Rummage Sale, she loves, I mean LOVES to help me with the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes.

She loves picking out what's going in each box. She loves finding things in the stores for me to buy. If she gets some new pencils, she donates half of them to the shoebox bag (the bag where I hold all things to go into the shoe boxes). When she gets a toy from the McDonald's Happy Meal, she donates the toy. She donates about 90% of the toys, beads and stuffed animals she catches at Mardi Gras each year.

I've always been proud of her for these sacrifices, but this weekend, I got the ultimate proof that she has a giving soul.

We went to go get our Christmas tree from the Home Depot (in yet another town an hour away) and there's a Claire's in a nearby shopping center. I had a coupon to get $10 off a purchase of $20 or more (told you I knew how to shop) and I had a few girls to buy presents for.

If you know anything about Claire's, they usually have a buy 2 get 1 free sale on pretty much everything.

I found 4 pairs of earrings that I could get as presents which meant that I could pick out 2 free pair. I told Light of my Life that she could pick out two pairs for herself (she wears clip earrings). She searched and searched and came back with a pair that she wanted. When she brought them to me, I told her "you can pick out another pair" and do you know what she said to me?

"Mama, instead of me getting a second pair, do you think I could get a pair to put in the shoe boxes?"

She floored me with her generosity. Here was her chance to get 2 pairs of earrings RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS and she wanted to get one pair for someone she DOESN'T EVEN KNOW!

Of course, I told her it was fine and she picked out a lovely pair of clip on pink butterfly earrings.

Sigh.......I got a good one. I sure did.

Later,

Mama Dawg