Little Boy Blues
Gabriel has been anxiously awaiting results from his TAG testing. The director emailed last week and said that he would be mailing out the results Monday. Gabriel checked the mail Monday and Tuesday and found no letters from the TAG program. Today when I got home from work he was jumping up and down at the door waiting to be released to go check the mail. I had already grabbed the mail. There were two letters from the District: the first said Eli needs a shot in order to go to school next year, the second said although Gabriel's test scores a high enough to be admitted into the TAG program he is on a waiting list pending availability. In other words, he scored high enough to be admitted, but at least 27 other kids scored higher.
All throughout this journey we have prayed that God would put Gabriel right where he needs to be next year. The letter said that the testing results would be forwarded to his school so that they could address his future academic needs. I'm pretty sure that won't happen. They may forward the results but so far, not even his best teachers have been able to keep up with giving him more challenging work or even holding him to a higher standard. It is really so much to ask of a teacher with a room full of 28 kids. I get it.
I wanted Gabe to be challenged and to have the opportunity to get excited about learning instead of being completely bored and turning that boredom into chatting and irritating his classmates and teacher. I have to believe that TAG wasn't the right fit for Gabe and he will succeed elsewhere.
I read Gabe the denial letter and explained to him what it meant. He started to cry. Way more than I expected. I knew he would be sad, but I didn't expect tears.
It didn't help that Gabe had a rough day from the get go.
I asked him why he was so upset he didn't get in and he said "because I wanted to be in TAG". Truth is, he really doesn't understand TAG, but he understands it is something special, and therefore is disappointed that he didn't make it in.
Matt suggested that we go to ice cream to celebrate Gabe's TAG denial. I obliged.
I told the boys we were going to ice cream to celebrate the fact that God has something BETTER in store for Gabe.
What does Gabe do? Throw a fit that he has to turn off the TV and get his shoes on.
I'm telling you it was a really rough day.
After ice cream and dinner, in that order, we headed off to the AWANA awards night for Sparks. The AWANA program is so big that they break up the awards nights into two. Gabe's was tonight, and Eli's is next week.
Gabriel earned the Sparks award which is a plaque for completing all three Sparks books. Its a big deal in Sparkie world. Beaming with great joy (finally for the first time today) he runs in the house to show dad his award and Eli decided to point out to Gabe that the plaque is gold colored plastic, not gold.
Thank you Eli, you little punk. To make matters worse, I tried to get a smudge off the plaque by wiping it on my pants...apparently defiling the prestigious award and sending Gabe into another fit.
Despite the ice cream, pep talks, and great amount of praise the little boy is still blue.
Sometimes you just have a really bad day. For Gabe, that was today.
All throughout this journey we have prayed that God would put Gabriel right where he needs to be next year. The letter said that the testing results would be forwarded to his school so that they could address his future academic needs. I'm pretty sure that won't happen. They may forward the results but so far, not even his best teachers have been able to keep up with giving him more challenging work or even holding him to a higher standard. It is really so much to ask of a teacher with a room full of 28 kids. I get it.
I wanted Gabe to be challenged and to have the opportunity to get excited about learning instead of being completely bored and turning that boredom into chatting and irritating his classmates and teacher. I have to believe that TAG wasn't the right fit for Gabe and he will succeed elsewhere.
I read Gabe the denial letter and explained to him what it meant. He started to cry. Way more than I expected. I knew he would be sad, but I didn't expect tears.
It didn't help that Gabe had a rough day from the get go.
I asked him why he was so upset he didn't get in and he said "because I wanted to be in TAG". Truth is, he really doesn't understand TAG, but he understands it is something special, and therefore is disappointed that he didn't make it in.
Matt suggested that we go to ice cream to celebrate Gabe's TAG denial. I obliged.
I told the boys we were going to ice cream to celebrate the fact that God has something BETTER in store for Gabe.
What does Gabe do? Throw a fit that he has to turn off the TV and get his shoes on.
I'm telling you it was a really rough day.
After ice cream and dinner, in that order, we headed off to the AWANA awards night for Sparks. The AWANA program is so big that they break up the awards nights into two. Gabe's was tonight, and Eli's is next week.
Gabriel earned the Sparks award which is a plaque for completing all three Sparks books. Its a big deal in Sparkie world. Beaming with great joy (finally for the first time today) he runs in the house to show dad his award and Eli decided to point out to Gabe that the plaque is gold colored plastic, not gold.
Thank you Eli, you little punk. To make matters worse, I tried to get a smudge off the plaque by wiping it on my pants...apparently defiling the prestigious award and sending Gabe into another fit.
Despite the ice cream, pep talks, and great amount of praise the little boy is still blue.
Sometimes you just have a really bad day. For Gabe, that was today.
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