Good Things

Danielle had a good day today.

She's been wanting to get her hair cut short(er). We did that tonight after dinner. It looks really cute. That was a good thing.

She earned the citizenship award in her class for the month of April. That's actually kind of funny considering she was only at school 9 days this month and the award nominations probably had to be in two or three days ago! Still, getting citizenship is fun because they get out of class to have a special treat, and they get a little certificate. That was a pretty good thing.

Each year at school, the kids in grades 1-4 have to memorize a poem and then recite it in class as part of their Language Arts grade. They are graded on several different criteria, and the required length of the poem varies by grade. That part is required. IF the student wants to, he can then choose to recite his poem in front of all the kids in his grade. Grade winners are selected and then they present their poem in front of the whole school. Danielle is one of the 2nd grade winners! She will recite her poem in front of the WHOLE school Wednesday morning. She is SO excited about winning! That was a really good thing!

When Danielle was younger, she was really shy. The first year she played tball she was a nervous wreck at each game because everyone watched her when she was up to bat! Getting up in front of people by herself is still really difficult for her. She really wanted to enter this contest, but she was so scared of getting up in front of everyone. After agonizing about it I told her we would be happy with whatever she decided to do. And then we had a little heart to heart about taking chances:

1. There will be lots of things you will want to do throughout your life, but many of those things will require taking chances.
2. Sometimes it's scary to take chances.
3. If you never have the courage to try, you will miss out on some really great life experiences.
4. Sometimes you just have to accept that you're going to be scared and jump in anyway.

A really awesome trait of Danielle's is that when she has a "teachable moment" she honestly tries to listen and apply what she's learned. The next day she decided she was definitely going to enter the contest, and that was the end of it. She practiced it for us every time we would listen and sometimes when we wouldn't. This time the chance paid off. And that is a really, really good thing!

I am so proud of her for being brave enough to actually try!!