Alley Oops: Our Tremendous Tiger!

Brooke's been enjoying kindergarten thus far and while I have some communication with the teacher, we don't get a ton of updates and I'd just assumed that no news was good news.

It turns out it was great news. The week before we left for St. Louis, we got a letter from Brooke's principal congratulating her on being selected for a "Tremendous Tiger" award. It went on to explain that each teacher picked one student and that the students were selected for exemplifying the values of the school and academic achievement.

We weren't sure how often this happened, so while we were very proud of her, we didn't think a lot of it. (And I'll be honest, Brooke has her fair share of meltdowns at home and there are several things that we're really trying to work with her on, so we weren't completely confident that school was going that much more smoothly.) There was a breakfast reception the next week and the principal explained a little more about the award. It turns out that this is only done once per trimester, meaning that Brooke is the second of only three kids in her class this year to get the award. Each student's name was called and they were applauded and shook the principal's hand.

They also got their picture taken to be hung on the bulletin board later.

When we talked to Brooke's teacher, Mrs. Bicker, after the ceremony, she told us (and Brooke) how deserving she was to receive the award. She said that she is always kind to everyone and that she knows that Brooke can work well and cooperate with anyone she pairs her with. She said that she's a hard worker. She also complemented her academics and said, "She's basically the perfect kindergartner." As you can imagine, I got more than a little emotional several times that morning. I'm so proud of my big girl - of her hard work and cooperation, but most of all, her kindness. I pray, pray, pray that continues to be one of the main attributes used to describe her.