We have a changed boy ...

Josh has been at Scots Prep School now for a little over 2 weeks and ... we have a changed boy. How can I explain this ? Well, he is just so much happier and animated; he bounces off to school in the mornings and is relatively motivated to do his homework; he loves mathletics, an online maths program for which he has his own log-on number (in fact after only 2 days he was ranked 13th in the top 100 students in New Zealand for his age group who were doing their maths online that day); Josh seems to look upon the school uniform as a bench-mark and feels better about himself because he 'looks' the same as his peers. But the biggest change of all is in his self confidence - he is prepared to give things a go and there is even a hint of competitiveness we have never seen before.

Just to note down a few memories of Joshua that spring to mind and bring a smile to my face over the past 2 weeks ... visualise Josh ...

• ... running out of class at the end of the day with a huge smile on his face and 2 merit stickers stuck on his shirt collar;
• ... arriving at school, taking off his jacket and his tie, and running outside with Spencer to play, giggling as they went;
• ... proudly telling me in the car on the way home that he already had 2 good friends at Scots - Spencer and Kevin;
• ... sitting in the car after school telling me about the music class and then showing me the hand movements as he sang the notes from high to low (not a bad little voice !);
• ... super keen to go online and do his mathletics programme, a worldwide maths programme on which you compete against your own best score, the computer or go and search others around the world who are playing at the same time - last Wednesday Josh was coming 13th out of the top 100 children playing online that evening.
• ... so excited to receive a Principal's Award - Mr Cassie's acknowledgement of Joshua having competed in his very first Triathlon in the weekend;
• ... explaining to me in a very serious voice about what causes the rain - Jesus in heaven is crying;
• ... his excitement in realising that he was coming second in class for merit stickers and sharing with me (albeit very quietly) his wish to try and come first;
• ... his insistence that he shakes Mr Cassie's (the Principal) hand at the end of each school day (Mummy cringes a tad with this as the handshake is a combination of shaking the hand and doing a little jump at the same time!);
  

And then to top it all off, Mummy received an email yesterday from Mrs Bell - Joshua's teacher - that said "Joshua has settled in so quickly and is loving our routines. He is really blossoming and is a pleasure to have in the class".

They say that a parent cannot be happy unless their child is happy. Well ... Joshua is now a happy boy at school - so Mummy too feels happy, relieved and emotionally so much more free.

Note the lime green merit sticker on his collar - on Friday it was a double-whammy as there is an identical sticker on the other side of his collar !