Student of the Month

We have another student of the month in our house! (Finn was SOM in Jan of Kindergarten). I write with great pride and joy that Korrigan was student of the month for November! Her teacher picked one student from her classroom. Here are the words she wrote for why Korri earned this honor:

Mrs. Erger is nominating Korrigan Thomas for student of the month in her first grade classroom. Korrigan is always listening when the teacher and other classmates are talking. She is respectful and shows that she cares about what others have to say. She also shows these great listening skills when she is in the audience at an assembly. She makes everyone feel welcome and always includes them in games and activities, which makes her a great friend. She has been a kind classmate to the new student in our classroom and is always willing to help. Keep being a great example to others, Korrigan!

I almost cried when Korri gave me the note last week. I mean, she doesn't have any major issues at school, but she does struggle (more with the social stuff than academic). She often doesn't want to go to school and says how "hard" it is and how she "h word" school. But this shows what I've thought all along...she is doing great and is probably focusing on a few small things that don't come super easy to her instead of all the good, easy things she does do! I mean, she was the "All Star" in her class last year, so she/we must be doing something right!!!

Uncharted waters

Finn and I embarked on a new adventure to anybody in the Thomas household...a visit to the Orthodontist! Neither Jim nor I had braces, so I don't really feel this is "fair" that we have to go at all! I mean, send somebody who caused all this fuss to THEIR parents!!

Needless to say, I was NOT looking forward to the visit today, but since Finn's birth, I was told it was coming. It was time. The reason really is to get a benchmark for the future and see where he's at right now (but I didn't know where he was "at right now"!).

The appointment could not have gone better. The orthodontist basically said the issues Finn has are minor and he'd like to see us back in about 6 months to see if there has been improvement or not. And the issues Finn has are from thumb sucking NOT his early birth! The orthodontist said those issues at birth seemed to have correct themselves (Finn had facial and mouth asymmetry and narrow/crowding). I felt a huge weight lifted from my shoulders that I didn't know was there.

Finn's issues are normal child issues and the orthodontist thinks they may correct themselves as his mouth grows, since he doesn't suck his thumb any more! Praise God! Now we'll just wait and see. And to make things better, Finn loved the office, people and the visit (no pain!!). So that helps for future visits.

Korri has the same issues as Finn (or so I was told by our dentist), so we'll be back there in a year or two for her. But I have a feeling hers are going to be more severe because she sucks her thumb for frequently and for longer duration than Finn has/did. Argh! Oh, well, could be worse. We'll deal with both when the time comes.