A Glimpse into Conner's World

In Conner's class they have a race track where they keep track of their Accelerated Reader points and each student has a car for a marker. Conner has always been in the lead by at least 20 points. Every Friday they move their cars. On a particular Friday, his friend Douglas ended up taking the lead. He came from behind and earned 40 points in one week. Conner is so competitive and was flabbergasted. How did that happen? So he asked him and Douglas's mother brought him to the school computer lab after school to take tests. Conner began to strategize. Conner usually reads chapter books which take 1-2 days to read after school and only get him 1 point each. He realized that if he read all the books we have at home that are short they would give him 1/2 point each and he could ready 20 a day so that is what he did. He came home from school with a plan. He would read 20 b00ks everyday and take the tests after school so that by the end of the week he would have a gain of 50+ points and should be able to retake the lead. That first day he read for 4 hours only taking a break for piano practice and dinner. It was insane and I was a little worried. I don't want him to feel like he always has to be number one at everything and sometimes other kids need a chance to shine so I emailed his teacher with my concerns and knowing he would be bugging her to take tests all day long and here is how she responded:

Oh how he makes me smile! He was formulating his plan when he left yesterday! He clearly knows the joy of reading and now he is doing some strategic thinking, goal setting, and time management. He is respectful when I tell him it is not a good time to take tests, and I am not at all concerned--Conner is a bright, passionate and yes, competitive boy--who is kind, polite and not to mention cute as a button! Enjoy every minute of sunshine he brings to your life, I know I do!

Isn't she the best and that's how she talks about all her students. I just love her and it helped me put Conner's actions into perspective. He knows he can be in the lead so why not do it. He read all week like that and after a week getting back in the lead he's toned down. When I go to the class I talk to Douglas and some other boys and I can see that it's just a friendly rivalry and all the kids love seeing who's in the lead each week. At the beginning of Christmas break both Conner and Douglas were tied.

Conner came home from school one day and I was in the kitchen so I went to greet him when I heard him come in and I noticed he would not look at me so I got closer to him and could tell that he had been crying. The first thought was who was mean to you? He said he didn't want to talk about but I was not about to let this one go. My little boy was sad and I wanted to know why. As he looked at me his eyes got red and he was trying hard not to cry until the tears just spilled over and would not stop. His forhead got so splotchy and he was intensely upset. I pulled him into my lap and pleaded with him to explain. It took awhile but this is what I finally understood. A Mr. Courier volunteers each week in Conner's class and they were given an assignment to write a letter to Santa on behalf of Mr. Courier asking Santa for 3 gifts. This letter was their ticket to leave the classroom for the day. Conner firmly believes that whatever you ask Santa for you will receive and he had no clue what Mr. Courier would want and was scared he would ask for the wrong thing and Mr. Courier would get a gift he didn't want. He tried so hard not to cry but he said his emotions got the best of him. He heard some other kids talking that maybe Mr. Courier would like some new skis since he likes to ski. Conner knew he shouldn't copy other's answers and was trying to be original so he put down ski stuff since it wasn't the same as skis. The bell to go had rung so he wrote down speed stacks because he thought he would like that. On the verge of tears again he took his paper to Mrs. S. and told her he couldn't think of a third thing so she asked him to read her his letter but when he talked he began to cry so she read it to him and told him it was one of the best letters she had read and that he had thought of more than 3 things because ski stuff could be skis, gloves, poles, etc. My sweet little Conner has such a big heart. I hated seeing him so upset but when I found out why he was upset I couldn't help but laugh.