Hello!  It’s me again.  This week, I have decided to discuss a whole new topic.  It falls under my work as The Resourceful Mother but has nothing to do with nutrition.  A mother called me yesterday to discuss her son and just before she began to explain what was going on with him, she sighed and said “These little beings are ongoing projects, aren’t they?”  And my heart went out to her and the force of her words hit me.  Yes, they are ongoing projects.  They challenge us regularly, they teach us like no other means of education, they can make us into better people than we ever thought possible if we allow them to and our work with them, in helping them become the finest of human beings, never ends.

And when the school year ends, we are given an opportunity each year to reflect.  To reflect on how our children have grown over the past year, the obstacles they overcame, the marks they achieved or didn’t achieve, the skills they gained or perfected and the difference they made in the lives of other children.  It is at this time that we start to think ahead and wonder what they will do next year and remark to ourselves how crazy it is that they are already turning 4 or heading into grade one or into high school…..

We receive the end of year report card.  Somewhere in the depths of each parent reading their child’s report card, a feeling surfaces; a feeling of disappointment.  It may last for only a second or a minute or a few minutes.  It may be disappointment in the teacher that chose certain words to describe your child or their abilities.  Less likely, it may be disappointment in your child for work they did not complete or do to the best of their ability.  But there is invariably disappointment.  The feelings pass, time passes, we all move on.  But there is a specific opportunity at the end of each school year that can never return in subsequent years.

It is my beautiful friend, Pat Ashby, that made me aware of this opportunity and I am forever grateful to her for sharing this incredible idea with me.   What if we, our children’s parents or other family member or family friend, wrote our own report card for our child or the child we know?  For, it is each of us that knows this child best.  We could do it at the end of each school year or even each semester, for that matter!

And what might this report card include?  Possibly your child:

• Made it onto a particular sports team or improved their game
• Sewed a skirt for themselves at sewing camp
• Cheered up their teacher on a particular day
• Helped a fellow student complete their work or understand a concept
• Was awarded MVP of their baseball team
• Improved their marks over last year
• Concentrated in class better than ever before
• Learned to read
• Helped around the house like never before
• Prepared their first meal
• Learned to ride a two wheeler

One of my daughters was asked this school year by her overweight friend why not all children gain weight when they eat junk food.  Taylor, age 11, responded by saying “Some kids’ brains are affected by junk food and because they eat badly, they don’t do well in school” and she gave an example of a girl in their class who was like this.  The pride in Taylor washed over me like a giant wave….her friend was so grateful that she only gained weight from eating junk food and that it wasn’t her brain that was being affected.  I explained this on Taylor’s report card as: Made your classmates feel blessed to be who they are.  Now, having a report card, describing things like that means a thousand times more than the things I see on most report cards these days.

And what is even more incredible, is that taking this time to reflect on the real accomplishments your child has had over the past school year, makes you appreciate the gift of your child like never before.  I invite you to see the gifts more than you see the challenges in your life.  You know why?  Because there are far more gifts than there are challenges in this world, if only we’d open our minds to seeing them.  I am grateful to you for listening to me the way you do.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for letting me express myself.

Please share your ideas with me. I love receiving feedback. And here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  This is an opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Meredith