That's MY girl!!!

If you don't like to read posts where a mom brags about their child, click off of this page and go to another website now! :) I am so excited about my girl. She worked really hard this summer and read 25 books from the required reading list for Battle of the Books. When the school year started, she took a written test and made the Battle of the Books team at her school. Let me tell you about this team. They have 7 members and 6 of the members of her team are third graders. Did I mention that Grace is in the FIRST grade? Yes, that is MY girl (can you see my chest puffing up?) They will compete with all the other schools in our districts (that is a lot of schools, if you know where we live) at the convention center at the end of January. They have to pretty much memorize these 25 books...cover to cover, words, picture details, you name it, they know it about these books. The team practices every Tues. and Wed. after school for an hour and we parents rotate bringing snacks and being in charge of practice. It's been fun getting to know all of the kids at these meetings and to see Grace interact with all of them.

Last Wednesday, I went to pick up Grace from practice and she has been named the CAPTAIN of the team. Yes, my first grader is now the captain of her school's Battle of the Books Team and she is over all the third graders. I was speechless, and you know that is hard for me! The funny thing is, I don't think that the other kids even know that Grace is a first grader. They are all about the same size and they all get along very well in the practices. When they mentioned voting for a captain a month or so ago, Grace was a little down because she thought there was no way that they would let a new member, much less a first grader be captain. Of course, being the good parent that I am, gave her the "Don't you let ANYONE tell you that you can't do something because of your size or age" Speech. I guess it might have just worked. Not that I'm taking one lick of credit. Grace is a very smart little girl and I'm so thankful that she got most of her daddy's brains!! The team had a secret ballot vote last week and Grace won 6-1. I asked her if she had voted for herself and she said, "I can vote for myself? Now, that isn't very nice!" I am so thankful that she has the confidence to lead this team. It really is an answered prayer. I know she will do great!! You go, Grace. Now that is MY GIRL!!!