MVP

 Freestone's week is finally here!  He is MVP in his second grade class.  When I got home from taking Ruby and co. to ballet yesterday, Freestone was home from school, standing on the front porch with his blank posterboard, a huge smile splitting his face.  He got right to work planning, arranging and gluing his board.  In the bottom corner, he glued a package with a D battery in it.  He explained that the battery was what made all the pictures work.  If it didn't have a battery, you wouldn't be able to see the pictures.  I love his imagination!  If you click on the picture of Free with his posterboard to enlarge it, you'll see an equal number of pictures of Free's family vs. pictures of Collin's family.  That should keep his teacher on her toes, trying to guess which kids are Freestone's real brothers and sisters!  It's so much better to let kids have carte blanche when they're creating than to try to steer the project.  Had I interfered, the D battery might not have made it onto the poster, and it's the best part!  I did get to participate in MVP week, though, by writing a letter about Freestone for the teacher to read to the class.  Here it is:


Hi class!
I am Freestone's mom, and I am going to tell you a little bit about Freestone.   I bet there are things about Freestone that you know better than I do, since you spend the school day with him.  What is he like at school?  Is he nice?  I hope so, because he is really nice at home.  He has a baby brother and four sisters.  Can you guess which one he likes the best?  It's Ptolemy, his baby brother.  I think that little guy is Freestone's favorite person in the whole world.  Freestone plays with him and teaches him and takes care of him.  Did you know Freestone can feed a baby?  He also likes to teach Ptolemy how to play video games.  Actually, he likes to teach EVERYONE how to play video games!  His cousins all think he's the best video game player in the family.

Other things Freestone likes are exercising, playing outside, speaking French, going places with his dad and mom, being funny and baking gingerbread cookies.  In his room, he has about 30 stuffed animals, most of them dogs.  He also has a jogger trampoline that he jumps on when he has a lot of energy!  He knows how to play the guitar and the violin, but he thinks practicing is dumb.  What do you think?  Freestone would much rather read than practice.  In fact, he always HAS to read before bedtime, or he can't sleep.  He just finished reading all the Flat Stanley books, and before that he read all of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.  He even got the latest Wimpy Kid book the same day it came out!  I wonder what book he will choose next?  Do you have any good ideas?

I want to thank all of you for being Freestone's friends at school.  If you don't know him very well, you could get to know him by talking about video games or books or baby brothers.  He is a great kid, and I love him.  He's my favorite MVP!

Freestone is such a great kid.  He has a tenacious, patient determination that usually gets him what he goes for.  He is asking for a treadmill from Santa Claus, and has all the possible glitches worked out.  Scott and I have tried to explain that Santa can't fit a treadmill in his sleigh, but Freestone has calculated that Santa can fit at least seven treadmills in his sleigh.  I'm not looking forward to tears Christmas morning, but I don't want to burn out the engine on Santa's sleigh hauling treadmills, either.  Now Free just has to decide what to bring for show-and-tell on Thursday.  He has been contemplating this decision since the day school started in August.  At this point, he has ruled out every item in our house, so it will be interesting to see what he comes up with.  I wouldn't be surprised if his indecision was just a ruse to get a treadmill.  I can just see him saying, "I don't have anything for show-and-tell.  The kids in my class sure would like to see a treadmill!"  Darnit, I wish I were as magic as Santa Claus, and as rich!  I do feel rich when I notice Freestone's big eyes and kind heart and quick mind and boundless imagination.  He's Most Valuable, for sure.