A Part of Our Family

Zachary had his school conference today. Even though it's only preschool, it seems we parents still care very much about what the teacher has to say about how our child is doing.

I am no different.

I care about what the teacher has to say. After all, we want to make sure that they are doing well.

But I walked away corrected. I felt like I realized what's really important.

We talked about whether or not Zachary knows how to identify and write upper and lower case letters. He prefers all upper case.

We talked about whether or not he knows his shapes, his colors and how high he can count. We talked about if he can do art projects, put things away, if he's nice to other kids and can share.

All this he seemed to be ok at. It didn't look like he was struggling a lot with one or the other, but neither was he really good at something.

The moment that my heart melted and I became the proud mama was when the teacher told me how he answered this question: "Who's in your family?"

He answered: "God, mom, dad, Karsten and Jasmine."

What's funny is that we never sat down and taught him that. We never talk about who is a part of our family. It's assumed. I suppose who we include in our conversation and who we "do things" with. I hope that our values continue to be passed on to our kids.

We do talk about values. But often, we live it out as little eyes watch us. The things we believe in have to be real enough that it's evident in our lives. I'm glad that Zachary is learning about his shapes, colors, letters and numbers. The most important thing, the thing that makes me glad is that he knows that God is indeed a part of our family.