Well, Hope has not yet assumed a role as principal. She has settled for the teacher’s assistant, for now.
Nor has she been summoned to the principlal's office. She has been eerily complacent in her role as super star student.
Hope listens very carefully to instructions, meticulously completes her assignments, asks 5 million clarify (or what if?) questions, and finds it her dutiful obligation to make sure every other child puts forth his/her best effort and she ensures each follows directions without fail.
She has a busy day, a schedule fit for a princess, and she has succeeded in this transition, finding her way, taking it all in stride, and actually loving the new found freedom that her kindergarten world entails.
Mornings begin at a new daycare where Hope attends private kindergarten. She is one of only 5 students and the shy girl who hid behind me for approximately 2.5 seconds is now leading the class, directing students, and passionately absorbing all the knew knowledge she is given.
The highlight of her day begins when she makes her way to director’s office to wait for her bus. Hope is bursting with stories and questions and has been known to dance and sing, performing for the director as they await her next journey. When the bus arrives her friends Brianna and Maddie (who attend a different morning daycare) greet Hope with hugs as if they were long lost friends reuniting after years of solitude. Together they make the trek to Nancy Ryles where they become Nancy Ryles Crocodiles. All the rules change, the teacher is new and they become only 1 of 24 students. This shift in the day doesn’t at all hinder Hope’s ambition to be seen and heard. In true super star style Hope entered Nancy Ryles something of a legend… to Hope’s delight she known all over the school as Riley’s sister. In the rare event that Hope is not introduced as Riley’s sister she makes certain to announce this famous relation which imminently eludes super star status. For now, she proudly wears this badge with honor!
Hope’s first real homework assignment finally arrived after years of pretending. Hope sat with Riley for years and pretended to do homework. With much anticipation Hope sat down to color in boxes of picture with words that started with the letter ‘M’. Quite quickly, and much to my horror, I realized I have two very different children who fall on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to academics. Instead of coloring the box with the moose Hope drew in some grass, added some clouds, brought out the sun, created a lake, perfected a rainbow and colored in the sky – meticulously, of course! After all this (and 45 minutes) we still had 20+ boxes to go. Even Riley commiserated with us as we watched Hope work up a masterpiece of art out of a simple homework assignment, and he proudly announced that he would have scribbled each box in under one second apiece – not really caring if he even completed the assignment correctly, coloring well outside of the lines, just simply working feverishly to be done with the dreaded homework. Hope requested a new piece of paper multiple times declaring that it wasn’t quite perfect.
Can there not be a happy medium?
After school, Hope joins the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders who all take a van out to the Westside Dance Academy. More adventures ensue here where she takes ballet, gymnastics, tap/jazz and hip hop. This afterschool schedule took a bit of shuffling to get just right for Hope. Again, in true Hope fashion she was “bumped up” (a very popular term in Hope’s vocabulary now) to ballet for 6-8 year olds and gymnastics for 6-9 year olds. She was “bored” in her 5 year old classes and she is persistent that her rightful age of 5 will not hold her back from things much more advanced.
Only Hope would walk out of a gymnastics class after only two weeks and confidently announce to the teacher that she didn’t like the class… she learned how to do “all that stuff” years ago and was ready to be in “that” class. Yes, Hope insisted her after school care teachers sign her up for a different class where 6 -8 years olds were perfecting the bars, balancing on the beams and walking on their hands. So that is where Hope is today, determined to keep up and loving the challenge.
Of course, the dance/gymnastics academy made an exception for Hope. Who doesn’t make exceptions for Hope?
Hope continues to magically mesmerize teachers and students alike. Hope defines her own path, demands ample attention, puts forth 110% - it comes as no surprise that Hope loves this new world.
That girl is a one of a kind. I admire her. She will definitely hold her own in life and challenge everyone and everything. She reminds me of huckleberry. Huckleberry was so excited to enter this world. She couldn't believe she had become a yellow lab, ready to conquer the dog world, something her little soul must have been yearning to become. Just like Hope came into this world, a blonde girly girl, ready or not, here she is. Keep the stories coming. I can see a biographical book forming in her near future.
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