Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2013 07:07:34 -0400
To: April Luehmann
Subject: Maya! 🙂

Good morning, April!

I just wanted to say that your daughter is hysterical and makes us laugh every, single day! I think about these little cuties all the time and this is just one tiny incident that kept popping into my head~

Mrs. St. George came to see Maya this week and we were right in the middle of a lesson. Maya was very much “into it” (talking about comprehension, the need to THINK and ask ourselves questions when we read etc., the magic of reading and how it can make us laugh, cry, take us to faraway places, make us “feel” like we’re there and so on). Maya looked up at me, as if to say, “Is it OK if I go now?” I asked her to please finish the little bit of her snack first (which, by the way, she always “taps into” when we first start our day, it’s like the little nibble she needs or likes to get going). She instantly put the whole “thing” in her mouth, smiled a huge smile and put both arms up, as if to say, “All gone! I’m clean!” I guess maybe you had to be there but it just made Helen and I crack-up, one of those many times it’s hard to keep going with a lesson because they are just so darned cute!

I also wanted to reiterate the kindness I see from her on a daily basis, along with creativity. She was having a disagreement with Halle the other day and made some construction paper representations of her feelings. One was a sad face, one was a heart, cut in half and “broken,” and another one (I think with Halle’s name on it). They were able to straighten it out together but she didn’t speak when she reported it to me/us…she simply showed us the signs. Unbelievable…J

A classmate was in tears (and frequently is, although this week has made a huge transformation and I wonder if Maya’s kindness has had a lot to do with that!)…it was dismissal time. I was trying so hard to get a smile from this child before she walked out the door but she was too far gone (over something VERY tiny but obviously meaningful to her!). Maya watched from a close distance and proceeded to walk up to us, put her arm on the child’s back, spoke very gently to her about how things will be OK and not to worry about when things don’t always go our way etc. The child stopped crying and the two of them walked hand-in-hand out the door. Let me tell you…another one of those moments where it was hard for me not to burst into tears!

These “Hallmark Moments” that happen are often with these little ones and your daughter most definitely has the gift of sincere (!) empathy, caring and love/respect for others. Her “creative juices” are not only blooming (bursting) all over the place but are also put to good use in social/emotional situations.

I just wanted to share that…it’s so important to hear these little things that slip by way too often.

Have a great break and thank YOU for sharing your beautiful daughter with me! She is amazing!
Love,
Karen J