Choosing a Hero

Kindergarten is an amazing year.  Merritt is rapidly learning skills that he will have the rest of his life. It is pretty awesome to witness. Just this past weekend he played in his first chess tournament (he was the youngest and the only first-timer, but he still managed to get a draw in one of his matches!). Every day he comes home from school with a reading book and...reads it out loud! He can count to 100 in 1's, by 2's, by 5's, and by 10's. He loves a good challenge and he has fabulous teachers who are awesome at challenging and nurturing him. I am so very thankful for them and for our school.

His class had a project to work on last week - they were to each choose a hero, research and make a poster, and present it to the class. He came home and announced that his hero was President Obama. We bought a book and did some reading, and he worked hard on his poster. I have to give him some credit - the boy is one focused project creator. I kept trying to give him a break, but he pressed on.

 He was quite proud of his final result and I was too!

 After doing our research and choosing pictures for the poster, we had to go pick Gav up from school. A little while later, we returned to the kitchen counter to assemble the poster and label it. He told me Obama was the 44th President of the United States, and I said, "And what makes Obama's election so special?" He stared at the poster, and said "hmmmm..." and so I said, "Merritt, look at Obama's picture and tell me what makes him different than all the other Presidents" (we have a placemat with all the Presidents on it that the boys like to look at).
Merritt stared intently at the picture and in a small, unsure voice, guessed, "Ummmm....he has a black....jacket?"
And for that, Merritt is my hero.