my little pit bull

It is the end of the quarter for the high school and middle school and I've just witnessed a valuable lesson in tenacity and hard work. McKayla has received straight A's which would make any parent proud but what makes me the proudest is the struggle it was for her to accomplish this.

McKayla has always been a good student and studies have come fairly easily for her. That is, until her algebra class this year. Last year her 6th grade teacher recommended a few students skip math 7 and/or pre-algebra and take algebra. McKayla was one of those students. At first it wasn't bad but suddenly it seemed that McKayla did NOT get it. She was frustrated and discouraged. Both she and I wondered if we had made a mistake in skipping pre-algebra. Maybe she really needed that foundation.

McKayla would faithfully complete her assignments (with lots of help from me) but the tests were another matter. For the first time in her life, it appeared she might not do well in a class. In fact, for a time, she was even looking at a D.

That did not stop her. She asked me for extra tutoring. She did extra algebra problems until she could really understand the concepts. She retook her tests (sometimes 2 or 3 retakes) until she got a score of which she could be proud. It paid off for her in terms of a good grade (and a bag of Chips Ahoy from Dad).

Good grades are nice but I really value McKayla's perserverance, tenacity, and hard work. I am so proud of her!