It's the little things

As parents there will always be things that makes us proud of our children. Whether it's when they make the winning basket in a game, perform in a dance show, swim in a meet or get straight A's on their report card. It's easy to recognize those visible achievements and feel proud of our children, but it's the little things that I like acknowledge in my daughter.

Yesterday Maya told me about an experience she had at school that day.

Before her class was to be excused to go recess before lunch, the class must have been working at their round tables on some sort of project. When the teacher said it was time to go to recess, Maya's four other classmates left their table and raced to go outside. Maya apparently also was walking away from their table but looked back and noticed they didn't clean. So before she got very far she came back to the table and started to clean...while her tablemates were already out the door. Apparently the teacher saw this and asked another student to go retrieve Maya's tablemates from the playground.

Meanwhile Maya continued to clean up the table. When the tablemates returned to the classroom the teacher made them stay in the classroom while Maya was allowed to leave for her recess and lunch.

I asked Maya how she felt when she was released from the classroom and her tablemates were made to stay inside. Her response, "I felt bad for them because they had to stay inside during recess but I also felt good that I got to go and play."

It's the little things that matter.