certificate of excellence

This Certificate of Excellence reads "Gave prize ticket to another student to make his friend feel better." When Maddox brought this certificate home from school I honestly didn't look at it very closely. I know that sounds awful, but towards the end of the school year it seems that certificates are given out almost every single day and for almost every single reason...so when I pulled Maddox's papers from his folder and this was among them I laid it with the rest of his homework and art projects vowing to look at it later. It wasn't until Maddox mentioned that he had received a special award during lunchtime that I thought back to the certificate I had seen in his pile of papers. It piqued my interest that Maddox won an award during lunch! That's not the typical time to win an award so I knew something special must have happened. I went and pulled Maddox's certificate out of the growing pile of school notes and read through it. When I saw what it said I just had to find out what had happened. Maddox explained to me that during lunchtime the lunch lady did the weekly drawing, which they have done all year, and Maddox's name was chosen! He was then given a prize ticket which he could take to the treasure chest and choose a prize! Maddox was excited to win but when he noticed that his friend was sad that he didn't win (and this was the last drawing of the school year...) Maddox chose to give his prize ticket to his friend who hadn't yet won that school year.

From the moment each of my boys entered Pre-K and to this very day I've said that I would much rather my boys get B's on their report cards and get in occasional trouble for talking too much but have kind hearts rather than be the smartest kid in their class and look away when someone is in need. Maddox may look like a rough and tough boy (and he is...oh boy, believe me, he is!) but he is pure mush on the inside! Suddenly this certificate went from being just "another end of the school year award" to a certificate that immediately went on the show-and-tell board in the living room! In fact, it is still hanging there today! I am so proud of you Maddox! So so proud!