When my niece, Ashley, told me that my great-nephew, Noah, was having a Special Person day at his school and that he wanted me and Uncle Bobby, my husband, to come, I was thrilled. Bobby and I never had the opportunity to attend anything like this for any of our nieces or nephews when they were growing up. The closest I got was attending Candy Bar Bingo at our niece Courtney’s, school in New Hampshire.
Bobby and I took the day off to drive the 2 hours to go to Montrose Elementary School in Columbus. Bobby was going to go to DeAveon’s class and I was heading to Noah’s. Once I weaved my way through the crowd of other kids’ special people, I finally got to Noah’s room.
His teacher, Mrs. Reggie, had the class in three rows, two sitting down and the third row standing. They were preparing to sing for the group of special people who began filling the room. She reminded the class of their word of the week, which was “flexible.” Then one little boy introduced the song “You Are My Sunshine” and another little boy “directed” the choir. I’m not a parent, but I finally understood a little of the excitement parents feel when watching their children perform. It might seem silly, but I even got a little emotional.
After they were finished, the students were able to go to their special person. Noah came over to me with a shy smile. I could tell he was glad I was there. Almost as glad as I was. Although you’d never know it by his get down to business attitude.
Mrs. Reggie gave us all a sheet of paper with things that we could do with our students. Noah wanted to head to the book fair, but I asked him to read me the story that he wrote first. He took me to his desk and read his story about Chuckee Cheese’s. It was cute. He talked about the pizza, the games (his favorite the motorcycle one) and the parties you can have there. Next we headed to the library for the book fair. On our way, we met the principal, who called Noah by name. We saw another gentleman in the hall who also knew Noah. I was beginning to think that I was with a rock star! He also showed me his artwork that was hanging on the wall.
At the book fair Noah selected a Lego’s Activity book that came with a Lego man. The Lego man was one that needed to be put together. While he wanted to put it together right then, I asked him to show me around his school. He showed me the gym, his art room (and the turtle that was in an aquarium there), his music room and the big kid’s music room.
Once we made it to his classroom again, there was only one place for us to sit and read his book, which was on the two red beanbag chairs near the back of the room. So we sat down. Another special person told me that she wouldn’t have been able to get back up if she sat on one of them. I said I could get up, although it might not be pretty!
Reading the book turned out to be a hit with Noah and a couple of his friends. They started to listen by standing nearby then moved to sitting down with us. They wanted to help Noah put his Lego man together. Noah was so great that he let them. They moved from the reading area to the Lego table.
By the time they had the man together and started to play with a Lego pirate ship, Mrs. Reggie was telling us it was time to wrap things up. Noah and DeAveon go to “Y-Club” after school. I walked him to the cafeteria where it is held. We met DeAveon and Bobby there. Bobby had taken some magic to show DeAveon’s class. However he didn’t have time to do it there. But it worked out OK, because he had a mini show for the Y-Club members.
It was a great time to spend with these special boys. We are so blessed to have them in our family! By the time we left, there was no doubt we felt like some very special persons.
