Racin' Weekend

Hunter had a terrific weekend! It was race weekend here in Texas so we started it off on Thursday by taking Hunter to Grapevine to meet the NASCAR driver of the #6 car, David Ragan, and then meet Fox Sports commentator (and former crew chief), Jeff Hammond. David is a young guy with a great future ahead of him, but for right now, his public persona needs a little polishing. This young sweetie was signing autographs without looking up much, if at all. I had told Hunter before we got in line to be sure to introduce yourself and tell him it is nice to meet him. So when Hunter got to the front of the line, David was head down and engaged in conversation with the gentleman beside him. I was so bummed that he wasn't even going to look at Hunter. Then my little race car driver said, "Hi! I'm Hunter and it is very nice to meet you." At this, young David stops his conversation, looks up at my little bitty and says, "Well, hi, Hunter, it's nice to meet you, too. I'm going to sign this 'to: Hunter'." Wow! All it took was a little boy saying, "hi." Then I asked if we could have a picture and he pulled up a chair for Hunter to sit down beside him. Wow! Again!

A little bit later, Jeff Hammond came in for autographs and we got in line again. Jeff is much more experienced and polished, but Hunter did his same greeting and he again received a personalized autograph and another picture.

When we left Grapevine on Thursday, I nearly had to tie Hunter to the car to keep him from floating away. This kid was in the clouds! So was I, for him. How cool! But it didn't end there.
On Friday, we went to Texas Motor Speedway for NASCAR Sprint Cup practice and qualifying. Casey Mears, the driver of the #5, was on hand for autographs as well. So, we jumped in line and again, another picture and personalized autograph. Then the man himself, Jeff Gordon, came out on the stage for a short Q&A and Hunter again was in the clouds! But to top off Friday, Jeff Gordon got the pole for Sunday's race and we were there to watch it! Whoo!

Sunday was race day and we had purchased tickets in June for this race for Hunter's birthday. It was a awesome day and he is still buzzing around the house talking about how cool the race was. Yeah, I think he's hooked.

But we are, too!!

Sad Day for Hunter

It was a sad day in McKinney today for a little boy watching a race going on in Talladega, Alabama. Jeff Gordon was doing really well today and Hunter was so excited...until...well, a blown tire on another car took Jeff out of the race - and out of championship contention.

Hunter buried himself under pillows on the couch. I asked him to come sit with me and a very teary sounding - but muffled - voice said, "why? I'm not crying." He did sit with me for a short while, but soon left the room to go mourn in his Jeff Gordon sanctuary of a bedroom.

As much as some people may not like JG, I think he is great. My little boy sees a leader of a man admitting mistakes and accepting blame when necessary and no matter what, always praising his team and their hard work.

Yeah, it was a bummer seeing him leave the track, and it was discouraging to see Hunter so upset, but it is always a good thing to be able to talk about things like this - that life doesn't always go the way we want it too - and how we can praise God in all things, no matter what.

Sorry, Jeff, but thanks for the good lesson!

Pushing

Hunter and I have head to head combat occasionally. Oh, not in any violent way, but in a Mother/Teacher to Son/Pupil type of way. There are those times when he will decide on his own that something is just too hard to do and all of a sudden, he "can't do it." I really don't like those words and usually won't let them fly too far out of his mouth before "yes, you can," leaves mine.

The math curriculum we have this year is Singapore Math, which moves very quickly and is more advanced on grade level than what we would be doing in public school this year. I'm trying to make up ground from what he forgot/didn't get last year in school. So to really drill in addition math facts, I found a worksheet that has 100 boxes on it with all the math fact equations (you know, 0+1 through 9+9). The worksheet goes on top of a blank paper and the student then fills in the answers in the boxes.

When we started this worksheet on September 11th, I decided to time Hunter to see how long it would take him to do this sheet. I clocked him at 26:49. This time was atrocious! So, I set a goal for him. If he could get the time down to 8 minutes, I'd take him to Bono's Race Shop so he could pick out a new NASCAR car. We did the worksheet 3-4 times a week and charted and graphed his progress. Each time we did the sheet, his time would get better, then go back up, then progress down, on and on. Finally, on this past Monday, Hunter hit 8:30. The goal was 8 minutes so we were super close. Tuesday morning we sat down with the worksheet and talked over some problem problems and discussed how we "skip" answers we don't know immediately then come back to them later. I started the stop watch and watched my little boy blitz through these addition math facts. He hit the end and went back to the top to skim for skipped questions, answered all of them, and I hit "stop". The time on the watch was amazing to us... 6 minutes and 45 seconds!!!

We sang and danced all over the kitchen. So, yes, we went to Bono's on Wednesday and Hunter got to combine his two loves: Jeff Gordon and Speed Racer with a new 1/64th diecast car.

What a fantastic accomplishment for him (and for me). I told him that I knew he could do it and that I will continue to push him when I know he needs it, so just get used to it. I love seeing him happy with himself.

Yea!!