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Blake's Saga
Book 5 –
Chapter 8 – Part B
Collin's
Teacher Worried
When the
meeting ends, Mr. Foster invites the dads and his student to come to the
classroom. He wants to introduce the
aide who's going to be helping his son in the classroom. He'll still have to meet the LRE teacher who will
work with him, but the aide will be working with him too, and he wants things
to fit perfectly. As they walk down the
hallway, Trace can't help but think back to when he was in school. It seems so long ago.
"Daddy Ian,
Daddy Trace, this is my classroom."
The kiddo
sounds so happy to be in his classroom.
His dads smile down at him.
"It sure is,
Buddy."
Ian says as
he tussles his son's hair. Mr. Foster
unlocks the door to his classroom.
"Please come
in!"
Mr. Foster
invites the family into the room. Mr.
Foster calls down to the LRE teacher's classroom. The aide answers the phone.
"Mrs.
Shields, can you come to my room for a second.
I know you are getting ready to head out for home."
"I sure
can. I will be there in just a few
seconds."
She leaves
the room and heads out to Mr. Foster's room.
She has no idea why he wants to see her.
She knows he met with a new student on her teacher's workload. Mr.
Foster can't wait for Mrs. Shields to meet her.
While waiting for the aide, Mr. Foster allows Collin to show off the
room with his dads. Mrs. Shields enters
the room.
"Hi, Mr. Foster,
you wanted to see me?"
She says as
she walks up to him.
"I just
wanted to introduce you to the kid who might just be the happiest kiddo in my
classroom."
She laughs a
little as they walk over to the table where the family has gathered.
"Collin, this
is Mrs. Shields. Trace, Ian, this is
Mrs. Shields. She is the aide in my room
with Collin and a few other kids. I
think I speak for her when I say we'll do everything we can for Collin."
She reaches
out her hand to shake hands with Trace and Ian.
"Absolutely,
I can't wait to work with your son and get to know him. "
Kyla Shields
is a twenty-something-year-old who cares deeply for the students she works with
every day during the school year. By
far, Collin is a kid she already knows; he will be a bright spot in her day.
"Collin, can
you say hi to Mrs. Shields?"
Trace asks
the kiddo.
"Hi, Mrs.
Shields!"
Collin says
to the young aide. He's glad to be
meeting her. He smiles and shakes her
hands. Trace and Ian smile as they listen to their son talking with the
aide. They stay for another ten minutes
before they say goodbye and head home.
***
Collin is
happy with his teacher and glad he won't have to stop being Mr. Foster's
student. He doesn't quite know what being
in a learning resource classroom means.
It doesn't matter. Collin has so
much going for him. His forever family, two dads who love him and an older
brother who thinks his little brother is the best. Collin's classmates are also a friendly, so
hopefully, there won't be bullying. It's
a good thing that his teacher, or should I say, won't put up with it in their
classrooms. Come to think about it, the
principal won't put up with it either.
He's on a path in life that will see him through if he puts work into
it. Trace, Collin, and Ian leave the
school to pick up Blake from school after saying goodbye to Mr. Foster and Mrs.
Shields.
***
When they
get home, Ian and Trace will start their chores. They discussed who would help Collin with his
homework when Blake entered the room.
"I can help
him with homework."
Trace nods
his head.
"Thanks,
Blake, but don't forget to finish your homework."
Blake looks
at Trace and laughs.
"I'll get it
done."
Blake
hurries off to find his little brother.
He finds Collin sitting in his room, looking at one of the
"Hey Blake,
can you read me a book?"
Blake sits beside
his brother and starts reading the book with Collin. Collin has to read every night, so Blake
helps him with words only. The little
boy thinks it is great that his big brother reads with him.
"Do you have
any other homework?"
He shrugs
his shoulders.
"Well, can
you give me your homework folder?"
Collin
reaches into the backpack and gives Blake the homework folder. Blake opens it up and sees nothing in the
backpack besides a coloring page and the reading log.
"Looks like
you need to color this page. The
instructions say to be creative and stay in the lines."
Blake
watches as his little brother gets his colored pencils and sits at the desk in
his room. Blake hands him the coloring
page, then heads into this room and grabs his colored pencils and coloring
book. He returns to his brother's room,
sits on the floor, and starts to color in his book. When Collin is done, he hands the page to his
brother. Blake sticks the page into the
homework folder, and then he gets out the homework and reading log. He signs the homework and reading log and
then puts the date on them.
"Go tell Daddy
and Papa that you're done with your homework. Make sure your homework folder
and your library book are in your backpack."
Blake
watches as Collin sticks the folder in his pack. The boys walk downstairs to put Collin's
backpack up so he can grab it in the morning.
Blake goes off to do his work.
Collin puts the backpack on the gooks by the front door. Then he finds his dads; they are out in the
kitchen.
"Daddy,
Papa, I am done with my homework, and Blake helped me."
Ian and
Trace look at their son and smile.
"Did you
tell Blake thank you?"
Collin nods
his head to Trace's question. Collin hugs
his dads, and then he goes to his room to play.
He's quietly waiting for Blake to finish his homework, and then maybe
they can hang out together.
***
One week
later, Trace and Ian are sitting on their couch after Ian sat with their
youngest son while he worked on his homework.
The dads have had a couple of emails from Mr. Foster on Collin's
progress.
"I was
worried when we started talking about putting Collin in the LRE program, but I
am really impressed with everything I hear.
Mr. Foster must be one heck of a guy because our son loves him."
Trace says
as Ian cuddles with his husband.
"He's an
amazing teacher. I've never heard
anything bad about him. I agree with you;
I love the fact that our son loves his teacher.
I've never seen a kid who loves school like Collin does."
Ian is
right. Collin didn't like school before
entering Trace's and Ian's household, and now the kid loves school. He has a good attitude towards homework
reading, and he's setting up some suitable habitats for later in life. When he comes home, it's common for Trace and
Blake to get his homework going. Collin
has really taken to reading, too. Trace
and Ian love to see their son thriving so well in school. They hope nothing happens between here and
graduation to hinder that love of education.
"If he keeps
this up, I want to give him something special."
Ian tells
his husband, who smiles at his husband's idea.
The guys have no idea what that will be, but they'll figure it out.
***
Collin is
super excited to be at school. He wakes
up every day eager to get in the car and head to school. Blake finds it weird that his brother would
be so into school. In truth, he wants to
go primarily because of his teacher. His
dads don't even see the big deal, but they are happy that their son likes
school. Ian is happy. In Ian's mind, Collin
might be more willing to achieve and work against his learning disability. Hopefully, this never ends. This morning is no exception to their son's
excitement for school.
"Daddy, I'm
ready."
Collin tells
Trace, who is still trying to get himself ready.
"Did you eat
breakfast?"
Trace is
trying to figure out what part of the morning routine his son might have
forgotten. Collin's face looks down at
the ground.
"Seriously,
dude, go eat breakfast. I made blueberry
pancakes. You like my pancakes."
Collin just
wants to get to school. He feels a
little defeated that he couldn't leave for school. He is hungry, though. He decides to go eat. A short time later, Trace comes back into the
dining room to check on his son's progress on the pancakes. Seeing that he's almost finished, he reminds
him of the next step in the routine.
"When you're
done, go into the bathroom and brush your teeth so your breath isn't stinky."
Collin looks
at him with a face that screams, "I know, Dad!". Trace wants to tell him about the attitude,
but he lets it go. It could ruin what
has been a pretty good morning. It's not
important enough to take a chance on making the little guy's school day
harder. Collin runs to the bathroom,
brushes his teeth, and returns to his dad.
"Time to
go?"
Collin says
to his dad.
"Yes, kiddo,
it is time. Go grab your backpack so we
can leave."
Trace has
got to tell his husband about this morning.
No doubt, Ian will get a kick out of it.
***
At lunchtime,
as usual, Trace and Ian have a video chat. Trace decided to share the story
about their son's morning with his husband.
When the story was over, Ian was grinning from ear to ear.
"Do you know
how happy I am to hear he wants to go to school?"
Trace nods
his head and smiles.
"I think I
have an idea."
Trace tells
his husband. He can plainly see the
smile on his husband's face.
"Don't get
me wrong, Blake likes school, but I don't think he has his little brother's
enthusiasm for it."
Ian wants to
know why he was so eager to get to school. Usually, he puts the food away with no
problem. Maybe he'll ask Mr. Foster
about it at some point today. Of course,
it may not happen till he gets off work.
"We might be
missing something here, Ian. It could
just be our son loves his teacher. What
do you think?"
Trace
doesn't know it, but he hit the nail on the head. His son loves that his teacher is helping him
love school. It isn't just that Collin
is loving school; it's that he is succeeding at school for once. The success he is having at his work is
translating into liking school. At the
end of the day, Ian emails Mr. Foster about what they've noticed in their son's
feelings about school.
***
When Mr.
Foster gets Ian's email, he smiles. Some
parents in his class don't take an active role in their kid's education, but
Collin's parents take an active role.
Collin's homework is done, his planner is signed, his reading log is
filled out, and the library book is always in his backpack. If he has questions, he knows he can email
either dad and get an answer before the end of the day. If he needs to make a phone call, he doesn't
speak to a machine; he speaks to the parents.
If he does have to leave a message, they usually respond before the end of the school day. If there is a day when Collin isn't feeling
good, he's never left sitting at school.
Mr. Foster has also noticed that Collin's older brother often reads with
Collin. It's good to see a family
supporting each other.
***
In his response to Ian, he tells him how he
sees little things helping Collin's attitude towards school. One, Collin has the support of the entire
family. It's evident from Collin's
reading log that even his older brother is a part of Collin's success. At the beginning of the school year, Collin
would check out books but rarely took them home. Nowadays, the books go home, and Collin is
actually reading the books at home. He's
been using flashcards for spelling words at home every night. Mr. Foster has noticed that Collin has been
picking up words he didn't have at the beginning of the school year. The homework is getting done, and it's a
beautiful thing. Homework is typically
done with either one of the dads and sometimes with the big brother. The
kid will go far if they keep rocking things as they are now. Collin is going to be a great success
story. He's going to go places. Mr. Foster knows it, and now Ian and Trace realize
it.
***
Blake is
sitting at home after reading with his brother.
His phone chimes, letting him know he's received a text. He looks at his phone to see who messaged
him. When he sees who sent him the text,
he smiles.
"Hey Blake, I
just wanted to let you know I am doing good.
I love my new family. They are
amazing. They are so good to me. I owe them a lot. You don't have to respond.
Just need to tell someone. I can
honestly say that I love them."
Blake's glad
that Shane is doing good. It makes him
feel good knowing that he's good. Nobody
should go through what Shane and Blake have had to go through. However, Blake worries about Shane, so it's
good to know he's okay.
"I know you
said I didn't need to respond, but hearing you okay makes me happy. I'm glad they are good to you, Glad to hear
you say that you love them, and I know they love you back just as much. They are good people. We should have a game
night or a bonfire. Collin would want to be involved, but that is a little
brother for you."
Blake
finishes his text to Shane and then clicks send. He doesn't get a response, but that is
okay. It makes him happy to hear from
his friend. Sadly, it's time to head
down for dinner. He sets his phone down
and heads for downstairs.
***
If the rest
of the year goes by like this past week, Trace and Ian will be happy. Collin's attitude towards school is fantastic.
He has an amazing teacher who really cares for his students. Mr. Foster will give his shirt to his
students. Collin's teacher is a great
guy who recognized an issue. Collin's
dads know that their son is going too far in school. They realize that attitude is everything, and
their youngest has a fantastic attitude regarding school. Of course, it helps that he likes that Blake
is spending time with him. It doesn't
matter that it's school work or doing a game together. Collin likes doing things with Blake, so the
tradition of reading with Blake started.
Their parents will take every success they can get with their kids.
***
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