Reflections Results

We found out that Caleb's story "The Come-to-Life Origami Paper" won an Award of Excellence at the state level of the Reflections contest for grades K-2. Caleb was delighted to be recognized at the school and totally amazed when his entry went past the district level. I thought he'd be ecstatic to be one of ten students in about 7,500 entries to win the Award of Excellence for writing. Up until this point, all the Awards of Excellence have advanced to the next level, but each state can only advance one entry per category. There was one Outstanding Award of Excellence winner who will go to nationals. When I told him the results, Caleb initially thought his entry would advance to nationals, and when I explained it wouldn't, he had to fight back tears. It was hard for him to come so close and miss meeting his ultimate dream. The family went out for cookies at Celebrity Bakery to celebrate, and the sugar rush seems to have brightened his spirits. Maybe Texas is big enough that it's almost like its own country anyway. Hooray for our little author!