Dear Mr. Brandenburg,
First of all, thank you for letting me tell you a bit about my son. I wish I got this homework assignment from all my kids’ teachers because I hate relinquishing my kids to people who don’t know them and love them as I do; you soften the blow by expressing interest. Now, on to Isaac.
He’s the oldest of five kids. He has an 8-year-old sister named Lucy in your wife’s class and a 6-year-old sister named Brooklyn in Mrs. Rossi’s 1st grade class. He also has a 3-year-old brother named Cason, a 1-year-old brother named Corban, a mom named Tara, a dad named Doug, and a painted turtle named Rex. One of his cherished dreams is getting to finally own a dog—after his two little brothers are completely potty trained. Because Isaac is such a fantastic big brother, and has this beautiful ulterior motive, I have no doubt that he’ll help his brothers potty train as quickly as possible.
Isaac’s a funny boy. He loves drawing comics, watching funny movies, and cracking his siblings up with his jokes. Watching adventure movies is a full-body sport for him because he’s so excited. He knows more about dinosaurs, animals, and the natural world than I do, thanks to the hundreds of hours of time he’s devoted to studying them in zoos, museums, and books. He’s a future zoologist or paleontologist, for sure; he’d also probably love to carry on Jerry Pallota’s tradition of writing “Who Would Win?” books.
Isaac has played sports since he was in kindergarten, but the drive to play and practice just isn’t there. He’s been a good sport about playing (way better about sports than piano!), but he’s the type of kid who wants to know how long the practice will be so he can get back to playing with his toys. I worry about this because I know kids tend to make friends with kids who have shared interests. Because Isaac isn’t as interested in sports as other boys, I’ve seen him become friends with kids who are obsessed with video games (which we don’t own because we know Isaac would happily abandon the real world in favor of the virtual if he could, and for as long as possible). My husband and I were both athletes, among other things, while growing up, and we really worry about Isaac finding good friends he loves to be around and that bring out the best things in him. We’ll be praying for him to make good friends this year, particularly because we just moved here from Utah, where he was surrounded by cousins and siblings in his school who loved him.
About school: Isaac got almost perfect grades until last year, when his excellent brain wasn’t enough to carry him through assignments that required attention and care. He’s a mixed bag academically: if he likes what he’s doing, he’s thrilled to do it. If it’s necessary and not very interesting to him, he’ll try to avoid making waves (doing too poorly) so he can get back to reading a book under his desk. As I’ve loosely homeschooled my kids this summer (requiring clean rooms, a clean area, 20 minutes of reading, and 4 pages of workbook, followed by a family adventure each day) I’ve observed that Isaac is always the first one done with his work, but the work isn’t usually as good as I know it could be with more attention. He’s actually pretty cheerful about getting work done if he knows something good is coming later, but he needs to be held accountable for doing good work.
I think I hit on all your suggested topics. I love Isaac with my whole heart and want him to be happy. I’ve told my kids that if they are kind, attentive in class, and respectful, they can have a wonderful year, and I hope Isaac takes me up on that challenge. Thank you for teaching him and caring to know about and serve him.
Sincerely,
Tara Bowen
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