First Grade

Today, Hayes went to First Grade orientation. Had a blast. Teacher has 20 years of experience, and his best guy friend is in the class. Blessings, indeed.

The challenge for Hayes is that he is already performing at a better than 3rd grade level of reading, 5th grade level of math, and 8th grade level of science. We must keep him intellectually stimulated, even in the First Grade.

A good mind is truly a treasure that should not be wasted. Duchenne might take Hayes’ muscles, but his mind shall remain his to cultivate.

Our goal as family is to help Hayes experience Life at its best now so he may have warm, fun and well-rounded memories of a normal childhood to serve as an emotional anchor in later years when he may not be able to do normal activities.

This family is basically not much further than in the first grade of learning how best to cope with the dream killer. Hopefully, our mentors like Hayes’ teacher and our Duchenne family friends will provide us adults the same level of foundational joy to fuel good memories that will take us through darker days in the future.

Kindly yours,

Papa in Tennessee