Emilio

Emilio.

He’s your typical, 5-year-old, energetic, border-line-problem-child, crazy, silly, adorable little boy. Emilio is the kid who, after about 3 minutes of trying to focus on a project, loses attention and starts to either (1) fall repeatedly out of his chair- on purpose, (2) sing loudly enough to himself that the entire classroom can hear him, or (3) stand up and start running in small circles until he’s so dizzy that he falls over. I try not to laugh because it only encourages the behavior- but he’s so hilarious that it’s hard not to. Hyperactive? Yes. But he’s so freakin cute.

The first time I met Emilio he didn’t know how to use scissors, couldn’t write a single letter of the alphabet, couldn’t recognize his name and definitely couldn’t color inside the lines. But now, after a little over a month of class, he’s improved so much that he can definitely use scissors, can write and recognize the letters E, C, O and J, he can easily recognize his name, is starting to color inside the lines, and knows his colors in English just about as well as I do. His favorite activity is called “Los Pescaditos,” which involves a combination of coloring fish, cutting them out and gluing them into a paper fishbowl. He loves it. Emilio’s made about 7 complete fishbowls and each time, he’s managed to sit down and focus through the entire process until it’s finished. It’s incredible.

He’s still the same little joker and there are still times when he’s so wound up that it’s like he chugged 4 cups of coffee before class… but it's so worth it because each day he progresses more and more.