I grinned at the email, not only because she is correct - Carson does not lie, but because I recently commented to Todd how bluntly honest Carson is with his statements.
We recently saw one of his friends' mom dress up for Halloween in what I considered to be somewhat inappropriate outfit. It was an extremely tight and revealing caricature of a loved children character.
When asked by his friend if Carson liked his mom's Halloween dress-up, Carson simply said "No, I didn't." His reasons for not liking it were different than mine - her face painting was too gory - but instead of mitigating or explaining his reason he just chose to be honest about his opinion. His friend didn't like Carson's answer and called Carson mean. Carson shrugged it off but didn't change his stance. In the end, they just moved on and started talking about something else.
I was talking with my friend Nicole about how headstrong Carson is. When he believes to be right, there is nothing except irrefutable documented truth that will sway his opinion. It is sometimes hard for me to convince him to do something, or accept something if he thinks he is right.
For example, he has a reading fluency paragraph he has to read each day. We have to time his reading and mark the number of errors he makes. At the beginning, we would butt heads whenever I pointed out an error he was certain he didn't make. He would rather read the paragraph all over than accept having an error in his reading log. To mitigate the daily disagreement, instead of timing him we record his reading and then listen back to it to catch any mistakes.
I am grateful for a friend who reassured me that Carson's behavior is not necessarily a bad thing. Rule followers and children who are clear on what is right from wrong are a great thing, especially in this day and age when the world tries to confuse us and sway us from the truth. I just need to help Carson learn to interpret circumstances and decide when it's appropriate to show flexibility and to express his opinion, and when it's better to keep his thoughts to himself.
I love my little man so much. He is very smart, helpful and honest. He is also incredibly affectionate, especially towards Andrew. He will randomly stop whatever he is doing, to reach out to Andrew and give him a huge squeeze.
I am grateful for a teacher who recognized Carson's integrity as a blessing in her class. I'm also grateful for the timing of this recognition. My mom happened to be visiting from Georgia that week so she got to attend the event (and take much better pictures than mine).
Carson, you are AMAZING!!!
