For Nathan's Advanced Language Arts class, his teacher Ms. Boyer assigned us parents homework. We had to write an essay about Nathan. This is the essay I wrote.
A Million Words or Less about Our Son
Nathan Barker
Nathan
Joshua is our second born. He has an older brother Jason (13), a younger
brother Braden (5) and the baby of the family is his sister Maili (4). Because
of this fact, it has taken me some time to complete this assignment for you and
I do apologize.
Let me
first start off by saying, in the short time that was allotted at Open House, I
can tell Nathan is going to really enjoy learning in your class. Your spirit
and love of teaching was very apparent and was quite refreshing. I cannot wait
to see all this year has in store for Nathan in your class.
Nathan is what you would call “the
typical boy.” He loves sports, football the most, yet recently has enjoyed is
daily long bike rides with his father and his basketball spars with his neighborhood
friends as well. He has a terrific
throwing arm when he throws the football with Dad in the yard and has in the
past played tackle football for our local Pop Warner Football Team.
He
loves a challenge. Yet, he has problems completing the mundane things of life,
such as chores and things he likes to call “boring.” Sometimes with his school
work, I have to make him focus to complete it. When he does complete his work he
is so excited to show how well he did. He is people pleaser. He loves positive feedback
and enjoys lots of praise for any work he has done. He often asks when doing a
new chore, “Am I doing good Mom?” He
especially likes to organize things. I cannot tell you the countless times he
has organized the Xbox game drawer in our family room’s entertainment center.
Due to
having an older brother who has special needs, Nathan has been inherently deemed
“The Talker” of the family. See, Jason is only 14 months older and didn’t speak
true words until he was over 3 years of age and because of this Jason and
Nathan made their own language; their pediatrician at the time said it was like
the twin to twin communication you hear of. Nathan would translate to us all of
Jason’s needs and wants when us, as his parents, couldn’t understand. Because
of this Nathan at home talks and talks and talks some more. In public though,
if he is in an uncomfortable position he has been known to completely shut down
and not utter a single word out of his mouth.
Nathan
is a very caring child. He truly wants for others to do well and I am really
honored as his mother that he is constantly concerned about my feelings. He has
told me before that “it makes my day when you have a good day Mom.” Because of
this though, he cares too much what others think about him. He worries a lot
about his clothing and shoes being sociably acceptable. When he was little at
the age of five he would say “they’re all going to laugh at me” if I picked
something he didn’t want to wear to school. Of course my reaction was, “who are
these people? And why would they laugh at you? You are five years old.” Still
to this day it takes much effort on his behalf to pick the clothes he wants to
wear to school the night before. It can be very frustrating as his mother when
bedtime has ticked by and thirty minutes of his sleep time has been depleted
because of it.
I can
truly go on and on forever about Nathan, but I won’t bore you with countless
hours of a mother gloating about her son. In conclusion, Nathan our son is a bright light in our lives. He brings
us love, excitement, some frustration and much joy. To say we are grateful
every day that he is a part of our family, is an understatement. We feel very
blessed that God has given us the honor to call Nathan, son.
Essay written by:
Christie Barker (Nathan’s mother)
With input from:
John Barker (Nathan’s father)
