Blessings, blessings, blessings.. .

I am very blessed with very good and smart children. I have always felt that Joshua is advanced for his age. (I know, I know. What mother doesn't think their kid is the smartest in the world). He crawled early, he walked early, he talked early. . . He's very helpful and very smart and jsut such a good boy.

He and I do school together almost everyday. He has a little trouble concentrating at home so we go to the library almost everyday before we go to the gym and we do school together. Sometimes he focuses well and other times he doesn't. Sometimes we are there for 15 minutes and other times we are there for over an hour.

We are starting to see lots of progress being made. He know his alphabet now. He has a little trouble remembering the letter 'E', but I think it's because it comes after 'D' and 'D' ends in an 'E' sound so he thinks he is saying it. He knows how to read his name and is working on writing it. He learned how to hold a pencil last week, so this week hopefully we'll see some improvement in him writing his name. He knows numbers 1-10 by sight, but we are still working on their concepts. I have color tiles that you use on overheads and I pit them in groups, one for each number, but he didn't understand it. Instead he spread out ten tiles and assigned them each a number instead of putting the number ten with the group of ten tiles. He is reading several sight words, but refuses to use the flash cards unless my mom does them with him for some reason. . . silly boy. 

I made him a "book nook" under his desk. I covered part of the desk with a sheet and put blankets and pillows and Christmas lights in it where he can do his "homework." He loves it! Part of his homework is to do "15 minutes of quiet reading time" every day. He just goes to his book nook and looks at books. That's usually the time I take to sew, or have "me time." It's nice. He likes his book nook and usually ends up staying there longer than 15 minutes and I get a good amount of time to myself ( I try to suggest doing "quiet reading time" during Miriam's nap so that I can have "me time"). (Pictures of the "book nook" to come).

And, the best for last, as of yesterday, he has finally made the switch to UNDERWEAR!!! YEA! He has been using the potty since he was 18 months old, but wouldn't wear underwear. But, he has been wearing underwear for the past two days!! Yea! And we have gone out to various places and he has used the toilet several times now in public places. I am so proud. I am just so blessed with an intelligent boy who loves to learn and help and just be all around wonderful.