This kid.  My pride in all he’s accomplished this year is simply overflowing.  I am so impressed and amazed at how much progress he’s made.  He started the school year scribbling his coloring assignments to finish as quickly as possible, with no concern for color choices or staying in the lines.  It’s just where he was.  Now, he asks to color on his own, he takes his time, he makes specific color selections on purpose, and he prides himself on staying in the lines.  Just yesterday, he finished this color-by-number picture all by himself.  He had no help, except for me to explain how to do it.  Not only did he follow the numbered instructions correctly, he also stayed in the lines and stuck with it, despite it taking quite awhile.  It was a serious commitment on his part, and he followed through until completion.

He has also successfully mastered singing the alphabet song on his own, a task that we worked on for years with very little progress.  This year, it just clicked!  And even more, he is beginning to recognize letters and can tell me the phonograms for a few of them!  Oh Happy Day!  He recognizes numbers 1-11 and can count up to 11 with relative accuracy.  Although his articulation can still be difficult to understand, his language skills have also exploded this year.  He has picked up so much more vocabulary over this past school year, and can even carry on simple conversations.

He has worked so incredibly hard!  Oh my word, he has excelled this year.  Way more than I had imagined possible.  It is so fun to watch him grow and develop, especially when he’s also overcoming learning challenges.  In fact, his long-anticipated neuropsychology evaluation is coming up next week, so I’m praying for answers that will provide some tangible ways I can support his learning needs.  The developmental pediatrician confirmed my suspicions of his learning challenges last September, but she felt that a neuropsych evaluation would give us a full picture.  I’m excited and nervous, but very confident that we’re headed in the right direction.  If you’re the praying type, please pray for clear answers with a direct path for our precious boy!