Pre-K (Pre-School)

Joshua started Pre-K today at the Learning Center. He is excited and hasn't quite grasped the concept that it will be another year still until he starts Kindergarten across the street. He thinks he will start when he turns 5. Silly boy.
Today he went out the door with his little backpack which contained a little organge folder, which we decorated with stickers over the weekend to put any papers in so that they stay nice and neat on the trip to/from school. I do look forward to the major school shopping trip we will make next year and the week before going to "Meet the Teacher" at Booker T. Washington Elementrary. Right now I am just relishing in the fact that he is excited to go to school and can't wait to start learning more.

 

So Far

Joshua has come so far in the past seven weeks it's amazing. At home I couldn't get him to write the letter A if my life depended on it. He would get frustrated no matter how many times I showed him how. He would give up and say that he couldn't do it. So, I never pushed. I knew he would learn at his own pace and he did things much differently than other children. Let's just say that Magna Doodles are amazing in our house because that is what he prefers to write on.

Once he started at the daycare in June he started drawing more pictures and I saved this specific drawing because I asked if he could write his name on it for me and he said that he didn't know how to spell it. I told him I would spell it out for him if he wrote the letters down. This is the first attempt at writing his name without any direction on how to do it.

Then last night I was sitting in the playroom with him and I asked if he could write his name. Again...he stated that he couldn't spell it, so I told him I would tell him the letters...he wrote it perfectly (although S seems to be a letter we need to work on), then he proceeded to look at the wall where Matthew's name is and copied it below his name. This is just 5-6 weeks after the drawing above.





This is a video of him writing his name while I spell it out to him.

I am so proud of him. He is going to do so well in Pre-School which starts in a couple of weeks.

You're Four

My Dearest Joshua,

I hope that when you get to be a young man you look back and know that I have loved you so very much. From the minute I found out I was pregnant with you my world was full of so much joy. You have so much life and energy in you. I love listening to all of your stories, whether they be tall tales or not. Your imagination keeps me seeing the world through your young eyes and makes me remember what it was like to be small again. The love that you show others is beyond your four years old, but I am so glad you have such a big heart. You are a smart little boy and when you set your heart on achieving something you will keep trying until you accomplish it.

My dream for you is that you will be a fine young man as you continue to grow.

I love you always,
Mommy

Bike Riding

Now that we live on the farm and don't have easy access to paved roads, sidewalks, or a concrete driveway like most people that live in a subdivision...it has taken Joshua quite a while to master the bike riding thing. My older sister, Auntie Sissy, sent him a tricycle when he was two. Let's just say it sat for a very, very long time without being touched because he couldn't muster up enough strength to push it through the grass and dirt on our property. Last month  we built a 12' x 12' porch. I brought the tricycle up onto the porch for him to try there. He started mastering the peddling quite quickly. I loaded the tricycle up into the back of my car and took him to the Play for All Abilities park in Round Rock, which has a little village for the kids to play in that looks just like a little town, complete with street signs, lights, a hospital, fire station, grocery store, school, library, car dealership, gas station, and little home. He really got going on the little streets there. Nana saw the video and before we knew it we had a brand new big boy bike show up. It took him another week to master the peddling of that since he couldn't peddle backwards. Now he is a pro...he still struggles when we go down our street since it is a dirt road with a lot of rocks, pot holes, and dirt that get in the way of those little tires spinning. We load up the bike and take it to the park as much as possible and he zooms around like a pro. Just yesterday he had the bike going around and around in circles on the porch. He is getting so big and at this rate he'll have the training wheels off in no time at all.

Here is Joshua riding around on his tricycle

And then a week later here he is on his big boy bicycle.