Andrew...

Andrew seems to be my "baby-ed" youngest child and yet he doesn't get the kind of spoiling or attention he needs. I give him tons of hugs and kisses, lots of smiles and "love yous" and yet I've failed to teach him to say his own name. He is in speech therapy right now and someone from "Babies Can't Wait" asked me "Does he know his name?" I said "No" and proceeded to go home and work with him on it. Within 24 hours he now knows the answer to the question, "What's your name?" He insists on saying he is "five" when you ask him how old he is, I suspect because his older brother Micah is 5. He will put out all five fingers and say "five". So we are working on that one. Two fingers are a little harder than just putting out your hand.

This is "Andrew" cabinet where he can go and pick out activities to do during school time. I didn't realize until a week ago that he has a serious speech impediment. When the lightbulb went off I started spending about 5-10 minutes with him daily, his "school time" working on learning new words and his articulation. After a week of this we went back to speech therapy and his therapist could tell a huge difference! I was so encouraged!

The thought has crossed my mind that preschool might be really good for him. He has been baby-ed and maybe a couple mornings a week of being independent would be good for him. My main reason though is for his speech development. I will try and gauge how willing his teachers will be to work with him, not just let him get by with lazy articulation. The only preschool I have been willing to look at is a small one that is 5 minutes from my house. It only has 40 students total and 5 kids in his class. I'm going tomorrow to check it out with Steve. He would go Tues/Thurs from 9:00-1:30. Kind of a long day if you ask me! Although those two days Micah, Isaac and I will fly through school and maybe be able to do some special projects that we aren't normally able to do. So I'm excited about that prospect!

I figure too when Serena, Gidstina and Gideon come home it will be good as well for me to be able to give Gideon some one on one time when Andrew is at preschool.

Andrew's bed. Not sure why I took this picture.... :)
The boys have journals (more in a later post) for Bible and Nature study and Andrew always wants to do his own pictures and so he scribbles and I put his drawings in his own journal (3 ring notebook with clear plastic pockets).

This is Andrew and Gideon's table in the school room. He hardly ever sits at it. He always wants to be at the big table with everyone else. And that is fine! I love the fact that I have a clear plastic cover over our school table that I got at Wal-mart for 2.00 dollars a yard. Andrew can color with markers and get it on the table and it just wipes right off! It has really been great because he will sit down, get out a piece of paper and the markers and color away and I don't worry a thing about it! Now he does get marker on himself and sometimes on his clothes, but I'm over it! We go places now on a regular basis and he has a blue streak accross his cheak and I'm fine with it!