Andrew in January and February 2015

Andrew is mostly the same old mischievous little boy who is always running around, making forts, coming up with adventures, making super elaborate setups of legos, lincoln logs, Trio, blocks and then getting upset whenever it gets touched or falls apart.  Andrew can be quick to help if he's in the mood, but is quick to blame others if he is in trouble (always, always).  He is pretty emotional, easily upset, but generally upbeat.

School is going well and Andrew seems to like it and his teacher well enough.  He is doing well, as always.  He does not lack at all for self esteem.  He will always tell you that he is the best person in his class - this means some combination of doing the best in school work and having good behavior.  He is not always the most careful at his school work, but generally does well.  He worked hard on a timeline project about his life (okay, not super hard, but he did work on it when he would have rather been playing).  He learned about black history month and Martin Luther King, Jr.  He had Jump Rope for Heart fundraising for school and was very excited to earn little ducks to put on a lanyard - thankfully, I stopped him from using all his allowance on donations so he could earn even more ducks.  He is in a special literature group at school, where some kids from all the second grade classes meet together to talk about and read books in another teacher's classroom.  He is always asking me to tell the teacher or librarian to let him check out harder books from school.

He still reads tons and tons at home.  He loves Boxcar Children books, but also has enjoyed rereading Percy Jackson books and also reading the Magician's Elephant and Ten Kids No Pets.  He also enjoys doing workbooks.  I bought the kids some workbooks for summer and Andrew is already loving the multiplication book.  He, of course, has not yet started the cursive writing.  I am hoping it will help improve his handwriting.  We also have been supplementing at home.  We have been learning geography and also reading history each night from Story of the World.  We learned more about Japan and China's geography.  Andrew knows all his continents and oceans, but is also learning all his seas, and capitals and flags, too.  So much to learn, so little time.  We have also been doing read alouds at night.  We read all three Pippi Longstocking books, and the boys laughed their heads off.  We tried a Moomintroll book, but the boys are not so interested.  We will probably try another one later.  Instead, we just started Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Andrew has been relatively diligent at practicing the piano with lots of reminders and is improving.  He is almost done with book 1A.  He loves to memorize music and does very well when we play duets together.  He is not a fan of counting, but is good at quickly learning the notes.  We bought a piano yesterday and everyone is in love with it.

Andrew did basketball and just finished his season.  He is not a very aggressive athlete and really mostly loves talking to his friends on the bench and getting snacks and trophies.  But he does put in a good effort and tries to follow the coach's directions.  I think we are all glad that the basketball season is over.  Andrew got frustrated because he never got the ball during games and practices were a challenge because Noah doesn't like to go in the car at dark, so he could only go about half the time with Katsu.  He starts soccer this week, but after that he might be done with sports.  I think it is time to start something new - like drama!

This last month was very busy and crazy.  Katsu's mother passed away and so he was out of town for a week and a half.  And then it was quite cold and icy/snowy here, so Andrew had 5 days off of school and like 4 days of two hour delays.  Plus a holiday!  It felt like they were never in school.  That equals lots of energy and no where to burn it.  Luckily they got to spend a day or two playing in the snow, though playing with neighborhood friends often leads to lots of drama with Andrew.  He plays a lot and very well with a new girl in the neighborhood, Hannah, who is in his class.  Also, while Katsu was gone, we celebrated Valentine's Day.  Before he left, we all made chocolates together, which was fun.  While he was gone, Andrew had his school party - but was disappointed because they couldn't fit it all in.  He did enjoy getting and giving lots of valentines.  We tried to make it fun at home with special pink pancakes with red sprinkles and special individual heart shaped pizzas.  Other fun things the last couple months was giving a talk in church today and our trip to Williamsburg.

We also got journals to write back and forth between me and Andrew and Katsu and Andrew.  Andrew quickly co-opted his journal to write a long chapter story about Henry and Mary that he has been telling to his younger brothers.  It is quite an interesting adventure ... with lots of fighting!

Andrew is a fun boy.  We are looking forward to him turning 8 and getting baptized and starting Cub scouts (okay, Andrew is not looking forward to cub scouts, but I think he will enjoy it).