Seth in January and February 2015

Seth Seth Seth ... in some ways he is the easiest child because he is such a peacemaker and tries really hard to be helpful.  On the other hand, he tends to freak out and get stressed and anxious about the most things.

School is going really well.  Seth has been doing awesome in school and I think he enjoys it.  It's hard to tell.  Seth comes home and every day if you ask him how his days was he will spell B-A-D.  But in truth, I think he has good days and enjoys school and is just a bit contrary (he obviously gets that from me).  His teacher has been so wonderful about differentiating things for him.  She has been teaching him and another student carrying and borrowing in math.  Still, I wonder how challenging school is and if he is getting too bored.  I am planning on meeting with his teacher soon to see what she thinks he should be doing next year.  Because I highly doubt 1st grade math is going to be the least bit interesting or challenging for Seth, but I am not really sure what alternatives we have.

Seth loves to learn, though, especially math.  I bought some workbooks for the summer, but Seth has already dived into the math one and loves doing the work.  He still needs to work on memorizing some of his math facts, but he is awesome at doing his work.

Seth has very neat handwriting, but his spelling is completely hilarious.  His binder from kindergarten is getting so large because I love keeping all the things he is writing because they are so funny, once you can finally decode them.

Seth's reading has improved quite a bit this year.  He still doesn't read enormous amounts like Andrew, but I don't think he has quite gotten to that degree of fluency (though his fluency is up a lot).  I also think he just has more varied interests than Andrew as well.  I also have a hard time what he has actually read and what he just looks at the pictures.  Maybe he really has read all the books he has said, but sometimes I think he is just being agreeable because he wants to be able to read all the books Andrew has.  That said, Seth loves books that are more like graphic novels.  He was in love with the Ricky Ricotta series.  I have also enjoyed finding the kids easy reader chapter books, like the Mercy Wilson series and he has really loved those.  There are so many more books and at such a varied level than there were when I was young.

We have been enjoying some read alouds.  Seth really enjoyed Pippi Longstocking books and laughed out loud heartily to them all.  He also seems to be enjoying Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Seth is very diligent about doing chores and piano practice and anything else.  He is very very motivated by screen time - especially being able to play Lego star wars on their webpage or able to play video games.  I used to be worried that he wouldn't be able to ever stop playing, but he has gotten much better.  He still spends most of the playing time jumping up and down the whole time.  It is really so cute.

Basketball went well, more or less.  Seth doesn't really get the drift of the game as well as he does soccer.  He got the ball only occasionally but basically just passed it off to someone as fast as he could.  He spent most of every game jumping up and down.  I am so glad that basketball is done.  He wants to play again next year, but I would rather not.  He got a medal, so he thought that was pretty cool.  Soccer is starting this weekend, and I think he is going to totally love it.  He is getting pretty excited.

Otherwise, he loves to play Legos and army, look at books, play the new piano, and run around with all the neighbor friends.  He has really been fun.

Well, I gotta go and get Logan from preschool or I would write more.