A breakthrough!!

I have been a tiny bit worried about Ethan for a few years. Not serious worrying...but a bit concerned. You see...he has the horrible problem of coming AFTER his sister. Even though I am well aware that boys are different than girls, it is still hard for me not to compare them. Unfortunately for Ethan there is not only a gender difference..but Jessalyn is just particularly old for her age (it seems).

She is our guinea pig. She paves the way...in EVERY sense of the word. She sets the standards and poor Ethan is next in line. Also, not in his favor is that fact that he has a much more laid back personality. He isn't as much of a "go getter"....he tends to sit back and let life move around him. I find him not trying new things because he thinks he can't do them and even because "Sissy will do it". I think he automatically thinks that if its something that Sissy can do then he must not be able to do it. He's even commented that "reading is for girls".

We try hard not to actually compare Ethan to Jessalyn...and obviously never do it in front of him, but I think he does it himself.

So compared to Jessalyn he seems to be much more behind in the area of reading and writing. He just isn't eager to learn and if he knows he is learning something he gives up...and thinks its too hard or boring.

I have taken the advice of someone I don't know. I bumped into this person at a restaurant one day and she commented on the kids (I think I only had two at the time). She asked about pre-school and I hadn't yet decided if I would send my kids to one. She said something to the effect of....'your kids are going to be in school 8 hours a day for 12 years and then they will be off to college. If I could do it all again I would keep them home for as long as possible before hand.'

I took this advice to heart and really agreed. I figure, since I'm a stay at home mom there is really no reason why I should put them in pre-school. I feel confident that I can teach them enough at home to have them prepared for kindergarten. Jessalyn proved me right on this one..although, I admittedly don't take credit for all of it because I think she is just smart without much encouraging.

Ethan was starting to make me worry about my abilities to prepare for kindergarten though. Its amazing how every kid continues to teach us what we DON'T know about parenting! The biggest thing is that EACH CHILD IS DIFFERENT...even when they are of the same blood. I've been worried..he's been having some speech issues and just generally behind where his sister was even a year before Ethans age.

We had him tested with the school (who was AWESOME with him) and he blew us all away. We learned that he IS learning..he just doesn't want to admit it, especially to me. He had no trouble showing the teachers how smart he is! He has trouble with some sounds....the "g" sound (as in "go" sounds like "do") and the "k" or "ck" sounds as well. We are working on getting him re-evaluated in this department.

So..onto the breakthroughs!

Yesterday Ethan took the fridge phonics magnets and put them in order by himself!!! He started saying the alphabet and he found the correct letter and lined them all up! I swear..the other day he pretended like he didn't recognize all the letters. I was sure that he only knew maybe 10 of them. I was so excited...he did it ALL BY HIMSELF! He's such a stinker.

A couple days before this he told me that we needed to use tape or "GLUE" (and he said it like it should sound instead of how he normally would say it..."dlue"") to fix the chair that Luke got his finger pinched on! Again..I was so excited.

I think he might be coming around. I KNOW he's a smart kid..he just doesn't want to show it. I think its because he's SO smart he knows that he will be held responsible for his abilities..rather than just letting other people do stuff for him.

I am sure that his schooling will be much different from Jessalyn's. I have a feeling that we won't be looking forward to parent/teacher conferences (like we do with Jessalyn) quite as much. I'm sure it won't be horrible...but it will be different. I am EXCITED!

And besides...even if he gives us a hard time in school....who can resist this face??!!