About the boys

It’s Friday night, and unlike our usual Friday night, we are not watching a DVD! Nick has been roped into helping out with the Friday night youth group that Anthony and Elaine are running in the schoolroom, specifically to play guitar, which he is doing as I type. I can hear them singing through my window.

School this morning was really good. I started by administering a spelling test, although of course didn’t tell the boys it was that until afterwards. I just dictated each of their week’s words, one at a time, and they wrote them. Then we did a few other bits and pieces, and when it came to their handwriting, Aaron finished his in the blink of an eye. It wasn’t quite as neat as usual, but all the letters were facing the right way and were the right size. So, I was beaming. Then, in Maths, Aaron was never more than about a sum or two behind Caleb – normally Caleb has finished his whole worksheet while Aaron is on about the second problem! During the reading, again Aaron surprised me by enthusiastically tackling the story, and even saying that he would read the whole thing on his own, thanks, and didn’t want me to help him. His recognition of sight words is growing in leaps and bounds, so that his reading is going a lot faster. I think he was very much encouraged after today. Caleb, as usual, works like a star. He is extremely diligent, and never needs a second prompt to get on with what he’s doing. His reading also is coming on so very well – he often gets words that I think he will struggle with, words that I know he hasn’t read before. He’s also getting better at deciphering a longer word, sounding it out from left to right, instead of staring at the word as a whole and guessing it.