Psalm 23

Once a year our church devotes a Sunday evening to showcasing the talents of the children in our church. This coming Sunday night is that night, and this is the first year that Ethan has met the age requirements to participate.

I'm still unsure of whether or not he will actually DO his talent in front of the church by himself, but I am not unsure of his talent. One of Ethan's greatest strengths is his memory. Earlier in the week, we began reviewing all of the memory verses that he has memorized. I was planning on having him recite a couple from memory for his talent. However, I started to realize that Ethan might be able to tackle longer memory verses. So, yesterday we started learning The 23rd Psalm.....and today he is reciting it without any cues or help. Here is a video of him doing so......he case he decides not to participate on Sunday. :0)

Psalm 23:1-6

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.

AMEN!!!

United STATES of America

Ever since Ethan's unique interest in the 2012 Summer Olympics, I have been looking for flash cards or games to encourage his curiosity of the countries, their flags, and so on. A couple of weeks ago, I came across some USA flash cards at a dollar store. I bought them because it just seemed like something Ethan would enjoy. OH MY GOODNESS......to say that he is enjoying them is a HUGE understatement! HE LOVES THEM!!!! We have played with them almost everyday since we bought them! Even when my mom comes over for a visit, she knows that she will be asked to play two things.....Money & USA.

Well, this past weekend, Daddy was planning on being gone all Saturday, so I saw this as a great opportunity to invite my mom over in order for she & I to clean out/organize/re-arrange Ethan's bedroom. (More on that later) Well, when we got to the last step of decorating the walls, I remembered that I had a large map of the United States that was already laminated & hanging in the back of my closet. You see, Ethan's love of maps comes naturally.....I love them too. Well, I knew that we just HAD to put it in Ethan's room.

Originally, I was going to hang it over the shelf as artwork. But Ethan & my mom wanted it close to the ground....where Ethan could see it, study it, and play with it. Good call!!!

When I asked Ethan what his favorite part of his room was, he told me, "Massachusetts." LOL!

You may notice that there are smiley faces on some of the states. These are states that Corey & I have been to together. My goal is to visit all the states before our 50th wedding anniversary.

Along with his wall map, Ethan got this puzzle from us last Christmas. He has never shown any interest in this puzzle.....until now.

Each state is a puzzle piece, and underneath, there is an outline of the state and the capital. It's a Melissa and Doug toy that we got on Amazon.

This is what started it all...the USA flash cards.

On the front side is the state name & a map of it's location.

On the back, they list state facts. Ethan is already interested in each state's capital.

Last week, my sister learned of Ethan's love of the states. She showed us a website of many different games including lots of interactive state games....and of course....Ethan loves them! Here is a link to the website.....http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm. Ethan's favorite game is http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/USA_Geography/USA_GL_click_1024.html

ALL of these items are used to create many kinds of games. Some he plays alone, some with us, some we make up, some he makes up, but it can go on for hours of play. In fact, after we hung up the wall map, I no longer had help from my mom in fixing Ethan's room.....she was occupied by a little boy wanting to play USA over & over again in different ways....and all three of us had a GREAT time!

Ethan is Communicating! Now What?

I haven't written a post in awhile, and it's mostly due to not feeling well. My allergies have been going crazy the last couple of weeks. However, there is another reason. To be honest, I don't have much to talk about regarding living with autism. As I have mentioned before, Ethan has been doing so well, and a lot of our struggles & frustrations are disappearing....well.....maybe not disappearing but are manageable. So, the types of issues that we are dealing with in our household are pretty typical of raising a child......not much autism-related. Isn't that crazy awesome!?

If I were writing a book, I would feel like my book is at the end. However, I am feeling a new book coming.....almost like a "what now" concept. For example, we have spent the last 2 years diligently working with Ethan in every capacity in order to help him communicate. Well, now that he is communicating extremely well, we have new challenges. Now that he wants to play with us, the new challenge is how to play with a child with Ethan's mind. He is constantly wanting to learn, and my brain begins to wear after 2 SOLID hours of learning & absorbing what states are in the USA. Now that Ethan can verbalize what he needs, how can I give him what he needs when they are so....um......non-typical of a 4 year old.

A shift has taken place in our home as well as my focus as Ethan's mom. No longer am I reading & learning all I can from Ethan's therapists & teachers. No longer am I pouring over books about how to help Ethan overcome certain challenges. My new challenge is how to keep Ethan engaged since he is showing that he now CAN be engaged. I have to figure out how to play with this child who has never wanted me to play with him. I have to discover how to interact almost all day long with my child who has a brilliant mind. My next book would be called, "Learning to Parent a Genius" or "Raising Einstein" or something like that because that is how I feel.

The other morning, Ethan woke up at 6:20am.....pretty typical of him. And, as the norm, there is no slow wake up/cuddle on the couch/rubbing of the eyes. Once he's awake, he's ready for "input." From 6:20am to 8:36am, we played with every single board game in his closet. As I played these games with him, I was thinking back to times of frustration & heart ache as I TRIED & TRIED to get Ethan to play with me, and understand about turn-taking, game concept, and so on. And as we spent 2 hours playing board games, I was overjoyed that it was now an ENJOYABLE thing to do! He would tell me when my turn was, ask me what playing piece I wanted to be, and was excited when he had to miss a turn & I got to draw 2 cards. It was sheer joy for this mom.

But, as most of us would agree, playing board games for 2 hours is....well.....a bit boring! But my Ethan wasn't ready to stop. He wanted more & more & more. I got out all of our puzzles, and that satisfied his need for input while I could grab another cup of coffee. And I was already thinking of what I could play with him next that would satisfy his thirst for learning.

His brain facinates me. It never seems to take a break. I think it's why he doesn't sleep well and why he doesn't want to stop to eat.....he just needs, "More Input." (From the movie Short Circuit) So, to anyone who is reading this, you may see a shift in my topics. But it is still our journey & how we are learning to live with autism. And we are so blessed to be having this new challenge. So blessed.

Bored with English?!

Even though Ethan has difficulties with many things, he has a super power. He LOVES to learn. He was reading before he was 3 years old, and currently is discovering math facts. It's amazing how he can absorb this information....and retain it!

Well, for awhile now, Ethan has been changing all of his games/books on the iPad to any language other than English. A couple of weeks ago, instead of telling me thank you, he instead said, "Grazie!" I really didn't know what to say, so I just said, "You're welcome." I'm so not a cool mom. HA!

This weekend, we went on a long road trip, and he watched several episodes of his new favorite, Dora The Explorer. At some point during the trip, I asked him a yes or no question. He replied with, "Si." Unbelievable!

So...now I need to be learning Italian, Spanish, Japanese (from his Cars 2 books), and French. These are the languages that I have observed him switching to in order to listen to his books in a new language.  If he is only 3 years old and soaking all of this up, what am I going to do when he is in grade school? I guess we will cross that road when we get to it, but for now enjoy these videos of Ethan teaching himself new languages. LOVE THIS KID!!!!

Easter Egg Silly Sentences

We have been on Spring Break this week, and I am using this mini-vacation to change some things in our home....design-wise. Since our sensory playroom won't be completed until the Fall, I am trying to re-arrange our upstairs main living space to accommodate these needs. I recently hung up our big magnetic board in our entry way. I got the idea from Pinterest. Ethan has really enjoyed using it with his magnetic letters. We have been doing a lot of spelling & even moved into making sentences. (Did I mention that he can read?...just another super power he has.) Well, spelling sentences one-letter at a time can be tricky because there are only a few of each letter...sometimes only one per letter. Then I found this at UFS....

The pieces were small so I was planning on using this to work on his fine motor skills. But we were getting a little bored with our magnet board....

So, I decided to put the magnetic board & this silly sentence game together...and it was a huge hit! In fact, he is playing with it right now, and he has only been up about 30 minutes. But, I gave it a little twist in order to make it a little easier. Notice how each type of card is color coded? Well....I matched it up with same color Easter eggs!!!

Here is our new magnetic board (it's actually an oil drip pan). The silly sentence pieces are in my vegetable tray that I usually use for sorting games. (The tape on the floor is for our at home OT...animal walks, tight-rope walking, etc.)

Each part of the sentence has already been color coded. We added Easter eggs for an added visual aid....and it's fun! I had to get a little creative with the 2 piles of red, but Ethan didn't seem to mind that it was different.

I added magnetic strips to the back of these puzzle pieces. The game is simple....find a card from next color in the sequence. Ethan just had to find the corresponding colors & he was able to create his own silly sentences! He caught on very quickly & was so excited each time he picked a new word out of the tray!

The eggs were too heavy for the magnetic strips to hold them up, so I ended up having to tape them to the board.

Silly Sentence game turned magnetic!

Now the wheels are turning.....I could personalize it with our OWN cards. I could use names of people in the family. I could use picture cards as well. I could have made it shorter & used fewer words....like only a noun + a verb. I decided to use all of the parts of speech because this is Ethan's thing....he loves to read & spell. He was squealing with excitement, and I couldn't stop laughing. It was so much fun! I LOVE how big this magnetic board is! AND I don't have to wait for the playroom to be finished to use it! YEA!

Glow Stick Math

Ever since we introduced glow sticks to bath time, it is the ONLY bath toy that Ethan wants during his baths. Even though I found this idea at PlayAtHomeMom3.blogspot.com, my husband is the one who actually carries out the activities. 99% of the time, Corey is the one giving Ethan his bath, so I can have a mini-break....although it's usually filled with cleaning up or getting ready for the next day. So, a couple of nights ago, I hear Ethan's voice from the bathroom, "All together!"

I hear it over & over again, so I sneak in to see what creative game my husband has come up with this time. When I walk in, this is what I see.....

Ethan had grouped his items into categories. They are working on this skill at school. He was also adding the groups in different ways. So, he would count the straight glow sticks, and then count the cubes. Finally he would say, "10! 10 all together!" in his really excited voice. He was doing this game over & over again...and LOVING it! Corey also said that earlier in the bath, Ethan was making patterns with all three of these items. Circle, cube, stick, circle, cube stick, etc.

Last night, I could hear a discussion from the bathroom about, "What else can helpful hands do?" Recently, we have been having issues with Ethan pushing kids until they fall down, and we talk A LOT about using "helpful hands, not hurting hands." So, apparently, last night's new bath game was all about things our helpful hands can do....including playing with glow sticks. When Ethan came out of the bathroom, he said to me, "Helpful hands can play with toys!".......as he wanted to keep playing & not go to bed. Sneaky, sneaky!!!! So, I asked him if helpful hands can pick out the books to be read before we go to bed. I can be sneaky, too!

I LOVE that he has the ability to "generalize"....or to take what he is learning in one area and apply it to all other areas. For example, he is learning about patterns, adding concepts, and grouping like items at school, and he carries that over in his play. He will even count the family members at various times....at the dinner table, playing outside, in the van, etc. This is an EXCELLENT skill that he possesses, and Ethan really is blessed to have this ability. This skill will greatly help him in overcoming the challenges he faces regarding autism. So, in the words of Ethan, "Dad, Mom & Ethan! Three all together!" And even though he is doing math, this one makes me teary every time he says it. I am so lucky that we are "Three all together." Ethan, you've said it perfectly.

Reading

I have talked before about how Ethan is already reading at a 1st grade level....and how he taught himself. This is one of his "super powers." I can remember when I started working with Ethan on his letters. I pulled out my uppercase magnet letters, and Ethan immediately began to say the names of several of the letters. I was amazed. I couldn't believe how much he had learned from us reading books together as well as watching kids' shows like Super Why, Sesame Street & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. In a couple of days, he knew all of the letters. Here is a quick video of Ethan doing his letters...days after I got these magnets out for play. This was taken in September 2010, so Ethan is 2 years & 3 months old. This is just before he was placed in the Early Intervention program, and his speech is still very "vowel" pronounced. We could understand his language, and he knew all of his letters & numbers 0-9....and he was barely talking before his 2nd birthday.

 A few weeks after this video, we were at my sister's house. I told her that Ethan knew all of his letters, so she got out a board game to play with Ethan. It was kind of like CandyLand, but with letters. When I saw the game, I realized that it was all lowercase. I told her that Ethan wouldn't know them because we had only been using uppercase letters. She decided to play it with him anyway. Pretty soon, she turned to me, and said, "Jessica, he knows all of the lowercase letters." Unbelievable! Months ago, he was barely speaking & now he knows all of his letters?! 

Then we started working on sounds. We borrowed the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter Set toy from my sister, and Ethan was hooked. He played with it over & over again. Pretty soon, he knew all of the letters' sounds, too. He couldn't get enough. Soon, he was counting to 100 by ones and tens. Then, in May 2011, we were heading to St. Louis for my cousin's wedding. We were driving through McDonalds, when we heard Ethan in the backseat saying, "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." over & over again. It finally dawned on me that he was reading the exit sign that indeed read, "Thank you!"  On the way home from that same trip, we stopped at a gas station. My mom, who was riding with us, had gotten one of those Big Gulp fountain drinks. Ethan began to read the words on her cup. It was during that trip that we realized that Ethan could read. To this day, I am still amazed at the amount of words he can read. This past Christmas we were at his classroom's Christmas party. They had done a gingerbread theme. One of the centers was smelling all of the spices that go into the gingerbread recipe, and deciding which one was your favorite. Ethan blew our table away when he read every word on his paper...unreal. Here is the picture of Ethan's paper....

 This past weekend, we spent most of our time hanging out with my Dad & Stepmom at my sister's home. My 5 year old nephew has been getting into reading recently, and he has many short story books. Ethan picked up a pack of Easy Reader Clifford books...12 books in the whole box set. Ethan wanted to read them with me...and he read every single one of them. My husband quickly got out his camera phone to record some of our reading session. Ethan did need some help, as you will see, but this is the first time of seeing these books...and he can read them. Unbelievable.

 

 

These "super power" moments are what I try to stay focused on instead of what he is currently (or maybe never) unable to do. He has such a thirst for knowledge, and that is such a blessing. Someone once told me that Einstein couldn't tie his own shoes. Whether that is true or not, I don't know.....but I could see that. Ethan is so drawn to learning academic things, but has no interest or desire in learning how to put on his own shoes. And every time I try to teach him or ask him to try, it's a meltdown. Maybe I should tie some little books to his shoes?!?! Hum..........

Bible Memory

Lately, I have been wanting to "challenge" (for lack of a better word) Ethan's brain. I have discovered that the more new things I am teaching him, the more calm & socially engaging he has been. Almost like if I exercise his brain, his mind is worn out. This seems to be causing him to behave better & have less meltdowns....and even occasionally napping! Corey & I were talking last night about how much Ethan has been talking & interacting with us this past week.....and I think me trying to "stump his brain" has really played a big part in it.

So, a couple of days ago, I thought I would start teaching him some scriptures from the Bible. It started at lunch one day, and I asked Ethan if he wanted to do a new prayer instead of our standard, "God is great, God is good, Let us thank Him for our food. Amen." His eyes got really wide & he jumped up, "YES!" So, I told him John 3:16.

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that 

whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life!

He was so excited. "Again, again?" he kept saying to me. We did this over & over again during our meal, and he began repeating it with me. But the next morning, he was saying it all on his own.....and asking for another new prayer. He has now memorized 3 Bible verses! I wrote them out & hung them by our dining table, so he could pick which one to do for our prayer.........and he picks all of them......in order, of course.  :0)

Ethan's Bible Verses

Deuteronomy 6:5

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart

and with all your soul and with all your might.

 John 3:16 

For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that 

whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life!

Philippians 4:13

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

A Thirst for Knowledge

So......I'm kind of wigging out right now......

Last week, I bought addition and subtraction flash cards in order to start teaching these to Ethan. Yes, I realize that Ethan is only 3 years old, but he is already counting to 100.....even doing it by fives and tens. He is flying through any of the preschool math workbook that we have, and lately he has been wanting to do more & more math. So....I bought these flash cards.

Ethan adding manipulatives....and loving it!

Well, the teacher in me gets out all of my teaching stuff......the specific addition flash cards (the easiest ones....the plus ones) and my manipulatives (tangible items for Ethan to count....I used my tangram shape pieces.) I was so excited! And so is Ethan. As I'm getting stuff out & ready, he is grabbing for things & moving things....he was ready to play!

Then we begin. I show him the first flash card.....1+1=__. I say the words, "One plus one equals".....

I haven't even begun to do anything else....to show him the concept of adding, to use my shape pieces to demonstrate adding, NOTHING......and this child says, "TWO". ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!? After I was able to recover from shock, I moved on to the next card....1+2=__......he knew that one too. He knew all of them, and they went up to 1+12=__. WHERE DID HE LEARN THEM?????

I immediately emailed his preschool teacher. She still hasn't gotten back to me, so I'm anxious to hear from her. He may have learned these math facts at preschool. But this is EXACTLY what happened when I decided to start working with him on his letters.....he already knew most of them! I can remember being at my sister's house, and she pulls out a board game to play with Ethan. He was about 22 months old....just shy of being 2 years. She thought he would like to play it because it was all about letters, and we knew how much he loved letters. I told her, though, that we had only been working with uppercase letters, and the board game was lowercase letters....so he wouldn't know them. UM......HE KNEW ALL OF THEM!?!? How this child soaks up academia is UNBELIEVABLE! I had no idea that he knew his lowercase letters, but he got all of them right when my sister asked him what the letters were......unreal.

So, now I'm wondering where he learned his addition facts?! Probably school, I'm guessing, but I'm still blown away! Well, curiosity set in, so I moved on to the plus twos....to see if he knew those. He didn't...so I was able to use my math manipulatives & demonstrate adding....and he was totally getting it....and squealing with joy over this "game"......he LOVED it. He kept asking for more & more.....we probably played for about 30 minutes. Then, for lack of more flashcards, I got out another math workbook, and he was absorbed. He didn't want to write the answers, so that was my job, but he often read the directions & was so giddy doing math worksheets. Then, once we finished the math section, I scrambled again to find something...so we played one of his favorite board games BINGO BEARS. Everyone has a bingo-type card, and you spin a spinner. This spinner will tell you either a color, number or size bear to pick from the pile. We play the first one to fill their card is the winner. After he played this game with every bingo card, he was finally ready to play cars....without me. This session was 1.5 hours.

I am amazed at how my child's brain is super thirsty for knowledge. My husband and I are reminded of that movie SHORT CIRCUIT where the robot says, "Input, more input".......that's similar to Ethan. He loves to learn!

I tried to take a few videos, but it was difficult with my limitation of only having 2 hands.....so....here is what little I was able to get.....

 

*****UPDATE!!***** I spoke with Ethan's teachers today, and they told me that they haven't done addition facts with the 3 year olds. They HAVE been working on greatest vs. least, and other math concepts, but not addition facts. I am truly amazed at what Ethan absorbs....what a kid!

The "Write" Stuff

OK....Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Occupational Therapy!? It just amazes me how well it works for Ethan. And here is yet ANOTHER example!

Today we (Ethan, my 18 month niece, and myself) decided to get out some construction paper & color with MARKERS....I know!!!!! I guess I just didn't think the kids were messy enough after lunch & playing outside. Anyway, as I turned my back on my niece to ask Ethan what color construction paper he wanted, my niece decided to "apply her makeup"......with markers. YIKES! So, luckily, I still had my wet rag from wiping her hands & face at lunch time, so most of it came off of her face. Then, when I was able to give some attention back to Ethan, this is what I saw.......

Alright....let's break it down. The scribble at the top is a horizontal line....not just a scribble. I'm not really sure what the dots at the right are....other than dots. However, the scribble at the left is a CIRCLE!!!! Ethan asked me to "make a smiley face," so I added the eyes, nose and mouth. BUT HE MADE A CIRCLE!!!! No help, no hand-over-hand, no frustration....he just did it!!!!! This may not seem like much, but it is a big step for Ethan. It was less than a year ago that this child could barely sit down to focus on any paperwork task. When I would get out crayons to color....he would line up the crayons or sort them by color. And while those activities made me love him even more, if that is possible, it was very frustrating for us. So, I would use an art easel to promote any kind of drawing. We would use chalk, water paint, finger paint, shaving cream, and paper taped to it. He was only interested in making a mess & had NO desire to draw anything...including scribbles. And today....he just drew a circle....like it was no big deal. I am so excited!!!!!!!!!

AND, a couple of days ago, my sister & I had a "Book Swap Meeting." Our children love books, and we are continually passing books back & forth between our households in order to keep them from getting bored with the same books. During this meeting, we sorted the books into piles.....my pile, her pile, Grandma's pile, and the Goodwill pile. There were several books that had already made the rounds at my house, so I passed on them. One of the books, however, Ethan decided to rescue....and he wants to play with it all the time. He says, "Together? We play together?" Here he is playing "Together" with Daddy.....

We had this book in our possession before, but Ethan never showed any interest in tracing the letters no matter how much encouragement I gave him. He only wanted to look at the pictures. NOW....he wants to draw in it EVERY DAY! I know it is baby steps, but it is AMAZING how quickly Ethan is catching up!

I have said it before, and I will say it again. Ethan would not be where he is at, would not have made the progress he has made, would not be growing leaps & bounds if it wasn't for his amazing support. His teachers, his therapists, his extended family, his church family, and our friends. NO WAY would Ethan be drawing these circles if didn't have loving people in his life OTHER than mom & dad to teach him. We are SO grateful for all of these wonderful people and blessed to have found this path for Ethan so early in his life. So.....once he masters the art of writing his letters.....be looking for his first novel!

My 3 year old can read???

Ethan has ALWAYS been fascinated with letters, numbers, puzzles, shapes....anything academic, really. So, it was no surprise to me when he could count to 100 by 10s, spell his name, and recognize words all before his 3rd birthday. However, there are moments when he really shocks me with what he knows....and this story is one of these times.

On Ethan's first day of preschool, my husband wrote Ethan a note since he would already be at work when Ethan woke up for the day. Here is the note.....

So, during our morning of getting ready for school, I called Ethan over to see the note that Daddy had written to him. I asked Ethan, "What is that?"......pointing to his name. All I really wanted him to read was his name. And he did.....and then he continued to read the rest of the note!!!!!! OH MY WORD!!!!!!!!!

He often reads books to himself, but they are always books that we have already read to him. But this was a BRAND NEW piece of literature!!! The only words that he misread were "first" (he said feet) and "Buddy" (he said bunny)....but I think that is AMAZING!

The other day my sister was spelling random numbers in order to see if Ethan could read them. I knew that he could read the words of numbers 1-10, but I wasn't sure if he could read the words of numbers 11-20.....he could. Then she busted out numbers like, "seventy-three" and "twenty-four".....and he totally read them, too!!! Who knows how much he actually knows! I NEVER dreamed he would be able to read this note from Corey, but he totally surprised us!

So, now, we have a new game....let's see what Ethan can read! We were suit shopping last weekend, and I was asking Ethan was different signs read....like the "Big&Tall" sign....and he totally read it.."Big, Tall!" Awesome! (On a side note, he was counting a bunch of gold buttons on the suit jackets....he called them "Gold Doubloons" from the Jake & The Neverland Pirates cartoon that he loves. "Four! Four gold doubloons!"...super funny.)

We were watching a new movie the other night, and the production company was called "Blue Sky." When I asked Ethan what it read, he was able to read that as well.....I am just amazed.

I really thought that teaching my child to read would be a challenge that I would face as a parent. However, this doesn't seem to be the case. Instead, my challenge as a parent has been teaching him social skills, grooming skills, anxiety calming techniques, etc. Most kids will pick up the understanding of the game of tag pretty quickly, but Ethan has to be reminded of the concept over & over again. But reading the word, "seventy-three"......no biggie. Amazing. He truly is my favorite puzzle, and I love discovering the pieces!

H-E-N....what's that spell? CHICKEN!

That was Ethan's playing with his Melissa & Doug spelling puzzles a couple of months ago. It was so cute & funny that I didn't correct him. For me HEN does spell chicken. These puzzles were a Christmas gift for Ethan. He has always been drawn to the "academic realm"...shapes, colors, numbers, letters....so these puzzles were a perfect seg-way for him to use his knowledge of letters & start spelling!

But I didn't realize how much he was absorbing. My amazing Ethan is spelling & reading! We first realized it when we were on our way to my cousin's wedding in St. Louis. We were in a drive thru, and Ethan kept saying "Thank You" over & over again. This is not unusual for him to do. He often repeats cartoons, commercials, computer games, etc. to himself over & over again. But then, I realized there was a sign outside the car window that said, "THANK YOU". When I asked Ethan what the sign said, he replied, "thank you". That was where I realized he was reading.

As of today, Ethan knows his shapes (including octagon & pentagon...I don't think I knew those until high school geometry!), colors, animals & sounds, uppercase & lowercase letters & their sounds, can count to & read numbers to 100, and he is spelling & reading...he is amazing!

He has several games that have the letters of the alphabet. I noticed that "elephant" was spelled on my refrigerator...E-L-P-H-A-N-T. The reason for the 2nd E being omitted was because the pack of letters only includes one magnet per letter. So, I thought he would get a kick out of lots of letters.....and I broke out my Scrabble game. My child spelled 25 words right before my eyes!!!!!!!! So, I've started keeping a list of words he knows how to spell...we are up to 33 words!!!! Here is what I know he can spell....

Ethan, Mom, Dad, elephant, zebra, horse, cow & cows, pig, goat, dog, cat, owl, fish, worm, wand, towel, yo-yo, box, bell, mix, food, flower, x-ray, exit, jar, drum, read, gift, hat, apple, sun, chair, nut

What a wonderful gift he has been given! I know some things about Ethan are frustrating (aka...potty training), but he is such a sweet little boy. I am so privileged to be his mom! Every day is definitely an adventure, and I can only do it with God & lots of coffee. And I'm looking forward to the day when Ethan destroys me in a game of Scrabble!