Sean officially turned 7.5 on April 1st, which fell over spring break and on Easter this year! Not that we do anything to really "celebrate" half birthdays in our house. But, it gives me a chance to pause and reflect on how much Sean has grown over the past 6 months.
1st Grade has been a bit of a challenge for Sean this year. Behaviorally, he's been amazing! He only went on yellow once at the beginning of the year and since then it never comes up in conversation after school. His favorite friends in his class this year are Kidanni, Caiden, and Abby. He's talked about Abby being his crush on and off the past few months. She's a cutie! At recess and lunch he meets up with Corey and Nevaeh from other 1st grade classes.
He loves to see his neighborhood friends in the evening as much as he can now that the weather has finally turned to spring. In fact, it's caused a few arguments over homework when he sees them already outside playing without him, but we've switched to him doing his homework right after school so that he can go outside after that. If we're stuck inside, he's always choosing to play with Legos, blocks, army figurines, and board games. He loves to play Stratego with Scott and the Game of Life. It's funny listening to him name his future children as he drives a full minivan of plastic pegs.
He recently had his first sleepover at his cousin, Adelaide's house two weekends ago. They had so much fun we invited her over to our house this past weekend to spend the night. It was so cute seeing his backpack packed with a sleeping bag and pillow as we dropped him off. It feels like such a "big kid" thing to do!
At school, he's had to really transition to the workload for first grade. He brings home math homework four nights a week and a spelling contract that's due the following week. He usually has 10 spelling words and 5 sight words to work on throughout the week. His teacher will quiz them randomly on spelling and math. At first, his spelling quiz scores were low. He would have the majority of the word spelling right, with the exception of one letter. It's been hit or mess all year so far with spelling. In math, he's made some big strides. At one point, his teacher recommended he see the math interventionist, but after two months, he tested out of it. His last math test he got 100% on!
He started seeing the reading specialist back in February. At that point he was still stuck on level D books (which is what he finished his Kindergarten year at according to his Kindergarten teacher). He should have been at a G in February. Since then, he's moved up to F and we're working hard on closing that gap. We've found a tutor for him to use this summer so that can start 2nd grade off at grade level for reading.
He's very interested in science and history! In fact, he chooses to bring home books from library every week about The Titanic or about other historical events. He loves the I Survived books that we read to him and Magic Tree House. We recently started using his Chain Reactions books he got for Christmas from his aunt at home with Legos and it's been fun. He's quite the Lego builder these days. He loves collecting things outside - rocks, sticks, and other "treasures" he finds.
We had to take a break from piano, even though we were very close to the end of the school year and close to his spring concert. It was becoming a nightly battle to practice and with him needing the extra help in math and reading, we knew we needed to prioritize how we spend our time in the evenings with him. He completed a few months of swim again at Level 6 at Aqua Tots and has really gotten his side breathing down!
Spring soccer kicked off at the beginning of April and Sean has a new coach and a few new players. Their team had their first game on Saturday and they did amazing! 8-1 with a huge victory and Sean had a few great plays! I'm really excited to see what he can do this season.
He also just had his first school concert last night with the entire first grade classes! His music teacher did a great job with a program called, "How Does Your Garden Groove?"! It was so fun watching him sing and get into it with the hand motions. We're very proud of him! He wasn't nervous at all!
As the year comes to a close over the next 7 weeks or so, he'll start up baseball on a coach-pitch team (first practice is this weekend) and he'll continue with soccer. Catechism and swim ended this week (we'll start swim back up in July). I'm sure he'll enjoy the extra time to play with the neighbors and his friends outside with the nice weather.
Oh, and just for fun, he's wearing a size 13 shoe and size 7 in pants and tops. He weighs just over 50 lbs and is about 50" tall too! He has his big top teeth growing in with some wiggly ones next to the top teeth, although it will be a while before those are ready to come out.
We're so proud of how much he's grown! My big guy!
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