The Rest of the Catch Up

For the first three weeks of November we have been learning hard and playing hard.
  
The big boys are both doing great in school.  Elliot has started a kindergarten math program and is sailing right through.  He has also proven to be excellent at memorizing poetry, even if his severe speech delay means you can't understand a word he is saying.  

Peter is starting the second grade math book and is now reading at a strong mid-second grade level.  He is devouring the Frog and Toad books and as many superhero readers as he can haul home from the library.  

I have also hit upon a genre of literature that I can read to the boys without Peter getting "worried".  The genre is "Nothing Much Happens" - lots of benign description without much of that unnerving suspense or emotion or plot.  We listened to Anne of Green Gables on audio book and most of the chapters went over fairly well.  A few of the Just So Stories were tolerated.  And then we hit on the All of a Kind Family books...now those are some gentle books.  Peter will happily listen to long narratives about how Mama makes Gefilte fish or the intricate steps necessary to get pinafores clean and pressed on laundry day.

School only lasts for about 45 minutes, so the rest of the time the boys play, play, play.  Spencer is now almost a full time walker.