Action Jackson

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Mr. Graham gets a little update post each month, but poor Jackson has been pushed back to yearly!  But, I wanted to make a point to write down some things about him these days :)  He is almost 4 1/2!!!  Pre-school is going SO well--he LOVES it!  He always asks if he has school as soon as he gets up.  He loves his teacher and his friends.  He seems to get along with all of the kids in his class, but he has made two friends who are true pals :)  That fact makes my heart SO happy!  I was so nervous he wouldn't have anyone to play with and would be left out.  His favorite thing is playing Monster Trucks with several other little boys in his class.  

I cannot believe that he has started to choose drawing/writing pictures during some of his free time!  This boy is obsessed with letters (he has been for a while) and numbers!  His fine motor skills have progressed by leaps and bounds since school started.  He is forming all of his letters on his own, and he can usually make them small enough to fit into a small space.  He is starting to draw pictures of things he thinks up on his own, and I LOVE watching where his imagination takes him!  On February 7th, Jackson read most of his first book: Hop on Pop!  We are stoked!  Josh and I love to read, and I hope he continues to love it too!

They did a unit on space recently in school, and Jackson remembered SO many facts!  He just poured them out as soon as he got in the car.  He even sat down to draw pictures of the sun, Earth, the other planets, stars, and the moon!  

He is enjoying singing songs, sharing rhymes, and taking on more responsibility (clearing his place at the table and setting the table).  Of course, Jackson still LOVES being a big brother!  He likes to help feed Graham and to play with him.  His favorite color(s) changes daily!  LOL  He does remember that my favorite color is blue and Josh's is orange :)  It is really neat watching his little personality take shape, but also watching as he becomes more aware of likes and dislikes of his friends and family. 

We are SOOO proud of our sweet boy!  He has grown so much this year!  We are planning to enjoy the last few months of school and then have fun with some adventures this summer before launching into FIVE mornings of school next year! 

***The story of the video is that one morning we were talking about numbers on the way to school, and Jackson was getting tripped up as he counted between sets of tens.  He couldn't quite remember what set came next.  So, I just counted by tens to explain that those are the special names you need to remember and then you add one, two, three, etc. to the end of each one.  He repeated the whole thing back to me!  I asked him if they had been practicing at school, or how he learned that.  He said, "You just told me, Mommy!"  What a fabulous memory!  Scary, but fabulous!  LOL  The treasures in the video are our incentive program right now.  He earns a treasure when we catch him making a good choice, being on his best behavior, or going above and beyond our usual expectations.  Once he gets 100, he gets this cool train set I have had sitting in our guest room for a while.  I bought it on clearance at Target, but wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.  He found it, and was excited, so I thought if he can earn 100 treasures, he can have the train set.  Plus, some new habits will hopefully be set in place :)