Seeing progress

This past year Matthew has been in Kindergarten. He has improved SO much over this past year. I'm sure a lot of it comes along with just getting older, but I am just so thrilled with how things are going with him. He still has his frustrating moments and his meltdowns, but we are learning how to deal with them and how to help him get over them easier. He is just adored by all who he interacts with. He is starting to interact more with people and seems to have a little bit more confidence with communicating (even though he still can't be understood by anyone). What I have really been super excited about this year is how good he is at reading! He has just picked up on it so much. It's amazing. Since he is at a signing school they don't teach phonics the "regular" way, instead they teach it through what they call "visual phonics", he can sound out some words, but most of his words that he can read are from memorizing (which was the only way I could learn to read). He is also a great speller. His fine motor skills aren't the greatest and so writing has really been his biggest struggle this year. Yesterday his teacher sent home some photocopies of his handwriting at the beginning of the year, the middle, and the end. You can definitely see he has improved. His teacher has been so patient and loving to him this year. We are so blessed to have had her as Matthew's teacher this year. He will miss her. 

So I guess this is just a post of celebrating a successful Kindergarten year! We had some rough patches, but I really feel like we have gotten to know Matthew so much more this year. He is a blessing in our lives.