Happy Birthday, Joshua!

 

Josh is 12 and he is still so innocent and such a kid and I am very happy about that. I hate how the world expects us young 12 and 13 year old boys to be more like 17 and 18 year boys. It's wrong. I am so glad that we homeschool and I have innocent and playful boys at this age. We got Josh lego ninjago mechs for JOsh's birthday and he and Joseph smash them together with all the sound effects of a 5 year old boy. 

So now down to Josh. He is 12. He is often emotional. He tries hard and he wants to be really good at things, so he gets stressed when he is not. But his effort is starting to pay off for him. Josh mostly reads well now and that is huge because a year ago, he was still having to sound out many words. Josh is a very good artist. He always has been and John is helping Josh develop his technical skills by teaching him math in a way where Josh has to figure it out for himself. That has been good as Josh is figuring it out and as a result he is doing better all around with his academics. 

Josh loves to play games. He loves board games and computer games and outdoor games. We played games all through his birthday. He played several. Josh also loves animals and nature. He likes to learn about snakes and lizards and insects and he likes to catch lizards and snakes and draw pictures of them. He's much better at taking care of his own messes as well as helping generally in the house. Josh grew up a lot in this last year and I expect that I will see a lot of improvement in the next coming year. He's a good conscientious boy and I look forward to seeing who he becomes in the next few years.