so, what's Zoo Boy been up to?

I've had a lot of comments and questions about Zoo Boy's Thunderstorm song from the other day, so I though this might be a good time to talk about The Boy for a bit and update everyone on where he's at. Five is an amazing age to sit back and observe, the steady achievement of great academic gains even in an non-academic setting are truly staggering!

I had reported some time back that Zoo Boy had learned how to read. For a long time he denied that fact, then eventually admitted that he could read SOME things. But even he can't deny it now -- he's reading things written for 2nd graders, asking J to identify some of the tougher words occasionally, but avidly devouring just about anything in print.

At the same time, handwriting has suddenly made an appearance. At a museum class in May he wrote his name for the first time, following the letters on his name tag. Soon thereafter, he began copying documents (such as the above picture, where he is recreating "Happy Birthday" from a card that J made my father when Grampy celebrated his birthday in mid-May).

He since has been writing on his own, sometimes asking for how to spell words, sometimes just phonetically working it out on his own (which I recently discovered is called "inventive spelling"). Here is a clever little sign he made -- it says "Do Not Open" on the red magnadoodle. The purple one says "Because this closet is full of games and other stuff." (I'm using proper spelling, he did not.)

He's also FINALLY scribbling more than a line or two. This is an artistic breakthrough for him, as he's never really shown a whole lot of interest in crayons or drawing. Here's a little project where he colored a sheet of paper, then cut it up (he's taken an interest in scissors lately too), and glued the pieces onto another sheet of paper to make a collage.

And I had to share this -- his first attempt at captioning a drawing. It says (spelled correctly because he asked how to spell it): Pigeotto's Gust Attack. And, by gum, it LOOKS like a gust attack! (All of you Poke-Moms out there know what I'm talking about, admit it!)

His speech is getting clearer all the time, we've seen a definite improvement since starting Speech Therapy with him, although it might just be coincidence since his Therapist says she can't manage to get any actual speech work done with him (he finds the work too difficult, so she's taking her time building his trust). He seems to be struggling more with sensory issues over the last few months, although I'm wondering if I'm just more aware of his issues now that I'm focusing on remediating them. He loves working (and playing!) with his Occupational Therapist, and she tells me that he's a joyful, cooperative participant.

And finally, Zoo Boy's latest batch of baby birds are ready to go to their new homes (in fact, two of them left today). Admittedly, I do a whole lot of the work involved with the care of the birds, simply because he's just too young. But he visits with them every day, helps me socialize the babies, and is very helpful about carrying food and water dishes and opening and shutting doors for me when my hands are full of bird things. His Cockatiel Fund is growing steadily, I'd say he's about half way to being able to afford a nice hand-raised baby.