Pollyanna

We've all been sick this week, so Joshua only had homeschool lessons (the academic stuff, like reading and writing lessons) on Mon and again today (Fri) but in between it was mostly just me reading Pollyanna. We are almost finished, up to chapter 28 out of 32. When I ask Joshua comprehension-type questions, he is obviously getting the gist of most of it, which is great, even though bits of it (words like "veritably") are going over his head, I am sure. And he can put together a bit more than is in the text also. I asked him tonight who he thought would be glad that Mr John Pendleton was adopting Jimmy Bean, and his first answer was Pollyanna (because that's what Mr John P says in the story, that he hopes the news will make Pollyanna glad,) but then when I asked him, "who else?" he suggested both Mr John P and Jimmy B, so obviously he realised that it would be happy for them also. This has been much of the storyline, that "a child's presence" (or, alternatively, "a woman's hand and heart") make a house into a home. To borrow a phrase from Pollyanna, I'm glad he's understanding so much of this book, even though he's not yet five years old.