First day of summer "home school"

I started rehearsing for Jason's home school schedule last Friday. I pulled a few word cards from Little Reader ( thinking we'll start with sight word recognition. I showed him the words balloon and teddy bear and let him reveal the picture behind the word cards. I must have made the revealing (especially the teddy bear card) over-interesting, he was so fixated on that card and kept vocalizing teddy bear, apparently ignoring my instruction. I was quite frustrated as my first teaching attempt this summer fail to start off with a smooth sail. Then, I thought maybe I could change this into an opportunity. I kept switching the sides of the 2 cards and asked him to point/touch the one that says teddy bear, planning to reinforce his choice by giving the "reveal" he craved for. Thought it would work huh? Of course not! If it's that easy, it's not my son! He kept trying to touch whatever card presented on his right regardless and attempted to perform the reveal on his own. It's the right side because his right arm was free from the orientation in which he was seated in the chair. After a few trials, I decided I have to divert him to something else....something more obvious, and less chance of error. So I presented him with 2 flash cards with his picture and mine. No word recognition, just plain "which picture is Jason?" kind of game. Guess what? He picked whatever picture on the right side again. I used the next obvious: food reward. I would reward a correct answer with a cheerio (gluten free version of course) but I only got random success.
Try to imagine yourself in my position. I was frustrated and clueless as to what to do next. Shall I abort my first lesson and maybe start on a "better" day? Thank God for sending his comfort to keep my patience in that split second. I grabbed the table-top pocket chart that was on the table and decided to give it a try. I put the 2"x11" word cards with his name and "mommy" inside the transparent pockets. I then asked him to match by putting the pictures on top of the respective names. This time, he did it beautifully. To make sure it's not a random event, I switched the word cards to the other side, shuffled the picture face down, and asked him to pick one. He matched them perfectly again. Despite his shaky arm movement because of his ataxia, there is no question that his eye and hand movements were directed towards the correct side. Cheerio moment!!
I've come to an assumption that "inserting" a match may have led to more success because it diverts him from the urge to fidget and manipulate the word cards. In other words, "touching" or "grabbing" is an open-end task while "inserting" is a close-end task, thus giving a more reliable result.
I continued with the same game using Beth and daddy's names/pictures. He did it 100% on 2 trials again. I was so contended and grateful for not quitting earlier and I gladly finished that session with a break, followed by some floor time so Jason gets to move around a bit.
I will write more about what other things we did that afternoon when I am back next time but I can tell you that it was another great, encouraging experience for me.