Those who have seen Andrew in pre-school or at a "craft" table will understand why I'm so proud.
Andrew is not a sit at the table and work on school work, kind of kid. It's not his cup of tea. He has struggled with being part of a structured group. But we're working on it. :) Part of my strategy for Kindergarten ~ and this has no sort of academic or expert basis ~ this is from my book of Mom's intuition and just knowing Andrew ~ is to spend this year really working on the basics for school (writing and beginning reading, etc.) so that he can start school next year and feel less overwhelmed. I'm hoping if he has a good foundation with the basics it will free his little mind to focus and learn how to be a part of the group. It'll give him a confident place to start from ~ because he gets frustrated easily, feels overwhlemed and then gives up. So we've been known to spend 3 weeks (a little at a time) working on a single letter or number ~ like number "2" ~ that was a hard one ~ and how to write it correctly. (Of course, doing other things too ~ but Andrew's writing has always been behind his peer group).
Can I just say,
Not anymore.
We still have work to do. There are still letters he struggles with that we'll keep working on right up until Kindergarten, but he has come SO far.
He has gone from complaining and fussing about doing 5 minutes at the table to yesterday, sitting at the table for an hour. Working hard the whole time. And can I just show you how well he's writing his name?
(You might notice some of the "i"s have little lines drawn next to them. If they look slanted then Andrew draws little lines to indicate that they are falling over. He thinks it's funny. Andrew is all about movement and action). :)
The bottom left is the one I wrote and he wrote the other one. He knows how to spell it without me writing it, but I write the beginning of each line so that he knows what letter/number etc. we're practicing on that line. And aren't those the most beautiful "4s" you've ever seen? :) He was SO proud of them. Matthew said to him the other day, "You write better than I did at your age."
He does!!
Then he sat and did a worksheet where he had to color in all of the "I, i" spaces and he worked so hard to stay in the lines. Again, I know this might be pretty typical for other kids this age, but this is big for Andrew to sit and stay with something like this for so long and not get frustrated and scribble all over it.
Isn't it fantastic?
Dan and I were practically doing cartwheels all around the kitchen. (He was working from home and Andrew wanted to share his good work). I even gave Andrew a treat before lunch because he worked so hard and did so well.
Then he sat and happily read his 2 books and it was just so neat to see how good he felt about himself. He talked about it throughout the day. And it really made my day. My sweet teacher friend, Jo (who has been such a wonderful & appreciated resource and support with respect to Andrew) shared with me "give your child the gift of time" and it is so true! He's doing so much better than at the beginning of the year. I know that he'll still have a time of transition when we start Kindergarten, and I'm confident that we'll have our challenges ~ it's been the pattern. But I'm also very optimistic that we'll overcome them.
In time.
:)
I am so proud of you my little Muffin Man!
