When John and I first moved to Pennsylvania we signed up for a joint bank account. We both sat down with an account manager and decided what kinds of accounts we needed. When it came time to sign the account forms the woman asked us both to sign the necessary forms. We both signed on the line.
Then the woman looked at the signatures and she seriously said to John "your signature looks like an EKG...I've never seen anything like it! I can't even decipher one letter" Then she said "you should be a doctor". John said "actually, I am. I have a pH.D". She wasn't impressed, but I couldn't stop laughing.
Needless to say I vowed that I wouldn't ever let John's EKG writing skills rub off on the boys. So, last week I went to a "Handwriting Without Tears Seminar" at Wyatt's preschool. It was amazing! I learned so much about preschool writing and development that I didn't know. Some things I never thought about. Other things I was teaching completely wrong based on preschool development.
Stroke development begins in a particular order with kids able to do horizontal and vertical lines first. Then they learn circular components and finally diagonal lines around ages 4-5 years old. This is particularly interesting since the first three letters of Wyatt's name all contain diagonal lines. So my expectations may have been a little high for his age! Whoops!
Letters should be taught starting with vertical/ horizontal strokes L, F, E, H, T, I and U followed by Magic C strokes C, O, Q, G, S, J. Then Big and little curves D, P, B and finally diagonal strokes R, K, A, V, M, N, W, X, Y, Z.
All letters start at the top! The teacher said that this is the MOST important thing about writing. She said that when kids are little and write slow it doesn't matter much, but when they get to first and second grade and speed becomes a factor, starting letters in all different places leads to sloppy illegible writing. She even did a little exercise with us to illustrate the point. Up until then I had been teaching Wyatt to write a capital A starting at the bottom! Double whoops!
Proper grip is essential! You must show your kid how to hold a writing tool. This is not instinct. She said that as an occupational therapist she often has to undo bad grip in second or third grade when it is really hard to change. Using small writing tools helps kids develop correct grip by being small enough for only three fingers to grip. No big pencils or pens. Whoops x 3!
She gave us a lot of games and songs to use to help teach all of these things. There are also a lot of supplies that she recommends using, but she gave us ideas on how to make them all at home using inexpensive simple items that we might already have! Who knows if it all works, maybe Wyatt will be able to write this blog by next week?!?!
A few weeks ago when John took Sam and Wyatt to Michigan I took a cute picture of Jonah outside. I wanted to take a similar picture of Sam so that everything is equal and fair and all that. So, today I got out the same shirt and posed Sam in the same place and took a few shots. They were good pictures. And then about 1 hour later Sam fell headfirst off the Power Wheels onto the cement and got the BIGGEST goose egg in the center of his forehead that we have ever seen! We put ice on it for a couple of hours. He even ate dinner with a hat holding his ice pack in place. Poor little guy! John wouldn't let me take a picture of it. He was really worked up. Now he wants to get the kids helmets. I think that Sam's head is probably too big for a youth helmet, so we may have to check out the adult section tomorrow. Should I get one for Shane too just in case? I am picturing helmet head-butting and such.....
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