Saturday, November 4, 2017

Kindergarten Woes

Can you believe my child is in KINDERGARTEN!? It's crazy to think he's already five.
During his second week of school, I received a note telling me he needed to work on his penmanship... he's five. Hell, I'm 25 and I need to work on my penmanship.

 I might be making light of this now, but I'm still really annoyed by it. Do teachers/schools really expect children coming into kindergarten to write neatly? When I was in school (yep, that phrase), we were just learning to write our names in kindergarten. I started this journey knowing that a lot would be expected. I kept repeating it to Chance and he kept brushing me off. B attended VPK and got lots of practice. I felt like he was going into Kindergarten prepared. Is he as prepared as some students? Of course not. I'm not going to lie, I've known for a long time that B was a little slower than other children. It's not because he isn't extremely bright, he just doesn't like academics. He can spout anything out about animals, cars and places, but he hates learning. For example, we were recently visiting the GA Aquarium and B informed us that a specific bright orange fish was a Garibaldi... guess what? He was 100% right. He went through the whole aquarium naming the creatures. I was completely unaware that he knew this stuff. Don't get me wrong, he can recognize his letters and numbers... he just doesn't like to do it. Last week he had to write 2s for his homework. He cried really hard because he just couldn't figure it out. I hate that something as simple as a 2 has frustrated him so badly. He comes by that frustration honestly though. In an effort to help him with his skills, I took to Pinterest to find some tips. Here are a few things we have implemented.

 1. Highlighting the bottom line of his papers. This is helping him with letter placement. He knows that the little letters should be completely highlighted.

 2. I sit with him and make little chants for letters and numbers. For example, 5 goes across the top, down to the middle and has a big belly like Santa. I know it's so silly, but he says it to himself while writing and it keeps him on track.

 3. We've been playing with play dough and fidget spinners. We've never owned play dough... I HATE everything about it. When I read it could help, we immediately went to Target and grabbed a couple packs of it. The kids really love sitting on the porch making sculptures. We also picked up a metal fidget spinner. It's a bit heavier than a plastic ones and forces him to use his finger muscles.

 4. I recently bought some pencil grips that will help with his grip. He seems to have the proper grip, but they were highly recommended and anything is worth a try. I was lucky to find so many great articles on penmanship.

 These are just a few tips that we found helpful. If you're experiencing this too, remember that they're only children. Their fine motor skills aren't fully developed until they're at least seven. Be patient, many skills are developmentally above them and they will take time to grasp them. Let them be little and learn at their own pace.