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.

My little four eyes

This four eyes babe is the absolute cutest. I get comments all the time about his glasses. People always want to know how we know and when he actually got them. Our story is rather interesting comparatively speaking. 

I had no clue that Bird even needed glasses. He wasn't exhibiting the normal signs of weak eye sight (headaches, blinking, rubbing his eyes, needing to be close up), but he was only 12 months at the time. We were at his yearly check up and the nurse brought in a device that was painted like a penguin. She shut the lights off and took a few photos of him. At this point I still had no clue what the device was or what they were doing. Shortly after the doctor came in with printed pictures of Bird's eyes. The device was designed to take up close pictures of the eye and assess for myopia and hyperopia (near and farsighted). The near sighted pictures were meant to have a gold color from the middle of the eye down and the far sighted pictures were meant to have gold on a vertical plane. Bird's near sighted pictures showed his entire eye as gold. I was in shock! I was extremely upset to find out Bird needed glasses. I didn't want my baby to need them his entire life and I never much cared for the look either. 

I thought the next process would be a quick one. We were given a list of child Opthamologist in the area that accepted our insurance. I called every single one and found out we wouldn't be getting in for another six months! How crazy is that!? Once we finally got into a Dr we found out that Bird was +7.50 in his right eye and +5.75 in his left eye. That's an extremely big deficit when it comes to vision. We quickly ordered his glasses and very impatiently waited for them to arrive. I can recall the day he put them on like it was yesterday. He was looking out the window of the vision center and said "Meme and Bubbie". I guess I never realized just how blind he really was. I didn't know that he couldn't see the sky until he began pointing out birds and planes. 

I'm use to his glasses now and I can't imagine his sweet face without them. Any time I see another toddler in glasses I can't help but smile. I realize that they too struggle with glasses and will probably need them for the rest of their lives. 

His glasses aren't fake or dress up. They're something he needs every day in order to see the beauty around him. Be kind to him and others with vision impairments. You never know when it might him close to home.