I'm feeling like a little bit of a failure tonight. I finally figured out why Parker was being so weird about the whole school thing, he finally told me that he gets nervous because he can't "do his letters." I feel so bad. We have worked on his letters and we read every night, but he still has a hard time recognizing letters (especially the ones not in his name!) He can spell his name but is having a really tough time writing it and he gets frustrated so quickly when I try to sit down and practice with him that now I don't know what to do. They are working on the letter M this week and so we worked on his homework tonight and he does great coloring in all the pictures that start with M but when it comes time to write it, unless he's really focusing, it's a mess. And if I try to help at all or correct at all he just puts his face in his hand and says "aahhhhhh I just can't do this" I am looking ahead to what I am thinking may be a long kindergarten year.... and I can't even think about after that. I feel bad because I don't want him to be frusterated and I feel like I let him down or maybe we didn't work on it enough, then I think - he's just a barely 5 year old boy and it will come with time....anybody wanna back me up on this?
Also I found these pictures I took of the kids at the park a couple of weeks ago... makes me think of the future... they were driving the jeep at the park....scary right?
Brin in the drivers seat....
I don't know what frightens me most, Brin driving or Kaden hanging halfway out of the car!
8 comments:
Sara,
Do not be so hard on yourself you are not even close to being a failure! and Parker should not be so hard on himself. This is KINDER! They are supposed to color and work on that fine motor stuff. For boys it's harder because they don't like to color and do that fine motor stuff. I am wondering why that kinder class is stressing so hard on letter forming already? It will come with time! Maybe have a chat with teacher as to how he is feeling, she will encourage and help him at school (sometimes what teachers say is the law, and parents don't know anything! Sad huh) If teacher says it is okay, then maybe he will listen, and maybe if she says he wrote his M's awesome, he will think he did. Who is teacher?
Mimi
I agree with Mimi. He is barely 5. He is probably the youngest in his class and he is a boy. They seem to catch on just a little slower than the girls for some reason. It will come in time. Working last year at the school a lot of the kids had problems in the beginning and were fine by the end of the school year. You and Parker are both doing a great job. Hang in there.
Linda
I am panicing about my own son working on letters. He REFUSES to write his name. Even tracing is tough. At preschool they had him use an dry erase marker on a lamintated sheet to trace his name. He thought it was cool to use a marker and he had to do it in order to play. The other day we pulled out the Leap Pad and they have a little tracing thing that helps develop motor skills for letter writing. They trace pictures of the direction of slides (curvey, straight, circular, zig zag) and carnival rides. It makes a fun sound when they are doing it and I was amazed that Braden did about two pages of it. You are welcome to use our leap pad if you want to give it a try. I could send it home with your mom. Keep your chin up. You working on these things with him is certainly much more than a lot of kids get. It'll all work out. I don't think that I appreciated how great it was to have a girl who like doing that kind of stuff until I got my boys that would rather wrestle and toot.
Sare, I agree with the others. Don't be so hard on yourself. That's why he's in school. There's only so much you can do to prepare him for it. From there, it's out of your hands. He'll catch on soon enough. I love you and have been thinking about you a lot lately. You have beautiful kids, Sarah.
That is exactly why I now have a testimony of keeping summer kiddos back until they are the older ones for their grade!
Maybe I should be the president of this club too! :)
And your pre-term labor hex didn't work on me . . . try again . . .
OK...I'm gonna try not to get on any soapboxes here, please bear with me and forgive me if I offend anyone, as that is definately not my intention. That said...I feel that one of the worst things about the public school system, is that we somehow feel the need to make every single person do exactly the same thing at exactly the same time. There is a normal time frame in which humans learn to read and write, and it is 5 to 12 years...um yeah, that is a big gap right! Anyhooo, definately don't panic, realize that he is one of the young ones, and it might be fun if he does Kinder for two years, if you feel he isn't ready to move on in 9 months.
Usually I don't have things to say when I leave comments on mommy blogs cuz...I'm not one! BUT...as a recent former Kindergarten teacher I have some ideas for you. Make it fun! We practiced on a cookie sheet with sand, sugar...anything. Have him practice with his fingers and that will help him when he has the pencil in hand. Finger paint, writing in the fog on windows when they steam up, writing in whipped cream...anything he can do with his fingers. Then moving onto holding a utensil...these kids have problems and lack the fine motor skills to grasp super skinny writing utensils. Writing with sidewalk chalk is good, fat crayons...there are also a lot of pencil grips out that help kids hold on correctly. Also, getting him a really cool pencil...one that lights up, has a cool eraser, or Spiderman, Spongebob or a favorite character on it might get him excited. The most amazing handwriting program I've come across is called Handwriting Without Tears...INCREDIBLE!!! Research based, on the pricey side, but you can buy things little by little and the materials can be used over and over so it'd be worth your money cuz you could use it with the younger kids. At least check out the website (hwtears.com) and they even have good resources on there. You're super fabulous though...a bad mom wouldn't care if their kid was having a hard time at school. It's parents like you that make us teachers happy!!! Even with all this wealth of knowledge that I have due to my extreme expertise in this area my best advice is to pray!!! Prayer coupled with anything speeds the process along and always smooths out the wrinkles...good luck chicka! YOU'RE WONDERFUL!!!
Poor kid!
My advice is to not stress about it too much. It's not that big of a deal-- he's got plenty of time. For now, just keep him enjoying school! No use getting burned out in Kindergarten!
Good luck. Being a Mom is ROUGH huh!?!
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