After spending a few weeks playing around on Starfall.com, Nicco has learned all the letters and sounds and can read a few sight words and even sound out several simple words. He surprises me every now and then, like when we drove past a shop and he said "O-puh-eh-n. Open. Mom, that store is open, I guess we can go in." He can also count pretty high, only omitting 7 and mixing up a couple of the teens here and there, and he recognizes and can put numbers 1-10 in order. I'm not sure where he picked that up, because starfall doesn't really address numbers much. He is a quick learner and an enthusiastic student for the most part, but for some reason, (maybe because he couldn't do it "great" the first time...) he has been reluctant, even stubborn, about attempting to write. I know, WHAT??? My kid? Stubborn? NO WAY. He was on the verge of tears at school when they did writing practice, he gets angry when I try to help (make) him practice, so I have just let it be. He will try (and get it) when he is ready. Mom and Dad got him a really great dry-erase book for practicing lines and letters and I bought him a set of dry-erase markers to go with it. I thought that having something special to practice with would encourage him, but he just skipped to the last page with the blank space for free-form scribbling. He does love his special markers, but is intimidated by making lines. When we packed up the Christmas stuff, Patrice had him trace letters on tags to label the boxes. He did the first letter with characteristic Nicco-style enthusiasm, but then got stubborn, angry, and frustrated. Also characteristic Nicco-style.
Fast forward several hours...We put in a video, Nicco wandered between the movie with us and the office with his "stories" (a.k.a. Starfall) and at one point, of his own volition, he pulled out his "special book" and colors and started writing. When he did the A, we said "That's great, but there is NO WAY you can do the B." and so it went, through both the upper and lowercase alphabets.
And as you can see, he was very proud of himself.
And as you can see, he was very proud of himself.
4 comments:
I love his little tongue sticking out in concentration! Good for Nicco!
Yayfor Nicco and for reverse psychology! Making letters and following lines may be a little easier for him once he learns a more efficient way to hold a writing instrument.... We are very glad he decided to like the "special book."
At least now he writes top to bottom, left to right, an unintended benefit of the special book! He started off going right to left and was confused at the disappearance of the letters he erased with his sleeves.
What a funny little kiddo! I'm slowly learning that you have to teach them at their own pace. Addie gets frustrated when I try to have her pick out words when we are reading. I know it will come! Oh, and I just discovered starfall.com. It's a great website!
Post a Comment