My son, 6, doesn't know his letters yet.
There... I've come out of the closet. He can recite the alphabet, but can't identify all 26 letters. He has memorized all the Star Wars characters, can recite lines from The Sorcerer's Stone, has created his own medieval characters & story called, "Knights of the Kingdom" and can recite the first five of the 10 commandments, with Luther's explanation (dyed in the wool, that boy).
But "q" eh, that seems to be a bit confusing....
So occasionally I pull out some project to do with letters and we go over them. This was the most recent ~
He thought it was fun idea, started finding them, cutting them out and pasting them on the page. After a bit he didn't want to do all the cutting, so the oldest and I helped. About half way through he was done and didn't want to finish the page. That was okay, I didn't want to push him... so I asked if he would finish it tomorrow. He said yes,
we tidied up a bit and put the page on the fridge, and went on with our day....
Later that afternoon my mom called and we were talking about his project. When I told her he didn't want to finish she remarked, "What do you think about that?" While I don't recall what I replied,but I do recall feeling like I had to come up with something to satisfy her question.
Something along the lines of , "well, he will finish it tomorrow... I know he should have done it today. I could have insisted..." sort of a whimpering answer.
I know what would have happened if I'd insisted... tears, frustration, some yelling, perhaps a threat of punishment..but, by God, he'd have those letters all matched up and I'd have a complete page on my fridge.
There now, isn't that better?
sigh.
I know it isn't, I did that enough with my first-born. (poor kid... she really got so much 'tude from me.) She and I went over and over workbooks, readers, web-sites, computer games, board games, bribery (oops). It didn't work.... instead she chose to
read
and we both learned a lesson.
So to answer, "What do you think about that?"
I think it is fine... peachy... just dandy really. I'm proud of him for doing
what he did!
posted by hsing3kinder at 7:55 AM
4 Comments:
Your kiddo is awesome (all your kiddos are awesome) and anyone who can recite all that other stuff will figure out what letters and words on paper are, in his own way, in his own time. (I wonder how many 6-year-olds think "elemeno" is a letter because they have to sing it all the time at school? Kinda like, "Our father Howard in Heaven.")
Oh gosh, this is so funny. It takes me back. I was teaching. The teacher in the next room had 2 daughters (I don't know how old, youngish, elementary school). I was still a young thing with no kids. The little one had to cut out letter to spell her spelling words. She had to be 6, no more than 7. Little. Spelling words. And she was howling. Which was why I went in. Her mom was stomping around, muttering, "Dumb, assignment. Little kid. Spelling words." Taking that as permission, I sat down and found the letters for her, cut the out, and hand them to her. She pasted them right?
JMO, your way is better. Stopping before there's howling :-)
Peggy & Holly ~ thanks for your comments and for adding your story H!! Love it.
I also appreciate your encouragement left in the comments the other day.
~K
I predict your son will be the type that learns the letter sounds before the actual name of the letter by its appearance. Some kids do that.
It also sounds like your boy is a strong auditory learner and not so much visual. I say that because he seems to be learning a ton that he hears but is slower to catch on to the visual stuff like the look of the letter matched to its name.
Have you ever done the do it yourself testing in "Discover Your Child's Learning Style"? It can be eye opening.
I am sure he will turn out fine in the end. Just be sure to keep reading aloud lots of great books!!
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