Mind Retrofit

What are you kidding me? After my whole moment of feeling like a failure and that Daniel may never progress from where he was two days ago, I hear the words “I want to draw”. I am amazed! We are on our fourth week of home schooling and Daniel has been in and out with us off and on for days. It just so happened yesterday morning I was pretty frustrated and feeling like he would never pick up a writing instrument, so I gently but with a little humph held his hand and “helped” him write with a marker. Not good.

He threw the markers at me and screamed.

I let him go about his business and let him do what he needed to do to forgive me. What does that mean? He went into the other room and focused on the computer. However, he came back. He spent a large portion of the day with us, listening to the stories and watching what we were doing.

David purchased two Crayola Dry Erase Activity Centers. He found them on clearance at Target. Ariel and Joshua have been using them and Daniel has been watching.

Here is the link to see it.

http://www.crayola.com/products/splash/educator/dry_erase_activity_center/index.cfm

This morning he brought it to me and asked to use it. Delighted I jumped up and got it already for him. He got the pen and made straight lines while saying “making lines”. Then I made horizontal lines and he did it too! Then he made a J and colored in the lines of a color wheel. This all came about after a package we received yesterday afternoon.

Our “Handwriting Without Tears” curriculum.

Everyone was excited I opened the box and pulled the items out. As I looked through them I was in a slight state of shock that Daniel sat there the whole time to see what was going on. He normally doesn’t really pay much attention and usually goes back to whatever he was doing. The coolest thing in the box was MAT MAN!

They give you wood pieces to make letters but you also make MAT MAN.

Here is a picture of him.

http://shopping.hwtears.com/matmanshirt

We made him and others Daniel even made a person. HUGE! Then I showed them how to make letters and we all made letters together. In the morning they pulled it all out right away and began making MAT MAN. I asked Daniel to make a T and he did and then an L and he did. I was very surprised because he doesn’t do this. However the day just got better. The set also comes with small chalk boards and chalk. I pulled those out and Daniel loved it! He loves chalk. I would have never thought because I HATE CHALK!

Chalk hurts my ears, makes my skin crawl, the very thought makes my whole body cringe.

I had a very hard time but I forced myself to be calm and not freak out every time they made a sound with that vile writing instrument that has been my enemy since I entered the classroom. All of them had an awesome time writing letters and making faces. Daniel made a T and an A all by himself without me asking. They got tired of doing it after a couple hours (that is big too) and we put it away and went about our other tasks for the day.

Before I started dinner Daniel came up to me with the bag of chalk and said “I want to draw”.

My boy who would not touch anything to do with writing just yesterday not to mention years, asked me to draw today. It just goes to show me that when Daniel is ready he will do it and HE knows when he is ready. Note to self: “Don’t sweat it mom.”

Here is the link to an overview of all the grade levels for handwriting without tears so you can check it out. We got the Pre-K and Kindergarten curriculum. They go up to fifth grade.

http://www.hwtears.com/bts/gradelevel

One Response to ““I want to draw””