[Trying to give his biggest smile without showing any teeth!]
At 3 years old, Vai knows his alphabets (all capital letters and almost all small letters) but he’s not that enthusiastic about learning to write.
He can write simple alphabets like ‘O’, ‘I’, ‘U’, ‘V’, and ‘Q’, but when asked to sit down, hold a pencil and learn how to write simple alphabet strokes with me by his side, the whole session can be over in less than 3 minutes! (He prefers to go off, jump around, and play with his cars).
And in responding to this, I know I have at least two choices.
I can choose :
… to be angry and impatient with him for not showing better interest in learning how to write
or
… to acknowledge that every child has different strengths, interests and learning styles, and scolding him for his ‘lack of interest’ in doing worksheets won’t do him any good.
(Anyway, isn’t it supposed to be absolutely normal for 3yo kids to NOT know how to write the alphabets yet?)
So I tell myself, I should just follow his pace and play along.
[Not quite sure where he got these moves from, hehe]
Since he’s more into play than doing worksheet stuff, here’s one idea I personally implement:
– I give him a piece of paper to scribble and draw for a while, then I show him how to write a particular alphabet by holding his hand while writing it out
– For example, after writing the letter ‘C’ together a few times, I then draw some dots and ask him to join the dots himself to make the letter ‘C’ (letting him choose whichever crayons / coloured pencils he’d like to use makes writing more interesting for him)
– Then I’ll play ‘Guess what I’m drawing’, where I’ll draw things that begin with the letter ‘C’ (eg. ‘cat’, ‘cow’, ‘comb’), ask him to guess what it is, and once he’s guessed it correctly, I’ll write the word out. If he’s keen, he can then have another go in writing out the letter ‘C’ again on the drawing paper
And if he wants to end the session and move on to something else … I let him and we continue with the alphabet session some other time (read: a day or even a week later).
…
If you ask me, I totally have no idea how things will be like for Vai when he starts his nursery school next January.
Because I know, unlike Anya, he’s not quite the type who can sit down for a long time and ‘do work’ (read: Many / most schools here in Singapore, unfortunately, put much heavier emphasis on worksheets than play)
I really do hope he enjoys his formal learning days though.
Because I believe that one learns and remembers more when one enjoys the whole process of learning itself too.
…
[Photos]
We had some shoots done at home these past couple of days. With studio lights and all. And these are some of our captured shots, as photographed by Daddy.
