I can definitely relate to the frustration and see similar patterns with my DD. She is our 'sneaky' reader. She has known her abcs since age 9 months and the sounds the letters make since before 15 months. She was able to write letters before she turned one and started reading before she turned two, but when and if we praised her or showed any attention to her abilities she would shut down and have nothing to do with it. It is a pattern we see all the time with DD and I haven't fully come to terms on how to handle it. What I have come to discover is if we make a big deal about anything she out and out refuses to do it for a long time and goes backwards, such as writing: she went into a phase of scribbling. She is soon to be 3 1/2 and is writing her name but she is such a perfectionist. This afternoon I asked her to write her name on some Valentine cards she made for her classmates. She got very frustrated with the 'Y' because she hasn't fully mastered it. When I offered to help her she got upset. I even offered that she should take a break but that wasn't acceptable. Finally she allowed my to correct it so she could continue but was upset that it didn't look right. It looked like a 4 not a Y and that was not her name. Such the perfectionist! I continue to reassure her that it doesn't need to be perfect and just the fact that she tries is awesome and the kids at school will be excited that she put in the effort, but she is not convinced. Even though she admits that most of the kids at school don't know how to write their names, it still isn't enough for her to accept that she doesn't have to be perfect.
