Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Should I be worried yet?

The motivation is tricky - school can be a double edge sword - DS did see other kids doing it but instead of saying I want to do that, I can do that, he said I am bad at it, I should be dong it already without help. It was bizarre that he knew he could read and they couldn't but didn't think less of them, and didn't really consider reading or the stuff he did anything usual cause he couldn't remember not doing it!!! I found that finding some buy in he couldn't rationalize away helped, like wouldn't it be great to write down your stories or draw your own space ship.

And I do my "best" thinking in the middle of the night!!
DeHe

Hmmmm....many people will say no. I would say I enjoyed having it...and I got it for each level.

One hint....buy two workbooks....one to work in and one to make copies out of. (you have permission to do this). Then if your child needs extra practice on a particular letter or group of letters you have a master to work from. You can always sell the manual and blank book later on.

I bought Printing Teacher's Guide - and it has a few really good pages about teaching pencil grip and excersizes for posture. How is his pencil grip?

If you just need help with 'which parts of the letter to make first' and getting the letter to sit on the line and be the right size then the child's book is fine.

Since you have a younger child that you want to get started with, you might want the confidence on how to start teaching from the

Of course they have videos now - Scroll down the video page

Until you get to the section - Teaching Tips for Educators - and start watching there.

Use the online screener with your older to see where the specific issues are.
It may be that the best strategy is to work with your younger child, aim all the teaching to the preschool level, and make it fun enough that you older just picks it up 'by osmosis.' You'll have to look around and see if their pre-k stuff is the right level for your younger. You can tell the older: "I can see that you feel sad about your writing so it inspired me to teach younger some writing skills so he wouldn't feel bad about his writing - you are welcome to help me if you want, or not. I know that either way, you'll figure out what you need to figure out about writing in time, and that if you want my help for any of the parts I'll be glad to give it."

By showing older what the 'parts' of writing are, his brain will be much better able to identify what is bothering him about his writing and he may be able to fix it without trying.

If you go that route, get a pre-K manual. Fun would be a good goal. I like that some of the videos show a lot of caring humor.

I'm quite fascinated by the flip crayons, but can't figure out if the claims should be believed. The big box at 17$ seems expensive, but there is an 'individual size box' that is 12$ - I had to hunt for it.

Good luck and keep us posted!
Grinity

DS8 was like that at your child's age until he discovered maps and mazes. Then he would spend HOURS drawing roads and mazes. We didn't push handwriting as long as he was using some sort of writing instrument. It took a while to find that he loved making his own maps and mazes.

You know Kate, he does mazes and dot to dots, actually. It really does seem to be just writing and drwaing. Stuff that's supposed to look like something!

Thanks Sweetie and Grinity, I'll have a really good look at that website, and a good think about my approach, and my motivation angle too, DeHe. I think my DS would be like that too.