Handwriting Without Tears School Book

(4 Years)

*Blah, blah.  This post is my own opinion, I have not been compensated in any way.  Blah, blah.

"I love this school work.  I'm a lucky, lucky girl."  I hear this as I'm making the kids their breakfast.  I look over to see what she's so happy about.  It's her new school book.  Now, I know it sounds like I'm a walking advertisement to the folks at Handwriting Without Tears, but I can assure you I'm not being compensated in any way.  It just so happens that the few products that we have bought, they really like: the app, the slate board and tiny sponges, and the My First School Book (here's a link to their site*).

Little Miss was busy coloring in her school book.  I noticed how she was carefully trying to stay within the lines.  We don't do a lot of coloring, we do a lot of drawing, but not a lot of coloring.  So, I was surprised that she was concentrating on keeping the color inside the lines.  We have never even talked about coloring inside the lines before.  Although, we read a lot of picture books and that's probably where she picked it up from- the illustrations show coloring inside the lines.

These books are similar to the Kumon writing books, in that they both provide a lot of repeated practice.  They begin by drawing vertical and horizontal lines, then they use those lines to teach L, F, E, T, I.  Little Miss really enjoys working in her school books.  She takes her time choosing which marker she wants to use (she's been picking markers over colored pencils and colored mini pencils lately).

Little Miss will sit at the table and work on page after page after page after page... She has sat there for almost 40 minutes, on several occasions.  She will take her time and work on the entire page, then move on, without talking, until I finally ask her to put it aside so that she will eat her breakfast.

When she's working, she's in her zone!  It's cute.  It's hard not to interrupt and ask questions or give a compliment.  I know she's working, I let her work in quiet- that's how I like to work.

Wild One isn't really interested in this book.  There's times when he'll work on a page or two, but he'd rather "read", play with Legos or play pirates.  That's fine with me.  They are four years old.  There will be plenty of times, unfortunately, that they will be required to sit and write, whether they are in the mood to or not.  For now, if he wants to write he'll write - or maybe he'll take down this puzzle from the shelf and work on it by himself.

One of my friends asked why I leave that puzzle on the shelf for them, when they have already learned how to put it together so quickly.  Good question.  Not everything needs to be a struggle, sometimes it's fun to do something easy.  Plus it's great for his self confidence, and he really likes this puzzle.