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In my quest to  be a better mother, I actually did some school work with Spencer.  He played the Click Start.  It's like a computer for little kids that you hook up to the TV.  He had a lot of fun and worked on some math skills at the same time.  Later today, we did some sorting and other activities.  Then he asked if he could write letters.  Of course I let him.  I think that he is a little behind in fine motor skills so any time he asks me if he can do something that will help him in that area I let him.  I have been working with him on his pencil grip and he is finally starting to get it.  He gets it right on his own about 90% of the time now.  Just a few months ago, I had to fix how he was holding the pencil every time he picked one up.  And I had to fix it several times while he was writing.  I know we have a long way to go, he still can't draw shapes (besides a messy circle) or form letters on his own, but we're getting there.

I sometimes wonder in my expectations of him are too high or too low.  I know you aren't supposed to compare your children, but Kayleigh was very good at fine motor skills from a young age.  She was holding a pencil correctly from the age of one and could write her name by three.  I blame a lot of Spencer's lack of fine motor skills on him being a boy.  I know typically they are slower in that respect.  But I think having such an advanced child first kind of skewes your idea of where your child should be.  I am not saying Spencer is not smart.  We sit and do workbook pages and he has no problems.  He rhymes words all the time, he is starting to understand beginning sounds, he can count past 30 and recognizes large numbers (like in the eighties).  For those reasons I know he is not developmentally behind.  Me being me, I still worry and wonder if I am doing a good enough job.


Kayleigh today brought home a great little story.  At parent teacher conferences her teachers told me that they wanted her to work on adding details to her stories.  So we have been working on things we can say to make a story longer.  I especially emphasised that with her Spring Break journal that she had to turn in.  Well all the practice payed off.  Her teacher was impressed with her journal and said she wrote the most out of all the kids.  And she came home with this story today:

In case you can't read it, it says "People live in the Arctic.  They work and play there.  Arctic winters are very cold.  People dress in warm clothes."  Even a month ago she probably would have only wrote two sentences tops.  I am happy with her progress.  And I love her picture!  She is obsessed with the Iditarod right now.  So she drew herself on the sled with her dog pulling her and their gear.  Above them are the Auroras.  Behind them are the mountains covered in snow.  I love the detail of the dog harness and how it looks like he is really trying to pull the sled.  That is what they really look like when they start off.