Help with Teaching Resistant Writer

[displace]

DS is starting K.  He's a young K, FWIW.  He has been in daycare/preschool his whole life.  I will be spending time at home with him for the first time and homeschooling for K.  The daycare is nice there and over the last year they have done a full preschool program.  However, DS seems *very* resistant to writing, IMO.  I'm not sure if it's because he was pressed too soon and wasn't ready or if it's his personality.  He even doesn't like coloring/shading in objects because he doesn't feel he's very good at them. 

I don't work much with him yet as we haven't started K, but the few times I have asked him to do things involving writing/coloring he usually gets frustrated, refuses to try, or has a meltdown.  Over time (last few months), I've stopped asking him at home to do these things to not press the issue, but I do want to start K on time (in next 1-2 weeks).  In general he does get very frustrated and quits soon for any activity he thinks he's not good at (sports, games, etc).  I've bought the Mindset book, hoping to get ideas for this aspect, but haven't received it yet.

A few things I've done is focus on curriculums that are manipulative, and I'm planning on offering him different ways to do worksheets.  For instance, we'll do Math U See, and I have markers for filling in squares, probably will get number stamps, etc.  I have HWT and the big blocks for shaping letters.  I have a dry erase board and hope he'll like practicing writing with that. 

I must admit I'm a little anxious because of his frustration level.  I'm not really sure I want to unschool but I wonder if I should.  I'm hoping removing a lot of the fine motor writing aspect out of it will be helpful, at least for a few months.  I'm considering delaying any letter practicing for a bit.  Then, in a few months focusing more on writing.  I was thinking of doing fine motor other activities daily to help (wikki stix, playdoh, cutting paper, mazes, painting free form, etc) in the meantime.

I have AAR pre-level as well d/t a concern the frustration may stem from not understanding completely and advancing too quickly. 

Any advice or experiences you can share?  Will I just have to wait and see how it goes?  He really loves Ziggy the Zebra and I'm considering getting more puppets he can play with in school.

Thanks for your help and sorry this is long.  :o

[carriede]

Less is more. You do NOT want him to be frustrated now and burn out in two years. I would take a break from coloring/writing for a few months. Definitely offer other fine motor skill activities, but I think that if he resists those, wait a bit with those also.

 

If you want to pursue workbooks and such that require writing answers, you can always write it down for him while he answers it orally or points to the correct number or something like that. I might also keep crayons, markers, and blank paper available for him to use as he pleases, but with no "goal" in mind.

 

It seems to me that you already know what is best for him at this stage. It is sad that you have to "unschool" already, but he IS young and has plenty of time to work on letter formation later.

 

Remember, this is going to be quite a transition for both of you now that he's home. I don't know how long y'all have been home together already, but you might want to concentrate on playing and reading together for a few weeks if you haven't already.

 

Good luck!

[HeartatHome]

I think you have a good plan in place. I agree that you should probably not push the writing for a few months and then gently reintroduce it back in. It's hard to give advice when it's not clear why he is resisting but once you start working with him in Kindy I think you'll start seeing why. Perhaps it is because of his experience in school, a wiggly 5 year old boy that just doesn't like to, attitude/discipline issue, etc...but once you have a better idea you can create a plan on how to work with him but since this is new to both of you and he is still very young I would unschool for a couple of months with the writing.

I also just want to encourage you that it will work itself out. You have some good ideas and its ok not to have all the answers as it's hard to know until you dive in. It's so exciting that you are able to be home with your son!

[Tanikit]

I think you should perhaps move to letter formation as a form of fun if you want to teach writing - without a pencil in his hand - here are some options:

 

writing in sand with his finger

writing in pudding

painting letters in water on a wall with a paintbrush

writing letters using gross motor actions in the air

 

My DD hated coloring, but if I gave her blank sheets of paper every now and then she'd draw quite intricate drawings - not often and only when the mood took her - so I agree leave paper and crayons and pencils around.

 

When you do start proper writing with a pencil (leave this for a bit) start very very very slowly - today you draw one or two lines (not a whole row of letters), tomorrow you draw only one letter (whichever you choose) and gradually increase this to one three letter word that he likes and then a two word phrase that is short and so on. Keep it short as can be so he knows that even if he wants to fight the fight will take longer than the actual writing.