letters, dinos & attitude

Most of Ted's little friends can write their names and other small words (mom, dad, cat etc). Since he's at a play-based preschool, he gets little if any of the 'worksheet' mentality which I whole-heartedly endorse...after all, he'll have the next 20+ years of his life to sit in a school desk and do worksheets...But, the mom in me thinks he should at least be AWARE of the spelling of his name, LOL. He can spell it out loud, recognize it on paper and knows all of his letters by sight...but writing them...ah, there's the rub! There is a CUTE website out there with little tracer sheets with themes (dinos, fish etc). I made him one with all caps and all lower-case and another with his name (pic). I think they're cute and maybe he'll like 'em, who knows?! Luckily, with a 3-letter name, I can be fairly certain he'll be able to write it by, let's say, 8th grade? LOL.

Attitude reigned today at his violin lesson, I'm sorry to report. If he continues in this vein, we won't be signing up in January. I don't believe all the things people say, "Oh, he's too young" "Oh, it's too hard for him" "Oh, he just doesn't really want to do it" blah blah. No to all of those! He doesn't like his teacher and he needs to deal with it! Isn't part if not all of childhood learning to DEAL with things you may not like?! He practices beautifully at home and LOVES LOVES LOVES pretending to play with his toy violin. He has gone to operas and symphonies and is always fascinated. This is NOT why he is refusing to cooperate at lessons. Much of it, I'm afraid, is stubbornness. I guess, as parents, we have failed him in one respect: we must not have adaquetely impressed upon him the NECESSITY of politeness to adults. I.e., if Miss Vari tells you to do something, you better darn well do it, buster!!! Perhaps it's because of the whole "keeping children safe from predators" talk we got earlier in the year that had us telling our children NO ONE but Mommy and Daddy can tell you what to do...hmmm...maybe need to clarify that one a bit. I mean, it's all done in the best interest of the child...saying "Do what the babysitter says" is a recipe for disaster, I think. But, the result of that type of thinking has gotten us into trouble. It's mysterious too because he is so good at preschool and really quite mellow at home these days. Just at violin...I don't understand it and it is incredibly frustrating. Someday, if he's a true musician, maybe we'll look back on this and laugh. Right now, all it's done is made me cry.