Our son is just about two and a half years old now and I wanted to check in on our Pre(Home)School Progress. These check ins are meant for us to share what has worked for us and what hasn’t and serve as a memoir for us to look back on in the future.

How Our Two Year Old Learned To Write

You may remember, our son has been obsessed with letters and numbers for as long as I can remember and about 6 months ago started reading.

In the last few months, he has continued to surprise us, occasionally sounding out words reading signs and banners with words no one has taught him.

Over this time, he has continued to request his “ABC”s when ever anyone sat with him, so we began the habit of offering him the crayon to see if he wanted to give it a try. At first, he would hand the crayon right back, so we tired not to push him too hard and continued to write the letters for him.

We have never followed any formal homeschooling curriculum as he is still too young in my mind for anything overly structured. But just offered him the opportunity to write, should he want it.

A few weeks passed, then he began to write the letters he wanted us to write for him in the air with his finger. But he still would not take the crayon and try himself. He would hold it tentatively but was almost afraid to try.

Then one day we were outside and I started to do the letters in the dirt with a stick for him and offered up the stick for him to try. He took it and began to write the letters in the dirt.

Shortly there after, letters started appearing in his book.

Dad sat with him and did some letter tracing pages, and he was off, writing the alphabet like a mad man.

Words started appearing on our walls. Boo? Zoo. Bingo. Rabbit. Pig. Goat. Liam. May I say that Washable Crayons are the best invention of the 21st century.

We are now doing tracer sheets to help with penmanship and to help him practice keeping his letters uniform providing him with hours of fun.

It’s not all Sunshine and Roses

There are issues. We think our son is now firmly in what is fondly known as “The Terrible Twos” but mostly I think it stems from him being frustrated that we don’t understand what he is asking for. We are trying to teach him more sign language and calmly attempting to talk him through a series a questions to see if we can fulfill what he wants/needs.

We are also having trouble keeping his interest reading. Most nights I pull out a book to read with him and after reading the title and the first few pages he loses interest and closes the book and exclaims “The End”. For this one, I think I need to persist and continue to try to build up picking out a book and reading it all the way through with him. I will trying building a more formal habit and try to do it every day with a more structured routine.

As for the drawing on the walls, we are taking the “You Got It Dirty, You Need to Help Clean It up Approach” and it seems to be helping. We have noticed a reduction in the wall drawings but there is still work to be done.

Next Challenge

Teaching our son how to ride the Tricycle he got for Christmas.

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