Get a grip

I usually start each day of preschool with a flexible plan for how we'll spend the morning, a list of activities we'll do together, and one main goal. Since technically Abby's the one in preschool and Caleb's just along for the fun ride, usually my main goal is focused on something I want her to learn or understand. This week was different.

Caleb, my little lefty, has been allowed to persist in his horrible full-fisted grip. Forks, spoons and crayons all get manhandled in the same way, with all four chubby fingers wrapped around them as he uses his entire arm to control his scribbling and eating. I was advised early on by a veteran mom with a background in handwriting education to avoid poor utensil habits at all costs. We were so careful with Abby to ensure that she knew early on the proper way to grasp a fork or a crayon, and we worked dilegently to see that she did so. And it's paid off. Caleb, I think because of a lefthandedness that his parents didn't know how to handle, has gotten away with murder when it comes to eating and coloring.

This week, I resolved to fix that. My methods are not cruel, though they may be unusual. In fact, he seemed to think the car band-aids I used to help him maintain a proper grip were pretty awesome. I can see how this method of retraining his muscles to hold a crayon properly could get a little expensive, so I'm planning on picking up a cool pencil grip I found at a school supply store. And one of these days, maybe he'll unlearn his bad habit.
In honor of letter x week, we made an x-ray craft and read books about the human body. Ever since Caleb broke his arm and Abby got to see the x-ray of what the inside of an arm looks like, she's been more than a little obsessed with bones and boo-boos and how our skin sticks to us. We read about the five senses, and she was fascinated to learn that different parts of her tongue can taste different things and that there are nerves connecting all of her insides to her brain that help her see, hear, feel and understand what's going on. We also read a story about a character named Abby who goes to the hospital in Richard Scarry's book What Do People Do All Day? Abby loved the part where the little girl went to sleep and got her tonsils out. Caleb loved the ambulance and the "chair truck" (or wheelchair, as most of us know it).

We had a milestone moment this week when Caleb, for the first time, correctly identified a letter of the alphabet. He recognizes his name, but usually won't tell me the individual letters. But this week he properly identified the letter A when I pointed to it. (One letter down, 25 to go.) Abby, meanwhile, is doing great with her sight words, and spent her time building her own words with play dough while I built letters for Caleb and helped him build sharks and dinosaurs to eat them.

Abby's excitement for reading is growing day by day, and she loves to flip through her books now and find words that she can read on her own. She asked me to read a book to her one day, and when I told her to get started without me while I finished cleaning up the kitchen, she opened it, pointed to a word she knew, and pleaded, "But Mommy, I don't know all these words yet. I only know this one." Of all the big girl things she wants to do, reading is certainly one she is most looking forward to. This makes her book-loving mommy very, very happy.
Poor Jacob is learning you're never too young to start learning at the School of Mommy. Before his morning naps he's always happy to join his sister and brother for story time. When he wakes up, it's usually craft time for the big kids and tummy time for the little guy. This is not his favorite preschool activity. After he's had a few minutes to practice his squawking and work on his upper-body calisthenics, we'll regroup for some singing, dancing and reading. These activities elicit a much more pleasant response from our youngest pupil.