The way they see things

I'm pretty sure most kids her age draw pictures of people the same way my daughter does. They're cute little characters, with their long awkward arms and legs protruding from various points on their oversized heads and their comically large features. But they don't even remotely resemble people. Bugs, maybe. But not people.

I realize that Abby's total inability to draw people properly is perfectly normal for her age.

I also realize that most bad habits can be corrected.

And so, with the help of my handwriting curriculum and a little model nicknamed Mat Man, we set out to learn how to draw some proper people. We first built people out of wooden blocks, then attempted to draw them, aided only by a few simple verbal instructions.

We succeeded. In less than 10 minutes, Abby went from this:

to this:

And Caleb, who has only recently started drawing his own awful bug-people, created this:

Not bad for a first try.

This might be my proudest teaching moment to date.