Teaching Cap

Last fall I enrolled Cap in the pre-k program at a Christian school near our house. My primary motivator for sending him to school was so that he could spend more time with kids his own age and start getting accustomed to a more rigid routine.  Suffice it to say that he had a really rough year.  More often than not, at the end of each day I would get a bad report.  He wasn't participating, wouldn't follow directions, and liked to distract his peers.  Late in the year he seemed to settle in.  He still wasn't participating much, but generally followed directions and didn't cause too many disruptions.  We decided to re-enroll him for next year, probably much to the pre-k 4 teacher's chagrin. ;)

In hopes of making the fall back-to-school transition easier, I decided to do some "school" work with him over the summer.  We just finished our first week.  I stumbled across some amazing resources through Totally Tots and 1+1+1=1. Feeling pretty empowered, especially by the material on 1+1+1=1, I decided to dive in. After a week of getting organized, Cap and I started the Raising Rock Stars Preschool Program.   While I loved the materials, I was super skeptical that it would work for us.  I had tried sitting down with Cap and teaching him certain things before, but he had always fought me on it.  This time was a huge success.  I'll post a little later on exactly what we did in our first week, but right now I want to focus on a few things that I learned about teaching my son this week. 

It's hard for Cap to sit still for long periods of time.  While family members have expressed concern that he may have AD/HD, I have seen a real ability to focus on a particular task for a very long amount of time.  Even if it's not something he wants to do, he has a very long attention span.  I think the multiple intelligences people would call this kinesthetic intelligence.  The trouble is that he wants to move.  He doesn't enjoy sitting in a chair at a table for long.  While this is a problem at school, it really isn't an issue at home.  We did our school work on the floor.  He loved it!  His patience grew exponentially when his body was free to move while his mind focused on completing a task, project or worksheet.

Apparently, Cap is pretty ambidextrous.  His right hand has long been predominant, but he has very good left-hand fine motor skills as well.  When we started out, he kept wanting to hold his pencil and scisisors in his left hand. I corrected him a few times and told him to switch hands.  After fighting it for a few minutes, I decided to just let him use his left hand.  I found out that he was actually more confident using his left hand and had better control.  It seems crazy to me because he certainly favors his right hand .  But he seems to be very happy switching between left and right for writing, drawing and cutting.  When I shared this discovery, Daddy (a drummer) got pretty excited.  Apparently ambidexterity comes in very handy for drummers. I may be in for a very noisy household!

Cap thrives on integrated learning.  The RRSP materials we used are centered around a Bible verse.  Cap is very interested in the Bible.  It is not unusual for him to spend an entire day pretending to be King David, asking questions about God, and sharing his knowledge with others.  As we wrote L's this week, we were talking about our verse. As we played with play dough, practiced cutting, colored pictures we also talked about letting our light shine (Matthew 5:16). 

One-on-One time was really important.  Going along with the integrated materials, it was really helpful for him that as we did our work we were talking together.  He had my attention.  What would have bored him before was engaging now partly because he had someone to discuss it with.  This didn't really surprise me since one of the primary reasons he got in trouble at school was for attention-seeking.  (He's a little comedian when he can get the spotlight.)  

We used a workbox format.  I decided to try workboxes because I thought they would help me stay organized.  Cap loved them!  I think it was helpful for him to see each activity as a distinct project instead of an endless string of work.  He could see exactly how much work he had to do and, since our boxes are clear, was motivated to do the less appealing activities because he could see things he wanted to do in the next boxes. 

I couldn't be happier with how our first week went.  Cap had several achievements this week.  While before I've struggled to get him to even hold a pencil or crayon, let alone write or draw, he was all over it this week. He gladly traced worksheets full of L's and colored in the lines rather than griping while randomly scribbling all over the page.  He read his sight words book all by himself.  He learned the verse of the week quickly and has kept it with him, measuring his choices and others by whether or not they allow God's light to shine.  We'll see how next week goes.  But for now, I'm amazed!