Monday, December 6th, 2010

I needed to send some pictures to a few people, so I figured this would be a good time for the kids to make their birthday thank you cards.  Natalie was all over that!  She usually does everything on the cards we make including signing Daniel's name.  This time I thought it would be a good idea for him to sign his name.  He is 3 after all.  He should be able to scribble something.  But she didn't want him touching her creations.  I persuaded her to let him write on one of the cards.  I put the pen in his hand and wrote his name with him on a blank piece of paper.  Just from that it was very clear to me that Daniel is lacking in fine motor skills.  He didn't even know how to hold a pen properly.  I guess that's because he doesn't ever practice.  Coloring doesn't interest him like it did Natalie.  I knew he wouldn't even be able to scribble his name on his own so I wrote it in marker and had him trace it.  After a couple of tries, I had him do the same on the card.  Natalie didn't like how it looked so she ended up scribbling it out.  All the while, she was saying he didn't do a good job.  That night, when I was tucking her into bed and Daniel wasn't around, I had a talk with her.   I told her it wasn't nice to say that to Daniel because he's just learning to write.  We need to encourage him and say nice things.  I think she understood.

The Thank You was so Natalie would know how to spell it.  His name just in pen was me helping Daniel and the rest are him tracing his name.

One of Natalie's masterpieces.  All 3 cards were different.