Practice Makes Progress

I've mentioned before that Kip has a stubborn perfectionist streak which has made it difficult for us to get him interested in gaining/advancing in "academic" skills at home. Because of his resistance, we took a very hands off approach with him and did not force him to attempt to learn the basics under our instruction. Some kids and moms are cut out for homeschooling, others are not. Although I never expected Kip to be a genius, I was very worried at the start of this school year that he would struggle with the classroom environment. He started this school year without being able to consistently recognize all his letters or numbers and was unable to write his name or willingly draw. 

On the first day of school, I remember there was a piece of paper in front of each child and they were asked to write their name and draw a picture of their favorite thing to do with their family. Kip practically froze, he gets easily overwhelmed with any kind of expectation. I ended up holding his hand to help write his name and he made some scribbly marks for the drawing. It was hard for me not to notice that some of the other kids at the table completed the task without effort, one of them drew an elaborate scene.

As much as I did not want Kip to feel defeated by first day expectations, I didn't want to feel that either. I reminded myself that each kid is different and each kid learns at their own pace and in their own unique way. Preschool sets the foundation for learning and that's what we were there for. Square one was the exact right place for Kip to start. The classroom environment and a supportive and playful teacher ended up being just what Kip needed. He learned SO much this year and can do everything he could not do on that first day. 

Kip's school used Tools of the Mind curriculum and one of the elements of that is Play Planning. Here is the definition of that: 

In Play Planning, children plan their play before playing in centers. A Play Plan typically describes the role and actions a child will engage in during the first few minutes of intentional make-believe play. This initial plan helps children act purposefully–-the first step to becoming self-regulated learners.

Play Plans also support children’s literacy development. As children plan their play, they draw a picture of their plan that helps them remember what they are going to do. Drawing is an important precursor to writing. These drawings gradually become more representational as children use their pictures to review previous plans, and discuss their plans with other children. As children learn more about literacy, they begin to represent their intentions using the Tools approach to writing: Scaffolded Writing.

Sorry, that's so granular but I didn't know how to describe it any better.

In the classroom, every day, the kids would pick the color of the center they wanted to go to and use that color marker to write their name and draw a picture of what they planned to do. Throughout the year I saved all of the Play Planning papers that got sent home each week. The progress is undeniable, in just this small sample I'll show here:

It might not seem that impressive, but Kip could not even hold a pencil on the first day of school without it falling out of his hand. He refused to attempt to draw a figure and did not know how to write the alphabet consistently.

For pre-writing skills, they started by drawing small dashes for each word in their play plan sentence. So something like ____ _____ ______ _____ _____ _____ for "I am going to play dolls." Then gradually they started adding letters as they learned to sound words out. By mid-year Kip could write "I am going to" easily and then he would sound out the first letter in each word of his play plan. By the end of the year he was writing full sentences.

Does Kip still struggle with perfectionism? HECK YES! That's a lifelong thorn, but we tell him all the time that "practice makes progress" and there are many occasions when we show him how that progress pays off. Just look at this!