Encouraging Al to write

Al is going to start school next year ...the parents are going to enrol him in a kindy soon ...he is quite intelligent, but has really low attention span ...he is quick to remember things but lack the inclination to follow things through ....and, me being me, decided that he should do some sort of exercises daily to familiarise him with preschool ....

A couple of month ago, we bought him a huge placard of alphabet complete with illustration ...he is able to memorise from A to I the moment .....The common scenario at home, someone would say A for ....and he'll answer A for Apple .....B for Balloon ...C for cat ....D for Doll ...and so on ...we are so proud of him ....Other than that he recognised a few alphabets here and there ...like P for Penguin ...and everytime he sees a U-turn sign by the roadside, he'll say, look there is an upsidedown U (u dah accident kata nya!) ...and my dad purposely went to a supermarket and bought a couple of apples ...just to show Al that the apple is the same as the one on his placard ....the length that he is willing to go to teach his grandkid is amazing ....it is just the same as what we went through during our childhoods ...my dad would do something like that ...and it makes us remember things better ....now he is doing it with the kids ...the legacy lives on ...yeahhhhh

Last week i started to encourage him to write ...my problem is to motivate him to write ...he is very restless and hyperactive ...very difficult to make him sit down and concentrate on writing ...imagine, for one whole week i only managed to get him to write the letter A ...he exhibits lack of self confidence when i asked him to write on his own, but was more confident when i am there to guide his hands through the lettering ...today we started on the letter B ...same scenario ...he would give up after a couple of tries ...if i force him, he would not be doing it wholeheartedly ...so i try not to force him ....i will stop when he shows signs of frustratiin ...when he is getting restless ....

But motivation is the name of the game....he is so into iPad, laptop and smart phones ....always requested that i let him use my iPad, my lappy or my phone ....now, i would tell him that he can use these things AFTER, and ONLY AFTER, he had done some writing ...or reading or drawing .....i make it as a reward for him ...so far, it is working!!! He did a couple of scribble earlier, and i let him use the laptop ...when he did a few more writing willingly, i upgraded by letting him use the iPad ....he is happy, i am happy, the rest of th family are happy with the progress ...

Still a lot of things to be done ...a lot of challenges, i would say ...i just hope i am doing th right things ...not pressuring him, but more like encouraging him ...