dd is a very smart, very strong willed little person (and I know exactly where she gets the will from!). If she hasn't decided to do something, it's not happening! So, my problem is the main lesson book. When I ask her to fill the page all she does is whine, complain that her hand hurts, say she can't do it, etc. Now, I would be more inclined to feel some sympathy for her except she hasn't even tried to do anything before this all starts. Today, I tried drawing a line down the paper to make the page smaller. I was thinking that would make it less intimidating. No such luck. She keeps demanding I help her. In the beginning, I tried helping her color in the background thinking that it would make it more fun like teamwork and she would do it. But, that only ended up with me doing most of her work for her. Obviously, that is not ideal because she will always expect me to do most of the work, right?
Any ideas? Part of my thinks it's not worth pushing the coloring in the page issue. But, another part of me says that it's important to lay the foundation now for later work. I just can't seem to get her to slow down and really take care with anything she is doing. Everything is half a'd unless it is something she has decided to take time with.
Last week, she even b**ched about rolling bread dough and making letters. She kept yelling that she can't roll the dough into snakes and throwing her head down with her hair all over the dough. This is another good example of where I know that she really can because she rolls dough and playdough into snake shapes all the time if I'm not asking her to.
Any ideas? Part of my thinks it's not worth pushing the coloring in the page issue. But, another part of me says that it's important to lay the foundation now for later work. I just can't seem to get her to slow down and really take care with anything she is doing. Everything is half a'd unless it is something she has decided to take time with.
Last week, she even b**ched about rolling bread dough and making letters. She kept yelling that she can't roll the dough into snakes and throwing her head down with her hair all over the dough. This is another good example of where I know that she really can because she rolls dough and playdough into snake shapes all the time if I'm not asking her to.
There's no need to push in Kindergarten because of fear of her not doing anything in future years. Just enjoy the curriculum as much as you can ... incorporate it as much as you can into your regular activities ... see if there is a way to reinforce the letters and numbers without her getting upset (maybe play hopscotch and use letters instead of numbers or maybe make letter collages by cutting pictures from magazines ... or you cut out a big letter that you are working on for that week from construction paper, and then glue something all over it that starts with that letter - the letter D for instance could be decorated in dog stickers), and just enjoy her being five. 
