[LucyRev]

I am sure this is small potatoes, but my 6 yr old DD is loving writing. She wants nothing to do with reading, but she likes to sound out how to spell words. Most of the time she is skipping some of the sounds, but she's figuring it out, and wants to do it all on her own!

: She has been enjoying making lists and writing notes on her designs that she wants me to sew for her.

Anyway, she is left handed, and reverses letters about half the time. Not letter order, but the image of the letter. Mostly she writes in all caps. She cried when I got out a workbook that was all lowercase letters. I wasn't trying to force her to do it, I just thought she might like it since she has been writing so much and it would help her to know them. She said they don't make sense. "All those roundy curves going all directions, I hate it!"

Is this something that will work itself out? She likes ReadingEggs.com, and can often recognize lowercase or figure it out by context. But when one of the games was to listen to a sound and then pick the letter out of a line of the whole lowercase alphabet, she got pretty upset.

Is my only 75% unschooly-ness showing through here?

I should probably just let her figure it out her own way.

 

[midnightwriter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LucyRev Is my only 75% unschooly-ness showing through here? I should probably just let her figure it out her own way.

Yes. Yes.

:

My almost 7 year old prefers writing to reading, and she's pretty good at it. She can read, but it is still difficult for her. She mostly prints, and mostly upper case, and to be honest, I haven't even introduced lower case. She knows lower case exists, but I don't see what the point, at this age and stage, to insist on them.

 

[MisaGoat]

We haven't hit school age yet but..

My husband often writes in all caps, he prefers it unless he writes in cursive to write faster.

At 6 I don't think I would be that concerned. If she is recognizing the letters when she sees them and is reading I wouldn't worry.

For me I don't think I really got the hang of reading until 2nd grade and once I did I skipped reading levels in 3rd grade and was consistently in the highest reading group throughout elementary school (even had my own reading group at times).

If she got really upset when you brought it up, I would just leave it alone for now or maybe only do lowercase letters with uppercase letters. You said she is enjoying writing lists so you really don't want to discourage her by pushing her too much and taking the fun out of it.

 

[LucyRev]

Yeah, I will lay off. I guess I'm really wondering how to support her here, because I think she wants to understand lowercase letters. She doesn't recognize all of them, and gets discouraged. She gets very easily frustrated when she can't do something "right". Yet she also doesn't like to be taught and doesn't want to practice anything she thinks she already knows. I think I'm going to make some sandpaper letters and just let her play with them if she feels like it. I put up an alphabet poster that has Aa and an apple picture, etc so she can refer to that if she has a question.

 

[midnightwriter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LucyRev Yeah, I will lay off. I guess I'm really wondering how to support her here, because I think she wants to understand lowercase letters. She doesn't recognize all of them, and gets discouraged. She gets very easily frustrated when she can't do something "right". Yet she also doesn't like to be taught and doesn't want to practice anything she thinks she already knows. I think I'm going to make some sandpaper letters and just let her play with them if she feels like it. I put up an alphabet poster that has Aa and an apple picture, etc so she can refer to that if she has a question.

She sounds exactly like my DD!

I just blogged about her writing a novel, and how I had to bite my tongue and not correct any of it.

Does she play on starfall.com? My DD LOVES it, and even the alphabeth one, for pre-readers, has fun animations and little movies. And they always show both the upper case and lower case, and sometimes have little sorting and matching games.

 

[LucyRev]

Our DD's do sound similar! I just checked out your blog. Both have big goals. DD made a book out of stapled papers, and then she wanted to make tons and save them all up to give to kids who don't have books. So sweet. She's constantly wanting to sell her creations. She will make some gross hodge podge of food and want to sell it on the street corner, even though she won't eat it herself.

My DD and I stayed up a few nights ago making up a story about unicorns and I forgot I told her we would write it out. Your blog reminded me.

Now we can do it tomorrow.

:

I also did PT EC starting around 5-6 months with signing and it worked. My kiddo was mostly naked at home and totally potty learned sometime around 16 months. I can't quite remember when exactly, but people everywhere were amazed that my little babe was diaperless in public. Pretty cool!

 

[canuckgal]

I would like others said relax too about it. My dd is 9, and reads very very well now, but also is hesitant about writing. We actually are working on her pencil grip...it's horrible, and I don't know how I didn't notice it!

She too writes capitals about I would say 90% of the time, now and then I see her make some small case letters on her own accord, so I know it is stored in her brain somewhere, like tonight when she was doing a kid's crossword book with me. She tends to reverse her small b and d sometimes though. I've not made too big a deal of this, as it has been a very very long road to encourage her to do any writing at ALL as she is such a perfectionist.

She does read well, and can recognize small case when she sees it. She is a visual spatial/right brained learner (anyone read Upside Down Brilliance? Fits her to a T!). Interestingly enough, these kids apparently have typical difficulty with writing (action of it) and may be more interested in keyboarding, and that is something I am seeing in DD as she has chosen daily to work on a computer learn to type program, and is doing pretty well.

I know so many people who write in upper case in real life, and I am not too worried as a result. As long as it is readable...that is the main point.

 

[midnightwriter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by LucyRev Our DD's do sound similar! I just checked out your blog. Both have big goals. DD made a book out of stapled papers, and then she wanted to make tons and save them all up to give to kids who don't have books. So sweet. She's constantly wanting to sell her creations. She will make some gross hodge podge of food and want to sell it on the street corner, even though she won't eat it herself. My DD and I stayed up a few nights ago making up a story about unicorns and I forgot I told her we would write it out. Your blog reminded me. Now we can do it tomorrow. : I also did PT EC starting around 5-6 months with signing and it worked. My kiddo was mostly naked at home and totally potty learned sometime around 16 months. I can't quite remember when exactly, but people everywhere were amazed that my little babe was diaperless in public. Pretty cool!

OMG, they're twins or what!

And your post reminds me--while we were walking back from a store she made up a story about a man who forgot how to smoke and asked me to write it down (she apparently won't bother with writing down little things, as she has THE NOVEL going on now

). so i need to write that story down for her.

How neat with PT EC! I don't really have any goals, and am taking it as it comes, but i LOVE signing at this age, just amazing how it opens a window into their world.

 

[milehighmonkeys]

Just call it architectural or engineering lettering.

 

[umami_mommy]

yeah, my mom is an architect and writes in all caps!

anyway, reversals are normal for a few years... DS does it more with numbers then letters, but it's still there. he writes all in caps too and i figure when he gets really comfortable with writing and literacy in general he'll start writing in caps and lower case then. i'm not worried, he loves writing.