Testing

Today was Ragsy's screening for kindergarten readiness at Parkway. It went pretty well - he tested off the charts for math, but unfortunately his writing is behind. His problem is three-fold: (1) he is a perfectionist. I've seen him start letters 10 or more times, only to re-do them the moment he hits a stumbling block. (2) He doesn't like doing things he doesn't feel competent at. In fact, he hates it. So he avoids doing it, which means he avoids practice, which means it doesn't get better. Can't blame him there - I hate doing things I'm not good at, too. (3) He's left-handed. No one else in his class (teachers included) is left-handed. I'm not left-handed, and neither is anyone else in my family except my brother-in-law in Charlotte, NC. Unfortunately, he tries to copy people who are right-handed in the way they hold their paper and pencils, which makes him a little slower, more uncomfortable and less precise, which makes him frustrated, which makes him not want to do it.

Ah, well - there's always a give and take. We're practicing, I'm helping him learn to position the paper more comfortably and hold the pen in such a way that gives him a more precise, smoother result. Just a week and he's already begun to improve. I don't blame our preschool for the problem, but it would've been nice had they told us that there was one to begin with. They were telling me everything was hunky dory as recently as the beginning of May while our pediatrician and school administrators feel otherwise.

It sucks seeing your kid get frustrated about something other kids can do with little effort. Oh, well - with practice, it'll get better. And if that's the worst of my worries, I think we're doing pretty well.