Stars and Memos

We seem to have entered the Twilight Zone here at our house; Baxter is drawing. There is suddenly a whole new clutter management issue: what to do with the piles of paper that are covered with "memos", stars, and Baxter's self-portraits (my favorite is himself on the monkey bars at school with all of his friends shown in stick figure form, gaping open-mouthed at him in wonder). Do I throw them out? If I were you, I'd say yes. But then I come across the page from a Spiderman coloring book that he spent about 3 hours on, coloring with his little colored pencils so carefully, finally caring about coloring inside the lines, and I just put it back in the pile and find some other clutter to deal with, not sure how to proceed.

I wasn't even a big fan of that Spiderman coloring book. I mean, Spiderman? Yuck. One of his classmates apparently handed out coloring books at her birthday party and that's what he lucked into. But when I saw the motivation it triggered: the quiet sitting at the table, the tongue out and slightly to the left in utter concentration, and the pure pride he felt when he colored that verrrry thin web purple all the way...well, I guess I'm okay with Spiderman at the moment. (Did I mention the quiet?)

Baxter's teacher mentioned a couple weeks ago that we should give him some extra encouragement with fine motor activities at home, noting that they are doing a lot of writing and drawing in school and some additional practice will make it easier for him when he gets to first grade. I had thought he was doing pretty well since he could write all of his letters with pretty good form and although his drawings were rudimentary, they didn't seem too bad considering he shied away from it until so recently. But kindergarten ain't what it used to be; from what I've seen at Grattan and Jefferson, most kids are coming in able to write, and their drawings are, well, a bit more sophisticated than Baxter's. His teacher was quick to point out that when he draws he has an intricate and fascinating story line going, and she said that she could tell he's been more focused on big ideas than the actual getting-them-down-on-paper part. She's got a point there.

From what we're seeing this month, all of that drawing and writing at school is really exciting for him and he is practicing non-stop. He has needed no encouragement from us - he seems to be spending the majority of his free time on those activities. I've attached pictures of him hard at work trying to write numbers for the first time today, and also of the stars he drew yesterday. I taught him how to draw a star a few nights ago and I am pretty sure he worked on it for 24 hours straight.

It's safe to say that he's learning a lot in school and that he's incredibly motivated to work on everything he's being exposed to. What more could we ask for?