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Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Rain Gutter Regatta & Writing


Highlight of the week for Cullen: the Rain Gutter Regatta with his scout pack last night. Here is a silly pic showing off his little sailboat.

Lung power was no problem, but controlling exact direction of airflow was trickier than anticipated! This made for funnier races, though.

Cullen won his match, but didn't have a fast enough finish time to make the finals. There was time for the boys to just race for fun, so they got to blow their boats until they were tired of puffing.


Now a drastic change of subject...

One of our biggest school-related goals this year is to strengthen Cullen's writing ability and build some stamina. Our oldest two, Eric and Taylor, would each spend hours drawing and coloring from a very early age and neither had any trouble with handwriting when it came along. However, Cullen has never shown more than a minimal interest in drawing or writing endless pages like his brother and sister. If I work really hard, I can sometimes talk him into coloring a Spider Man page, but never more than one. Now that he is writing, his hand and finger muscles are having to catch up to the demand he is placing on them. Because this is a new problem for me, I've had to put in a little research and intentional effort to help build those little muscles.

Last year, he announced to me that handwriting practice was "EEEEVVVIIILLLL" while glaring his eyes. (I think that came from a Sponge Bob cartoon.) About five words was the most he could manage in one sitting last Spring. He's come a long way since then, I am pleased to report!

Though he still makes a face if a great deal of writing is asked of him at once, his attitude has improved greatly along with his stamina. He makes an effort these days to produce readable writing, catching most of his own mistakes and correcting them. I just thought I'd share an example of copywork that he is especially proud of...


and a few sentences he composed and wrote. (Neatness was not the primary goal of this assignment - writing something he wanted to write was the point!)

Weekly, he makes improvement in quality and in amount of writing he can manage. Not too many things other than this have been a real challenge to him yet as far as learning is concerned. (Now there are other issues that are a different story!) I am terribly proud of his determination to work through something that isn't always easy.

2 comments:

Jamie {See Jamie blog} said...

I love his little sailboat, and WAY TO GO on the handwriting!!!

Taylor said...

Glad he won his race!
I knew he loved Toon Town, but he sure can't take it off his mind! Haha. Let him know I loved his story!