Drawing at Five Years Old

An interesting thing: Suddenly today Xander is drawing objects with the shapes that young children usually use to make them. The reason this is interesting is that he was one of the children who was behind in this skill in his pre-kindergarten class. I saw many drawings (several of the girls' work and a few of the boys') posted in his class that showed stick-figure people and square-triangle houses and even more advanced representations. Xander's and at least one other boy's were mainly scribbles in vague patterns.

Today he wanted to draw. In a minute he showed me a square-triangle house, a lighthouse, and a square-triangle house with one window that he later decided looked like a volcano. Then he drew lava overflowing everywhere, so if I were to show you the drawings it would now look like his last year's drawings. :)

I fully expect to see a sun with rays in the corner of his pictures someday soon.

Arts and Other Stuff

Nick is in his booster seat with tray, coloring in a coloring book with his non-toxic washable crayons. Of the arts projects I've tried with him, this one is keeping him occupied longest!

The Mengs seem pretty settled into their new place and loving it. It sounds like a great neighborhood to live in with kids. Bailey has 4-year-old friends nearby. I always forget about this, but we should Skype with them soon!

Xander did not cry on the way home from school today so I think we're making progress. (The last two days he cried a little bit about wanting to bring his bag home from school and being hungry.) Not very big issues, just a display of him being tired out from school. I did bring him a chocolate milk when I went to pick him up today. So far, in terms of using his energy and intellectual and social capacity, school has been good for him. He slept well last night. I hope that is a sign of deeper sleep during this school year.

What Do You Do When You Want One Boy Distracted and the Other One Undistracted?

We've now read Prince Caspian (by C.S. Lewis) and Catwings, by Ursula K. LeGuin, to Xander. His chapter book list to date is: [updated 7/11/10]

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Sir Reddy and Sir Pants
Dragons
Prince Caspian
Catwings
Catwings Return
Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings
Jane On Her Own
The Water Horse
T. Rex Attacks!
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
Volcanoes! : Mountains of Fire
Magic Tree House #37: Dragon of the Red Dawn

I think I'm missing a few. We are almost done with Catwings Return.

I thought it would be amusing to list the "art projects" I've tried with Nick which are supposed to keep him busy while I do half an hour of learning activities with Xander. Here's that list:

-taped paper to his booster seat tray and gave him a nontoxic washable crayon and showed him how to make dots on the page

Results: He scribbled a few lines, threw the crayon on the floor, and cried.

-put him on a towel on the kitchen floor with two bowls, a measuring cup, a baby spoon, and a tablespoon; one of the bowls was partially filled with water

Results: He played happily, leaving behind no mess...for five minutes.

-put rolled-up pieces of masking tape on his booster seat tray along with various shapes of construction paper and foam letters so he could stick objects on the tape

Results: the tape didn't stick to the tray, but it did stick to Nick's hand, making him mad. He continued to sit in the seat for about five minutes playing with a couple of other toys.

Things that have worked to distract him while I'm doing learning activities with Xander:

1. holding him for a few minutes while reading a book to Xander and having Xander turn the pages for me

2. letting him play with some of Xander's toys while we're all in Xander's room

3. letting him take the letters and index cards off Xander's learning board

4. that's about it - although I should call those activities above which resulted in five minutes' worth of play wildly "successful"