Writing is Way Cooler than Tracing

One thing I learned during my conference with Olivia’s teacher is that Olivia loathes tracing. She hates it with the passion of a four year old who hates something really unpleasant. She hates it that much.

Her teacher said that when it’s time to trace, Olivia will get up from her chair, head to the wall, lay down on the floor facing the wall and just relax there, prone, to avoid tracing.

This typically doesn’t work these days, though in the beginning days of preschool the teachers were more likely to give her the alone time. Now? They’re on to her antics and so they retrieve her from the floor, sit her in her chair, put her pencil in her hand and make her trace.

And she’s not amused.

She refuses to do it at home at all. She’s been known to throw pencils across the room to avoid tracing at home.

But as much as she hates tracing, she loves free writing. Give her a pad of paper and a pen, and she’s a happy camper, ‘writing’ to her heart’s content. Mostly, it’s just scribbles. Sometime she manages a legible O or a T.

Last night, though, she surprised me. I asked her to write her name, expecting an O an then a few scribbles.

Instead I got this:

It's OLI and then some scribbles. I know!! Isn’t that seriously awesome? I was so excited I had to show Tom and Alyssa how well Livie had written her name. Alyssa was less than impressed but I pointed out that it’s a START and that’s all we can ask. You have to start somewhere and I’m so glad we’re getting there. No matter how slowly, any improvement is worth applauding.

Then, after writing the OLI, Olivia went on to make several perfect tic tac toe grids. Her ability to write straight lines is getting better and better. And that’s where we have to start. Of course, next stop is to get her to at least attempt to draw people, with appropriate heads, bodies and limbs. But like I said, we’re taking this one step at a time.