Teaching

When Porter was three years old and started preschool, I noticed on the first day that some of his classmates could write their own names. Porter wasn't anywhere close to being able to do that, and I figured we had better work on it. And I tried. We practiced writing the letters, but honestly, he didn't care. He was bored. He wanted to be Superman and ride his bike. So after awhile I just gave up and kind of forgot about it. And then a couple of weeks ago, he brought a piece of paper to me, out of the blue, with his name written on it. He was so proud! He'd done it without any help, I suppose because it finally seemed interesting. And now he does it all the time. And then he figured out how to spell Legos (only so he could google it and play games on the computer without waiting for me to help him). And suddenly I feel like he's on the verge of reading, but certainly not due to much help from me.

We have workbooks, and he'll do them for awhile. But it feels like whenever I push (come on, what's the opposite of empty???), he just pulls back. I'm sure it's different with every kid, but if I set out to deliberately teach Porter something, it doesn't seem to work. But if I just ignore him and do our usual stuff, he comes into it on his own. Which is exactly what his preschool teachers have been telling me every time I do the paranoid first child worried mom thing.

It also makes me wonder about school, at least at a young age. I mean, at the higher levels, kids probably aren't going to pick up Revolutionary War history or Algebra on their own. But in the young grade school years? They're likely going to learn as much just doing interesting things and asking questions as sitting in a classroom. I saw a friend today who has two boys older than Porter, and with her oldest, he knew so much from preschool that Kindergarten was just a total repeat and he was bored. That's a lot of hours every day to just be bored. Sigh. I know I'm going to send Porter to school next year, because I think I might go insane if I didn't. But I really hope it can be a positive experience. And that once again, I'm completely over thinking it.

I'm Cooking: Last night I made this Tomato Basil Crab Bisque again. So good on a rainy fall day.