Monday, October 21, 2013

Getting 'Y' to stand upright out from Anya

I have a little problem.

A few months ago, I tried teaching Anya how to write her name. I thought, "hey, she is learning ABCs in school, she recognizes her own written name (and Arielle's, for that matter), we are always finding things to do in the afternoons anyway, why not?".

And so, we got down to it. Almost everyday for the next one week, whenever we doodled on paper or at the easel, I would invariably start writing her name, encourage her to follow me and then, I would guide her along. Getting her to write 'A' was a breeze. She was learning it in school, though not writing yet, I believe. And thankfully, 2 letters out of 4 in her name was 'A' so it's half the job done. Seemed easy peasy!

Next was 'N'. The tricky part about 'N' as we all know is that a learning child may be confused whether the centre joining stroke should go from top-left to bottom-right or bottom-rigt to top-left. It took her several tries over a span of a few days to get it right consistently. Eventually, she got it. 

Now, here comes the problematic alphabet - 'Y'. While I anticipated the possible mistake that one may have in learning to write 'N', it was not the case for 'Y'. Strangely enough, Anya recognizes a 'Y' as the way it rightfully should be and yet when when asked to write one out, hers will be upside down. 

I tried showing her the difference, tried doing YMCA dance for better visualization, tried holding her hand and writing it with her but she would still get it wrong on her own. I suppose she will get it right on her own in time to come, but then we are opened to try out any innovate ideas if it comes our way. :)


2 comments:

chloe said...

1) trace it out in a sand tray or use sandpaper or any rough surface
2) write a big Y and get Anya to trace it with her pointer finger.

(adapted from Montessori method)

Anya & Arielle's mom said...

Coolness. Thanks, dear, I'll try that.