Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Claw

This picture was taken this morning, while Dash was working on his creation pages for My Father's World. Notice his grip again. I was trying not to worry.
Knew it would come in time.... right?

But if you let a habit like that form, then won't it be even harder to fix later?
An unnecessary hurdle to overcome.

Then I remembered that I actually ordered The Claw
(remind anyone else of that scene in Liar Liar??)
months ago, and simply forgot about it.

Whipped that little sucker out and now LOOK!!!
My 'lil man was amazed. He actually said, "oh, this is easy. Can I always use this?"

YES, YES, YES!!

(no, I didn't jump up and down, squealing and flailing, like I wanted to.
Didn't want to scare the poor kid. I had a little party in my head, though!!)

I love these moments; seeing an issue, searching for a solution, finding something that works (or often watching the kids find something that works for them) and then watching as they take off. This is why I homeschool.

This little guy was so happy to be able to write easily. His little fingers just weren't cooperating but, with a bit of help, he's feeling able to conquer this whole writing thing.

He asked for an extra page of handwriting!!! And then wanted to try with a pencil.
I had started with the crayon, thinking that he might be able to use a proper grip more easily.


This was just such a great perk to the already-great-going week.

We also had great friends over today, after school, and had to do another 2010/2011 School Photo Op outside, with our "extras."

7 comments:

Susan said...

Brilliant! And yes you are right. The pencil grip habit is very hard to break. Ask me how I know! I may need to get this.

Syndi said...

Isn't it a miracle? His grip looks great. Love the school photos!

Charlie said...

Having him hold his pencil this way will help his hand not get so tired. He will not have to fight to get his thoughts from his head to the paper. Yeah the claw.

Shan said...

I saw this little aid just this weekend at The Learning Store in OKC, and wondered if I could get Deven to use it!! Neato!!

When I working at the College of Dentistry, I went up to talk to the hygiene teachers about applying for their school. The lady took one look at my lefty pen holding style and said kind of rudely "Well, THAT will never work. You MUST learn how to properly hold a pen if you are going to hold the instruments right."

I worked on it after that and it took forever to change my ways. Good to do it now! :)

sara said...

Such cute picture of the kids + the neighbors!!!! :)

Jenny said...

I wish I'd heard of the claw when Joel was learning to write. :(

Bethany said...

Just bought some to correct my son's grip... looks like it works great! (Wish I'd known of these when I was teaching 2nd graders.) Anyway, thanks for the link!