Preschool Printouts

I printed off a couple of free preschool activity pages for Eva, to see if she would be interested.  The first was a giant “A” and a picture of an apple to color.  I held Eva’s hand and traced the letter A with a red crayon, and she was so excited to see the result.  She pointed to the letter and proudly said, “A!”, and then tried to draw it on her own.  When she was only able to create a random squiggle, she started getting upset and asking me to help.  “Help draw A!” she said, wanting me to take her hand and trace the letter again. What a little perfectionist!  My mom (who helps screen preschoolers for kindergarten readiness), said that means that her cognitive skills have developed more quickly than her motor skills.  So Eva knows what she wants to draw, but isn’t able to make her hand obey yet.  She advised me to focus on developing larger motor skills from the shoulder first, such as drawing a big circle on the ground with sidewalk chalk, before jumping ahead to more developed writing movements.  It was just a shot in the dark for me anyway, trying to see what Eva was capable of.  Now that I know where we’re at, I know better how to help her learn.