Writing his Name

This child never ceases to amaze me. This weekend he was writing the letter "H" a bunch on his chalkboard and I suggested he try to write the letter "N" and modelled it a couple times. I wish I had gotten pictures of his attempts, but suffice it to say they looked nothing like the letter "N." I shrugged and let it go, figuring he just didn't have the spatial awareness and was not ready to start writing letters yet. Okay, no biggie.

But Nicholas thought this was just too cool of a prospect and so just kept practicing. After a little practice he had mastered a passable (although not precise) "N" and was ecstatic. In fact, after each successful attempt, he came running in to tell me and made me stop working on lunch to go to his room to see his masterpiece. And this was on top of the fact that Joe was in his room offering him all the praise and affirmation the little boy could have asked for.

Fast forward two days. Tonight Nicholas and I went out to dinner (Joe was at choir, I had a long day, and a local restaurant has free kids' meals on Tuesdays) and Nicholas started writing "N"s all over his placemat with the crayons they provide. And they were remarkably better than they were on Sunday. He was actually precisely connecting the top of one line with the bottom of the other!

Then, just for kicks, I mentioned that maybe he could learn to write an "I" next, figuring that he only knows capital letters and a capital "I" is just a straight line so he could do that. And next thing I know he proceeds to--completely on his own--write a lower case "i" next to his "N." This clearly means they have been working on it at school, but I think my jaw dropped when he dotted that "i." He then said "N. i. c." and set to work writing the letter "c." His "c" only had a curve at the top and a straight line down, but he had the basic idea. He then did "H" and "O" which he has known for awhile. And then he was stuck.

Well, at this point he had gotten over halfway through his name, so I decided to see if he could learn the others. I then taught him "L" and "A" while we were waiting to order. The "L" he got right away. The "A" took a couple tries, but then he had it. The "S" however was just not clicking.

He had used up all of the placemats on the table, so I pulled a notebook out of my briefcase for him and he proceeded to write his name on 4 different sheets. I pointed out the missing bottom curve on the "c", which he fixed, and once he ran out of space going left to right suggested where to put the last couple letters so he didn't put them smack in the middle of the other letters, but other than that, he did them all by himself.

And this is what he had gotten to before our dinner arrived:

From 2012 April

As I said, I am completely in awe.