Practice Makes Legible

I know he's four, but it still seems too soon. How can Chase be learning to write his name and the letters of the alphabet already? But he is, and taking much glee in the effort I might add. I do feel kind of bad for him, because genetically speaking he has a lot of predetermined poor penmanship bias to overcome.

On his paternal side, we have Andy whose handwriting is simply atrocious. His signature can't even be read as it most strongly resembles the Nike swoosh rather than any actual letters of the alphabet. This is probably because he's a man and doesn't care though. I'm sure the potential for lovely script is there lying dormant.

On the maternal side things don't look much better.My grade school report cards were always filled with VGs (Very Goods) in every subject but handwriting. Those I got Ss (satisfactory--barely) This may have had something to do with being left handed and that whole right slant mess coupled with not holding my pencil/hand/paper/arm/body/temper correctly. Luckily, Chase is right handed--which means he has less chance of being a genius but a better chance at having neat handwriting. Pretty even trade off I'd say.

So as I was saying, Chase enjoys practicing forming his letter and numbers. And he's getting pretty good at it too. At least as far as tracing goes.

But he can also make those little symbols from scratch as demonstrated by the 13 & 15 he wrote while waiting for our dinner at Fuddrucker's.

So with all of this joy over the acquisition of new skills, you can imagine that we've been spending a lot of time drawing, writing and coloring here in MellonLand. Which brings me to this:

I saw this green Tupperware container at the thrift store a while back and had to buy it and its yellow friend. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, but I knew I needed to possess it. Why? Because when I was just a kid earning straight Ss in handwriting, my mother had a big blue one just like it. Whenever she would make No Bake Cookies, she would put them in that blue container. This was wise on her part because as a child, I was completely incapable of getting the lid to close on that sucker. Thus, she always knew when I had swiped an extra cookie or three. Not that the certainty of being caught ever stopped me or anything.

Anyway, I quickly found a use for my little memory lane props:

And they fit so perfectly in my--I mean the children's--coloring basket

which has the perfect home in the kitchen cabinets below the phone.

So now any time my little darlings want to color, write or draw--I just pull out the basket and they have everything they need right at their little fingertips. When they're done, we just pack it all back up, slide it on the shelf, and close the door. Viola! I might not have the neatest handwriting, but I make up for it with my organization and ingenuity. VG all the way.