Growth and Development

The last week has been big for me in realizing how much Danny is growing up. I have always made it a point not to "work" with Danny on things. As a teacher, I could sit him down and teach him his alphabet, his numbers, Spanish vocabulary, the presidents (hee, hee!), but at this young age I really try to let him guide his learning. As a result, he still does not count to 20 correctly (Randy's literary genes are already apparent!), and he still gets confused by a couple of the letters. Fortunately for me and Randy (both educators who love to learn), Danny asks a ton of questions and always wants to know stuff. He can recognize and name several of the presidents, he does have his alphabet down (recognizing letters and most of the sounds of the letters) and he has a general curiosity about EVERYTHING! Because I don't formally work on skills with him, I was stunned yesterday when he wrote his whole name. Sure, his Y doesn't look perfect, but it is his name! I have noticed improvement with his fine motor skills, (including drawing people, which began last spring) but I didn't even think he was capable of writing his name. He doesn't go to an academic preschool, either, so unless he asked for help or instruction, they haven't been teaching him. Watching a child grow and develop is so amazing!