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Originally Posted by arelyn
He loves being read to (even no picture novels). He loves playing outside and nature. We only have a little grass with a playset but it's been a huge blessing (last apt had a concrete roof as their only play space). It is very artificial seeming though. We rarely see birds other than pigeons. There is surprisingly little bug variety and of course wall lizards. We have potted plants and watering them is his job though this is done with many complaints.
The battles start whenever I try to get him to do something that requires using fine motor skills, or the math toys or a reader. He hates drawing, coloring, painting, play doh, anything involving using a pencil, even solving mazes which he enjoys looking at. He has done about 1/2 of the first Handwriting with a Purpose book, most of the first Miquon math book (he likes this one but hates the Cuisineire rods) and can read the first two boxes of Bob books but this was all done with screaming and tears. He tolerates making cards for people but if I make him write anything other than his name inside there is yelling and crying. We tried keeping a journal with drawings and captions but this led to the most intense battles and then the journal magically disappeared. He has no sense of accomplishment. When he finally gives in, stops the yelling and does the teeny bit of work I ask him to do he usually finishes with something like "There. I did it and I'm NEVER doing it EVER again and you can't make me!!!!"
So I'm really frustrated. If we were in the states he would be going to public school next year. I am THAT fed up. But I'm out here with no other educational options.
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If he loves being read to, I'd build on that. Seriously, reading can come later, I wouldn't push it. He's building vocabulary and reading comprehension and sentence structure by listening to you read. If he's snuggled up with you looking at the book, he may even be seeing/processing the words as you read them. Audiobooks are great when you don't have time to read to him (Librivox is free, Lina listens to the Thornton Burgess books on Librivox over and over again. They're about nature, so might be a good fit for him too?). Nature and outside time as much as you have time for is great. Since you mentioned he seems to avoid fine motor skills, can you try to sneak those into the nature exploration? Have him collect small stones or acorns or whatever is little and catches his interest (works on pincher grip) and look it up in a field guide (before Lina was reading fluently, she loved looking through our field guides, trying to figure out what kind of leaf/flower/bug she'd found in our yard). Would he enjoy collecting nature items and turning them into art projects? If he narrated what you'd read to him, or creative stories (or nature nuggets, or whatever he might be interested in "writing") and you wrote it down for him, would he enjoy "writing" without the work of the fine motor skills? . . . I'd focus on keeping learning fun, building on the things he's enjoying, hold off on the stuff he doesn't enjoy (does he like helping you bake? That's an awesome way to learn math skills without realizing it. And you can sneak fine motor skills in too - knead bread dough, pinch grip by placing chocolate chips on top of muffins or cookies, hand strength, and crossing the midline from stirring . . . might even sneak in some recipe reading
And give him time . . . he may just not be developmentally ready for academics, and pushing it will just frustrate you both.