Summer Has Arrived

Thursday was the last day of school in our area and it was bittersweet. On one had I'm thrilled to have Little Froggy home again, even if for just a little while, but on the other I know how much she loves school and hate to see her away from it for long. Then again, I'm so excited about her progress that I just want to keep it going. Who would want their kid to be put on hold when so much good has happened so fast?

Before this Froggy was resistant to being instructed. She still is, to a point. But now, suddenly, she's interested in learning everything even if she has to be shown. Before she seemed only interested in learning things she could puzzle out herself and it was frustrating. She's incredibly smart but wanting to do everything herself meant we couldn't take advantage of that sharp little mind.

So get this. She wasn't interested in drawing or writing a month ago. She'd color but she only scribbled instead of trying to stay in the lines. Today, we were playing with markers and I looked down at her paper to see this:

I know, I know. It looks like scribbles. But when I saw it I knew what it was. So I asked her. And she told me it was her name.

To be fair, it's five letters of her name. Her name has nine letters. There's one missing towards the beginning and three missing from the end. The "h" looks like a "t" and yesterday when she was writing it she kept insisting it was "h" and I thought she was just mixed up. After seeing how she forms the letter I think I see how exactly it's an "h" to her and why she's having trouble making it. But all the same, I was bouncing off the walls excited.

Then, later, she had me make shape balloons. It's something she has loved since she first learned her shapes just after she turned 2. For the longest time I coaxed and coaxed and tried getting her to draw them herself, but with no luck. So a few minutes later I looked down at her paper and there they were. Do you see it? Just for good measure, those are her versions of smiley faces under the balloons.

And just one more example, just because I'm excited. She would NEVER draw anything. She always insisted, with all the fire and spunk she has in her, that we should draw things for her. So imagine my surprise when she informed me that this was a froggy balloon:

and this is a My Little Pony face:

She'd had me draw a horse just a little bit before this so I included it in the picture for reference against hers. It's easy for me to see exactly what she was trying to do with it.

I keep thinking that maybe I'm overreacting. People who don't kids wouldn't understand, and parents whose kids never struggled or refused to do normal kid stuff probably don't get my excitement either. These papers might be scribbles to some but to me they are treasures. They're physical, visual proof of just how far she's come in three weeks. Actually, it's more like two weeks, since she went the first week and the third week but not the second. So they're proof of how much progress she's made in two weeks.

To me it's a symbol of everything I've wanted to see her be able to do. I've looked forward to the endless questions. Looked forward to her wanting to learn to write her name, picking up words in print (though I think she recognizes a few already), even just telling me what she wants to do. It's a symbol of everything starting to come back together for us. Changing for the good, after months of frustration and tears (out of me and her both).

I know I sound so cheesy. You should hear me talk about her daddy.

So hopefully this summer I can find ways to keep up the progress. Any moms out there with good craft or lesson ideas for 3-4 year old kids please feel free to chime in.