Unexpected gifts

Last week, T came home with a bunch of info in his backpack that I should have gotten a couple weeks ago. It was a simple oversight, no big deal, but part of the information dealt with Valentine's Day. The class T is in wants the kids to do their best to fill out their Valentine's themselves. T loves to write his name and will occasionally ask to write other words, but he's just not that into the whole writing thing yet. But I thought it was a great idea, plus the teacher asked us to do this, so I sat him down the next day and tried to get him to write out a few. He did three, but getting the last one done was a bit of an effort. At that point, I figure 3 a day will be fine and we'll get them all done before we have to send them into class. Except that he refuses to do them on Friday or Saturday. I didn't push it. We still have some time.

I was surprised that he was willing to sit down tonight and try again. And tonight, that little super valentine addresser did 10 in under an hour. And with everyone that he completed, his writing and spacing got better and better and better. I was so excited and proud of him, and seeing him blossom under just that little bit of individual focused attention brought something to light that I've been trying to avoid. I may stay home with the kids, but each of them need focused individual time with me and with R. Every. day. So, starting tomorrow, I'm going to schedule time with the kids individually. I think the best way to do it after dinner since they'll be fed and winding down. Plus, R and I can switch off so that no one (hopefully) feels left out. When I really think about it, the best days that we have with the kids are days where that happens naturally. I can't believe I haven't seen it before now. So much for my powers of observation.

I'm excited to see what happens this week and how this changes things. I would love for there to be more positive and less negative interaction, and guess what... I can totally make that happen, and I absolutely will.