Bryce 4 Years 8 Months

Bryce went from a little boy that didn't like anything having to do with art to being an art junkie. He all of a sudden starting sketching and wanting to cutout everything in site.

A few days ago he asked me to draw a whale so he could cut it out. I gave it my best attempt, to which he replied, "Mommy, that is not a very good whale." After explaining that daddy was the artist in the family I had the idea of printing out sketches from the internet. What a hit. We've since printed out whales, dinosaurs, moose, bears, dolphins, boats, trains, elephants, hippos, Toy Story characters, Dinosaur Train characters, etc. and he has cut them out. He now has an entire folder with all of his cutouts. His attitude has also greatly improved when he makes a mistake. He still melts down occasionally, but not nearly as much as a few months ago.

He has also started to write his name. It is so interesting to watch him. Sometimes he writes his name exactly the write way, sometimes he write a perfect mirror image, somethings he uses all capital letters, and sometimes some letters face the correct direction and some do not. He doesn't seem to notice the difference when looking at the finished product. I'm told that this is a natural stage in a child's development and not to correct it. That to his eyes it really looks correct. In addition to writing his name he has started to work in Pre-K workbooks and is doing extremely well. He is spelling simple words, knows the sounds of each letter, recognizes A-Z in both lowercase and capital, and can tell you what letter most words start with by sounding them out slowly. Now to just get him to hold his pencil correctly...

One recent behavioral challenge that we've been dealing with is Bryce telling me to "Stop It" or yelling "No" when I try to correct his behavior. He has also said that "It sounds like you don't love/like your son" and "I'm a bad boy" and "I'm a bad son" when he is in trouble for something. All are devastating to hear, as this is most definitely not the case. He takes all constructive criticism and disciple so personal and doesn't want to hear it. He tends to just shut down. I'm trying very hard to be sensitive to this and tell him when he is doing the right thing or when he has a terrific attitude.