Reading Vs Writing

After we moved to Jerudong, when Samuel turned 3, he started attending Joyful Kids Montessori School. We have had difficulties choosing the right school for him. We didn't have much choices. We wanted a nearby and good school but in the end, we chose a school that isn't so near after all.

The school is very new. It was only one anniversary old when we first enrolled him. When Samuel was at the age of 3, he was still not able to write properly. He can only write with tracing. Now, he writes almost everything and tries to spell any new word he learns.

Samuel actually started reading much earlier compared to writing. Infact, he is considered alot slower than his peers in writing. When he started writing (scratching), we could hardly see the pencil lines. The pencil merely hovers over the paper and we noticed he just didn't have the strength to hold his pencil properly.

Some say its either reading or writing first. If reading comes first, writing will come much later and vice versa.

We are very glad that after he started attending Joyful Kids Montessori School, the teacher actually put emphasis on the hand (fine motor skills) activities to strengthen his hands. Now he writes and writes and writes on his little doodle board. He sometimes falls asleep while writing on his little doodle board too :)

As for his reading, he is pretty good at it now. Most of the time, he can read books (for his age) all by himself. We used the Glenn Doman method on Samuel when he was alot younger. He recognizes words very quickly. When he started attending Joyful Kids, they started teaching him Phonics. Now that he reads so well, we sometimes wonder if it was Glenn Doman or Phonics that has helped him read so well. The only thing we noticed about his reading is that, he may be reading lots but we feel strongly that he still doesn't understand what he reads.