Handwriting Without Tears

As a homeschoolin' mama, I am very, very blessed to have the Leticia as my mother-in-law.  Letty has probably 20 some years of teaching experience.  Not only that, but she has taught special needs kiddos.  Not only that, but she taught them in both English AND Spanish.  Are you impressed yet?!?  She is a*maaaaa*zing.

This past Sunday, Letty came up to visit for my hubby's bday.  And, of course, she brought with her an entire trunk load of teaching materials for me!  Letty gives a whole new meaning to "junk in her trunk!"  Whoo-hoo!!!

I am most excited about the Handwriting Without Tears curriculum that Letty brought me.  She even gave me a teaching demonstration using my son Merrick and his cousin as pupils.  I was in complete awe watching her in action.  I was dubious of the kids' willingness to participate, especially since they were sitting in my dad's "man cave" with a 50 inch tv in front of them.  But, Letty presented HWT as a game and they were entranced!

For her example, Letty chose to teach them the letter F.  She used several different tools to teach this: play-doh, dry erase board, and the Mat Man you see above, mostly.  The kids loved Mat Man.  After they put his body together, Letty asked which parts of his body we'd need to "borrow" to make the letter F.  Merrick only needed to think about it for one half of a minute, and then he got it!  I was so impressed!

After the lesson, Merrick gave his Bita (short for Abuelita, which means Grandmother) a big hug and said, "Are we going to do this again tomorrow?"  He had no idea he was "doing school".  He was just enjoyed the games. 

I so look forward to learning more about this program and learning how to imitate my MIL's ability to nurture a child's nature love of learning.