Name writing

Daniel has been at preschool for almost a term, which is crazy! Where has that time gone?? Each morning he needs to sign in his name and the teacher in me freaks out when he does it: 
1. looking around the room at what others are doing, no focus on the paper
and
2. doesn't follow the dots, instead just colours in the letters or scribbles around them.

I know that it is something he has never shown an interest in and that he is still little but I have been nervous that he will never be keen to write his name properly (silly I know). I see other kids writing their names and they follow the dots perfectly and it looks so neat so that also has made me a bit nervous. Even when I try to tell Daniel how to write his name at preschool, he hasn't listened or followed what I say.

This afternoon when we got home from preschool Eliza started to do some drawing in her scrapbook and Daniel wanted to do some too. I got a spare scrapbook for him and asked him if he wanted to write his name on the first page. To my surprise he said yes.

I did a dotted outline of each letter for him to follow and he did really well with tracing it. I helped hold his hand for the first tracing and then he did rainbow writing (something they do in K-1 at my school) and followed the lines pretty well. He was pleased with his efforts and I was so proud and amazed with him!

 He then turned the page and wanted to write it without tracing. He wanted me to do the dots for each letter but then he wrote it on his own. D - a - n - i - e - l. You can see each of the letters. So very impressed with him!

So pleased with his writing! I'm sure that the scribble will continue at preschool but he is showing an interest at home and I will encourage that. He was even so excited that he wanted to write his name again when James got home.