Sometimes you worry about your kids meeting "developmental benchmarks." Hugo's always been a late bloomer, late to walk, late to talk, and until now, never shown much interest in drawing.
According to most development charts, children at age 4 should have been drawing stick figures since 3 and by 4, starting to form letters and numbers. Yikes! Here's Hugo recent drawing of a beach. Beautiful yes, but no stick figures or letters here. Should I be worried?
Lucky Hugo attends a school system where this age is about exploring other things about the world instead of knuckling down and learning to write. I'm glad I don't have to force him to do something he's not ready to do. But I do wonder.
And then I look at this Lego masterpiece and know I have nothing to worry about. Hugo can knock one of these up in a few minutes. Without help or directions, each side perfectly matched. All details correct. I am impressed.
Faith restored. We don't have to worry. The kid's alright.
Each of us are wired differently and I'm so over the sausage factory mentality of age-linked achievement levles. It looks like Hugo has loads of mathematical spatial smarts AND a great eye for colour! I bet he's a whizz at the old jigsaw as well.
ReplyDeletex Felicity
Looks like he's perfectly fine to me. I don't think I could muster up a truck so balanced and handsome. I'm sure we all have our moments of motherly panic about developmental milestones, but just as you said 'the kid's alright'... no matter what. xo m.
ReplyDeleteWhen my sister's baby was born I went to help and she would say to me 'the book says he should be... the book says... the book says....' I said to her 'My love, I don't think he has read that book'. She looked at me in utter confusion! They do develop in their own way God love them. Your little boy seems a lateral thinker and that is fantastic. Go Hugo!!!
ReplyDeleteLooks like you've got an engineer instead of an artist.
ReplyDeleteLeft brain VS right brain personality.
He's all good.
xB
oh, for sure.....his strengths are so obvious!
ReplyDeleteThey're all different. This strikes a chord with me as my daughter only draws pictures if I coax. She just wants to colour in and I know some folk think they shouldn't colour in as it limits them. Man, she's good at colouring though, and jigsaws. I think she'll draw when she's ready.
ReplyDeleteThose trucks are great.
That lego truck is amazing! I struggled to put together some jetski lego thing with instructions that my 6 year old was given for his bday- after he lost interest very quickly.
ReplyDeleteYour post really resonated with me. My boy was hardly drawing anything at 4 (which I was sort of worried about, and sort of not). He drew a very similar beach drawing at about the same age actually- I loved it so much it was on the wall for a while. This year he started doodling very complicated aliens, machines, battle scenes, maps, etc etc. And now I find myself with the problem of what masterpieces are kept, and which ones are "recycled".
I echo Felicity, great maths skills there.
ReplyDeleteLego master.. For sure!
ReplyDeleteMy son wouldn't hold a pencil or even attempt to draw or write his name until school.. He does what he has to in that department... But boy can he read, well in advance for his age.
So... It is great that you are letting him develop at his own pace, he'll be much better for it.