John Hancock

Having a big sister around is good for Jax. He has a constant playmate and a constant teacher. I have always assumed it was my job to teach my kids, but little did I know how much Ava would teach her little brother.

Every day that we do preschool (2-3 days per week) Ava works on her handwriting. It is definitely not her favorite part of the school day. She can write all of the letters (lower and uppercase) very well but gets extremely frustrated when, in her eyes, she doesn't write a letter perfectly (poor girl, she inherited that from BOTH parents). So, I've had to come up with little sayings or stories for each letter to help Ava remember certain rules while writing,  but also to make the process more enjoyable. During this time, I usually have Jax work on tracing or dot-to-dot to get him comfortable with moving the pencil around and familiar with lines. But, what I didn't know was that while his eyes were on his work, his ears were on Ava and me. Because all of a sudden, one day he came to me with this:

He did that ALL BY HIMSELF! I know! I was just as shocked as you are! I mean, he's not even three! When I asked him where he learned to write his name he told me Ava taught him. But, Ava said she didn't do it. Hmmmm... a mystery. When I had Jax write his name again, I realized Ava had taught him without meaning to.  How do I know this you ask? Because this is what Jax said when he wrote the lowercase 'a' in his name,  " 'a' is a circle and a line on the side, not too tall, not too wide." It's the same little saying Ava uses (or used to use) while practicing her lowercase 'a.'

In the past, I've always held Jax's hand and helped him write his name at the top of his preschool papers, so, the motions were familiar to him. But, I'm just so impressed that he picked up on our little tricks and taught himself to utilize them (although, he doesn't use the little jingle much anymore). Here's video of him writing his name:

Ava, recognizing her great responsibility to her brother, now attempts daily to teach him to write all the letters. However, right now, he's not really interested in anything other than J-a-x and A-v-a. Who knows though, he may be retaining more information than he lets on. The kid is full of surprises. In the meantime, he's leaving his John Hancock on every paper/paper surface in our house.