The Lowercase "m"

Gosh, I’d never really given the lowercase “m” much thought – or any thought at all for that matter.   I don’t remember learning it, practicing it, or hearing about it on Sesame Street.  It was just always there, doing its thing — mmmmmm.

Well, in Sam’s kindergarten class, every week they study a different letter in both upper case and lower case.  So it all started out well enough with his first bit of “homework.” The first night he was supposed to write out two rows of capital “M.”  When he got off the bus, he literally came running in the door and knocked out his capital M’s, ready to clear the way for non-stop LEGO-building until bedtime.  The M’s weren’t perfect, mind you, but it was pretty much a non-event.

However, it all changed on Tuesday with the lower case “m.”  Again he came racing in the door, dying to do his homework so he could be done with it.  Only this time I could tell he was already tired, hungry, and frustrated.  Not good.  “I can’t do it!  I can’t do it!” he lamented.  Well, shoot, I went to law school – I have no idea how to teach someone to write “m.”

So I tried a couple of different ideas, none of which worked, and he kept getting more and more upset. “You’re going to have to do them for me!  I CAN’T do it!”  Oh my!  Where is the Little Engine That Could when you need it?  I do have messy handwriting myself, but what would be more obvious than a string of “m”s written by Mommy Mac?  “We’ll see how it goes.” I hedged.  Thankfully he didn’t have to bring his tablet back to school until Friday, so we had some time to master this confounded letter.

The problem was two-fold — (1)  he couldn’t do the curve and (2)  he didn’t get it that when you draw the first line down, you don’t pick up your pencil.  Instead you go straight back up and curve.  I kept trying to gently remind him to do that.  He kept saying that he already was doing it. I think he really thought he was, but between you, me, and the World Wide Web, he just wasn’t.  Aaargh!

It was time for a break, but he just wanted to get it done, to check the block.  I couldn’t blame him; I can be the same way, which is probably where he got the idea in the first place.  He insisted he wasn’t hungry for anything, but it was obvious he was, very obvious.  I finally resorted to offering him Cheetos, the first time I’ve ever offered them to him.  He loves them as do I, but I try to ration them out as a super-special treat only when he asks specifically asks for them.  We can all agree that the distinctive orange color does not look like it comes from nature but from the ravages of nuclear war.

So after that quick radioactive snack and a thorough handwashing, he was right back at it.  No surprise, it still wasn’t working, and he was about to burst into tears.  “Let’s take a break,” I suggested again.  He shook his head.  It was a bit strange to be actively discouraging him from doing his homework!  What was going on here?  I told him, “Sam, sometimes the best thing you can do is take a break.”  Man, wish I had learned that lesson at his age!  Then I even suggested he get on the computer and check out some LEGO videos, another big first on the offering board.  He took me up on it, thank God.

A while later, we started it up again.  Again he lamented, “They still look like small capital ‘M’s!”  And they did.  Oy vey.  That curve thing was still not happening.  “Let’s take another break and try it again before bed,” I suggested. That too was another no-go.  I felt bad for him because  he was trying so hard, but it just wasn’t clicking.  Maybe I was going to have to write those two rows of m’s for him come Friday after all.

In the morning after a good night’s sleep, he sat down all on his own.  Nonchalantly he cranked out a truly beautiful row of lowercase m’s, curves and all.  Wow, what a shocker!  I was  so impressed!  Big phew!

Spurred on by this come-from-behind victory, we moved onto the next night’s homework which was to draw a picture of something that begins with an “m.”  So I nonchalantly suggested, “Just draw a mouse or something like that” and sauntered off to get ready for the day.  When I checked his tablet an hour or so later, I was flabbergasted.  There on the paper was a picture of a woman with straight brown hair and pink lipstick who had a big smile on her face.  Below it he had written, “mom.”

LibbY

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