Pre- writing/reading

I lost my first worksheet to HOH. I made up a sheet to replace it. My DD is NOT ready to write! She isn't able to use a crayon yet (she does like the taste of them...YUCK!). I made up this page to work on very early reading/writing skills. I made a orange dot for her to put her finger on and then she is to trace across to the animal. When she gets to the animal I will say the name of the animal and make the sound. I thought I could use this to show her reading goes left to right top to bottom, teach names duck, rooster, pig, and cow, and animal sounds. My first try went BAD! First she tried to tear the paper. I gently took it away and put it on the table. She screamed and tried to tear the paper again. I tried to get the paper back and she went running away with it. I got some tape and taped the corners down to the table. She screamed and instantly started working her fingers under the paper trying to tear it again! I was calm and looked happy with all this but the ENTIRE time I was ready to CRY! I used some more tape.... Then some more..... and yet more tape. My DS was laughing at this! DD kept screaming! I kept saying It's OK, this is going to be fun.... OH YES! Mommy missed that spot! and I kept using the tape telling myself that this can still workout. Once the paper was taped all the way around the outside. My DD let out one more scream and then looked at the paper. She noticed it had animals on it. LOL! I put her finger on the top dot and said look lets start at the orange dot and slide over to the animal. Duck goes quack quack. I used hand over hand and went down the rows. She used a flat hand and not her pointer finger after the duck. I thought it was a big FLOP! I was thinking she isn't ready to do this I will try again in a month or two.

THEN!
A few hours later I looked over and saw her USING HER POINTER on her OWN going down the animals! She is enjoying this. I guess it was a fun thing to to after all!

I should let you all know that she wasn't screaming because I was pushing her. She was yelling because she likes to tear paper. I never FORCED her to move her hand. I didn't make her do this activity. She could have walked away at any time. She screams a lot because she doesn't have enough words. She screams even when she is happy. She likes this activity now. She has done it several times on her own and giggles when she does it. Yes! We do make a big deal when she does it to encourage her to do it again.

I am sharing this long story to give others a look into "how" we do things. I have read things over the years that other people do but I can't always figure out "how" they do it. I thought that because this story went so wrong and turned out good maybe someone else would "see" how I work around things when it goes bad. I am not saying it is the right way to do things! It is the way my family is doing things right now.