Somehow, my 3-year-old daughter tries to be a perfectionist. I don’t know where she got the idea that if something is wrong, she has to redo it, but that trait is in her for some reason. She’s seen the Bluey episode that nothing is perfect, but apparently that didn’t stick.

Today I decided to try to start a little structured learning with Isabella. I just wanted to do something constructive that did not involve a screen. I only planned on spending a few minutes, because I know they only have 10 to 15 minutes of attention in them at this age. I have some write and wipe Disney Learning books I got off of Amazon and I wanted to work on writing letters. Both my children have very strong personalities and at this point in their lives have had no structure or rules at all. They know there are certain things they absolutely cannot do, but overall they basically run wild all day.

I gave Keilani a different book because she wants to do the same thing, but not actually listen even a little bit, just scribble. I have to give her some attention while also focusing on Isabella. We started with “A”, the first page. “A is for Anna.” At first she just wanted to trace the little “a”s. I told her she had to trace the big “A”s first, doing them all. She became stubborn and started to throw a fit, so I told her we would put the book away and we wouldn’t do any part of the book at all. She said “ok ok ok ok” like she does, and I had to show her how to hold the pen, which she argued with as well.

Isabella has shown that she is ambidextrous her whole life. Today she decided she was left-handed, which is fine, but definitely not the best choice for dry erase markers. And then I had to keep repeating to her that she needed to only draw one line and not try to fix her mistakes but to keep practicing. It was a battle. She’s never had this sort of structure before. Eventually we were working together.

Next was “B is for book.” This came with the argument that B is not for Olaf and there is in fact a B in Isabella, even though she has mastered I is for Isabella. Yes, Olaf is on the page, but he is reading a book. Olaf starts with O. Pay attention to the numbers. Did you just scribble? What are you doing? Look! That’s much better!

Next up, “C is for carrot.” It’s like a circle! Almost baby girl, except that it’s not quite complete, see? It stops. You did really good on that one!

Ok next is “D is for daughters.” Isabella and Keilani are mommy’s daughters! We are? Yes you are! She started to lose her focus on this one and Keilani started needing more attention here. She was writing her small “d”s however she wanted and then saying wait that’s not where the 1 and 2 are. But doing the exact same thing on the next letter.

Ok do you want to keep going or are we done? Let’s keep going. Ok, “E is for Elsa.” Attention is completely lost at this point. I know we are done after this letter. I explained how to write the big E several times. I traced it with my finger. I repeated the numbers. I explained that the pen had to be picked up after each number. In one ear and out the other. The only decent small e was with me helping. Attention was completely focused on Keilani and her crying because I would not help her with her scribbling.

I think for our very first day we did really well, but we definitely have a long way to go before we have any sort of actual structure to our dedicated learning time. Having to occupy both girls with different projects at the same time at this age is difficult. The good thing is that it is only preschool. As they grow, they will get more patience and discipline for when the tougher subjects and more required learning come along.

But I am very proud of Isabella for the work she did today and I hope we continue in this fashion and I prove to be an adept homeschool teacher for her through the years. I am looking forward to the adventure. I am always open to positive advice from anyone who has homeschooled themselves or preschool teachers who do this everyday in the comments!