Encouraging Learning

[married35]

How do you encourage a bright, but stubborn child to learn? How do you get that spark of interest going?

DS#1 is in preschool now, and while he is doing well generally, there are a couple areas I would really like to be able to help him with. For instance, his fine motor skills are not quite what they should be for his age. According to his teacher he is not so far behind as to be worrisome, just enough that his father and I should try to work with him a little. Specifically, he has trouble with stick figures and drawing in general, also cutting with scissors. They're about to start learning to write their own names and I know this will give him problems.

I do not want to force it on him for fear that he will always hate drawing/writing. It is so very early in his educational life that I don't want something I do now to prevent him from giving things a chance and trying them, kwim? I've tried asking him to draw pictures for favorite people, but he doesn't want to. I've watched his frustration and that is what I don't know how to handle. He tries to draw something and when he is unhappy with the result he just gives up and walks away. I tried talking to him about how some things take practice (I used the example of remember when you were learning how to eat with a spoon and fork), but he still feels frustrated by the results. I've tried just being neutral about the results, saying things like "maybe the next one will be more like you wanted" or pointing out a part that came out well.

Any thoughts?

[married35]

Anyone?