Aaron was in the second grade in the American school on our military post in Germany when he came home one day and pulled a paper out of his pocket. I never knew what he would pull out of those pockets of his, so a simple piece of folded paper made me feel very relieved. He handed it to me and as I unfolded it, I saw that he had written his name……..in cursive. I was pleased, yes, but also very surprised because I knew that the teacher wasn’t allowing her students to learn cursive until the second semester. It was still autumn and far from the time for Aaron to “officially” learn cursive.
I asked him about this and asked him why he had his name written in cursive. He replied, “I was bored so I taught myself cursive.” Inside, I was smiling proudly, even as outwardly I asked him why he was bored and how he had managed to teach himself cursive. He told me that he just looked at the sample cursive letters on the wall and started writing, even as the class was going over something for the umpteenth time that he already knew and was not the least bit interested in. Is it any wonder that we started home schooling the next year?
Aaron’s writing now, at the age of 27, is very similar to his first self-taught writing skills. He writes very much like an elementary student……….but he does write and he is fairly adept at spelling, too. I guess his favorite thing to still write, after all these years, is his name. I’ve found his name written in all sorts of places………….walls, furniture, books, his skin. You get the idea.
When he was in the school system here after he turned 16, he had to sign his name on all sorts of official papers and reports, such as IEP meetings. Now he still places his signature on the paperwork we sign yearly for his BASIS assessments and PCSP papers, as well as some store receipts. We never know how Aaron is going to sign something. Here is a normal signature when he was having a mellow day.
On this signature he decided to have some flair and try to be fancy.
Notice the date beside this signature and what he wrote beside it. He was in a holiday mood for sure! So funny!
I wish I had his signature as he has also written it……………where he would sign his name and then add his favorite description of himself. It came out like this – Aaron Moore... is cool! I loved that one and wish I had a copy of it.
What also makes us smile is that when we tell Aaron to sign something personal, like a birthday card, he does indeed sign it…………with his “official” signature. When I told him to sign Gary’s birthday card and to label the envelope, this is what we ended up with:
Nothing personal………….not even the word “love”………….unless we mention it. In Aaron’s black and white world, when you tell him to sign something, he signs it…….with his full signature. And puts Dad’s name on the card…………his legal name…………not “Dad.”
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