Ben's Achilles heel

Ben's assignment was to act as the book's illustrator and draw anything about the story he liked. Above is what he drew. Um, yeah, he's in fourth grade. I say this not to make fun of my boy (though it is kind of funny to me) but rather to underscore the fact that you can't be good at everything. (Well, I suppose you can, but who likes those people. Ugh!)

My firstborn is a great student all around - math, science, social studies, English, but he doesn't give a flying fig about art. I wouldn't dare tease about an art project he'd lovingly created, but it's pretty clear to me that he simply doesn't care. I've watched this with my own eyes. Ben will be assigned to draw something. He'll take out his crayons or markers and scribble something out with the absolute minimum of time and effort.

This trend first showed itself in first grade, when art became part of Ben's curriculum. His first report card of the year came home filled with mostly 3's and 4's. The glaring exception was art, where he received mostly 2's and a few stray 1's. I was upset at first. Certainly his art teacher must have been harsh in her assessments. I even contacted her to get the scoop about what was going on, but the long and the short of it is that he simply doesn't put in the effort. His strengths simply  lie elsewhere.

Plenty of people aren't good at art. It's not really a big deal, but it does have a tendency to spill over into other areas of his work. Ben has an issue with neatness in general. When I talked to Ben's teacher on Friday, I wasn't exactly surprised to hear him bring up this concern to me again, especially after reading the comment on Ben's report card that neatness needs to be a goal for him going into fifth grade. "Best handwriting, Ben," we're always harping. I know this is a problem many boys have. Incidentally, I saw the penmanship of a girl in Ben's class, and it seriously was better than mine (which isn't saying much - hey, wait a minute - maybe Ben gets it from me!).

I suppose of all the deficits a kid could have, this one isn't so bad. Just think, maybe with handwriting like his, Ben is destined to be a doctor. Seriously, though, anyone got any great ideas for encouraging kids to take their time with handwriting and neatness?