What age did you teach your child to write?

mishkanorman

my eldest is nearly 7 and has terrible writing, he has never taken any interest in drawing/colouring/writing and is now suffering for it (we didnt push him as we always believe its best to let them get there in their own time)

if he is showing willing maybe invest in one of those wipeable books so he can trace over the letters ?

onlyroz

Both my kids went to a Montessori nursery (my daughter is still there). They learn things like "cutting" (using scissors to cut along a pre-drawn line), "threading" (threading beads onto a string) and "stacking" (piling wooden blocks according to their size). All these things help improve fine motor-skills and hand-eye coordination - a 3-year-old should be concentrating on things like this rather than actually learning to write. My son's reception teacher recommended toys like lego for improving hand-eye coordination.

paulwf

If schools have a standard way they like children to write why don't they make this information freely available? There are enough tools that can be accessed through the web to make at least the basics available.

According to the info in the posts here the alternative seems to be children being taught the wrong way or the parents being told not to teach their children to write which seems daft when schools are usually limited in the amount of attention they can give each pupil.

It seems like a simple problem with a simple solution. Please tell me what I'm missing?

Jo_R_2

adouglasmhor wrote: »

As a reception teacher surely you should have put re-teach and not re-learn.

No wonder so many people make this error if teachers continue it.

The sentence actually grammatically made sense to me when I read it as I took it from the perspective of what the child is doing - ie re-learning to write their name rather than how you understood it which was the teacher having to re-teach them.

Anyway!

I haven't taught either of my oldest to write. DD1 who is 6 now could clearly write her name and the alphabet when she was just turned 4, which was something they worked at when at nursery, both day nursery and preschool nursery. I know she was presenting me with her name written down recognisably when she was 3.

DD2 who has just turned 4 can write a jumbled version of her name. She will always write the first letter, plus a couple of 'i's which are in her name, but the other letters come as and when so her name looks a little different every time she writes it:)

Big sis was most pleased the other day when DD2 started to try and write her name - it was very sweet but I did wonder what would happen if DD2 perfected her sister's name before her own!

hollyh

My eldest could write his name, knew the alphabet and could recognise a few words before he went to school. He learnt to read very quickly once he'd started school.

My youngest however is about to start school in September and can't write his name unless I write it and he writes over it. We've got flash cards and he can tell me every letter apart from the 1st letter of his name. :cool: I don't think he'll be quite as advanced as his Brother but he'll get there in the end.

BexInLondon

PinkLipgloss wrote: »

As a previous pre-school teacher, and current infant teacher I completely disagree with the above statement for a number of reasons;

1. There is no such thing as any class of children being at the "same level" at least not in my experience. Effective teachers CONSTANTLY differentiate lessons to suit varying levels of ability in their class. This is an important aspect of our role - tailoring lessons to suitably challenge each individual child. Some children will be proficient in holding a pencil correctly whilst others with grip it like a crayon. Some will apply too little or too much pressure. Some will draw various types of lines with ease, some with a little help, others will struggle - etc.....

2. As I previously mentioned schools tend to have a "standard' way of teaching how to write particular letters. This is devised to easily link in with "joined up writing" which they will learn later. It is EXTREMELY difficult to teach a child to write a letter a different way from what they have been taught at home. Thus, children who learn how to write the letter "correctly" first time round will be at an advantage.

3. It's important that children meet other developmental 'landmarks' before learning to write. It is detrimental to a childs development to have them writing before they have met these FMS landmarks.

Thanks for your contributions PinkLipgloss. You sound very wise!

For my twopenceworth, I could read and write at around 3 and while reading early did me no harm other than sometimes being a bit bored in reception, I have appalling handwriting which even I struggle to read sometimes. I remember there being contradictions between what I had learned at home and what I was taught at school and this wasn't very helpful to me as a kid.

From my own experience therefore I'd suggest by all means teaching a kid to read before school but leave writing to the pros. I wish I had better writing now but am very glad I learned to read so young as it has been invaluable!

PinkLipgloss - what about teaching kids to write numbers before school? I'd assume there'd be less of a problem with that?

JBD

twinkliestar wrote: »

Whatever you do please don't teach him to write in capital letters...it drives me mad when children arrive at school being able to write KATIE or whatever - it takes the whole reception year to re-learn how to write their name! I'm not sure why parents do this, I don't know any adults who write in capitals!

I'm a reception teacher and I completely agree with everything Pinklipgloss has said - excellent posts thank you.

My friend did this, she also taught her daughter to read the alphabet as ABC. TBH I think she didn't realise that educating is a specific skill, and that it requires 3-4 years of training. My Mum was a reception teacher and she used to say that many parents thought of them as simply free child minders [no disrespect to childminders.] They never thought of the amount of skill and knowledge that goes into educating young children.

Memory_Girl

onlyroz wrote: »

Both my kids went to a Montessori nursery (my daughter is still there). They learn things like "cutting" (using scissors to cut along a pre-drawn line), "threading" (threading beads onto a string) and "stacking" (piling wooden blocks according to their size). All these things help improve fine motor-skills and hand-eye coordination - a 3-year-old should be concentrating on things like this rather than actually learning to write. My son's reception teacher recommended toys like lego for improving hand-eye coordination.

my son started at montessori for kindy class - and now at the age of ten has gone through the montessori elementary programme and will go onto the 12-18 curriculmn when ready.

From memory he learned to "write" - in full cursive with a neat hand when he was about 6 1/2.. It took him about 6 days from start to finish - but bear in mind that montessori schools start preparing children to write from 2 1/2 and introduce it when the child shows an interest (sensitive period) - using the techniques above.

Mind you - we always start talking to the kids about learning to read when they lose their front teeth - it takes them about a fortnight to become independant readers. I don't know whether Montessori ever used the "teeth" story with her children but it works with ours - we even overhear the older kids telling the younger "don't worry you learn to read when your front teeth come out" - and they all do:rotfl: Sure they think its magic.

BTW - we have no non-readers and all our kids write in proper cursive from the beginning - but then we leave it significantly later iYSWIM?

Memorygirl

morg_monster

What about the late developers ;-) - I didn't lose my front teeth until I was 8!! I remember wobbling them while reading the Hobbit (but then I was a precocious showoff brat!)

PinkLipgloss

BexInLondon,

Yes - I personally find numbers are less of an issue, however it is important that they are written correctly (correct pencil grip, pressure and starting at the correct point).

Before teaching your child to write numbers I'd focus on fine motor skills like making playdough numbers, tracing numbers with index finger (you can get sandpaper number flashcards in places like ELC/Poundshops which are great), making numbers in sand or on a tray covered with shaving foam etc.

I'd also focus on ensuring that they can recognise numbers in day to day life - "What number is that bus?" and "How many windows are there in this room?" thus ensuring they understand that numbers can be a label "Number 6 bus" as well as a value "Two windows". Don't forgot about zero - its really important to a childs mathematical development that they understand the concept of zero which is often overlooked.

Whilst playing with toys use the opportunity to work on their one to one correspondence. Many children will tell you that 4 lego blocks is 8 because they will count in a haphazard manner - thus counting blocks more than once. Teach your child to move objects into an order once they have counted them to avoid counting them again. This is a difficult skill which will take time - do not stress over it. Make sure everything is kept fun and upbeat!

If you feel your child is ready to write numbers there is a good resource here to look at:

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/2008-09/cynnal/maths/eng/understanding_number_eng.html

Click on "writing numbers".