youngest in class worries

zoesmummy_2006

365 days, thankyou!! yes he has all the chalks and spent hours with his sister scribbling on the walls and yard outside in the summer. Im looking for bath crayons for him at the min as a little stocking filler. Hes not mastered holding a pencil correctly yet, but when he did do his numbers with me he wrote 1-5 really well. Should he be able to write his name at this age???

Paddles

I have a youngest in reception too - 27th of August (although to my surprise there are actually two younger than her in the class - they are heaps bigger though!). When she was supposed to be in the play she laid down on the stage and then hid for the rest of it. She is tiny compared to her friends (great for her, lots of hand me downs) and definitely not as far on as some of them with her reading/writing etc, but she's just not interested yet and coming from a family filled with primary school teachers I know better than to worry Honestly it is hard on the younger ones sometimes, but as someone else said, it can be hard for the older ones too.

Oh and I should say my 8 year old is one of the youngest in his class and is doing extremely well, his teacher said he would be top of the class but he's a bit lazy academically ... can't think where he gets that from

zoesmummy_2006

paddles thats my sons birthday too

365days

zoesmummy_2006 wrote: »

365 days, thankyou!! yes he has all the chalks and spent hours with his sister scribbling on the walls and yard outside in the summer. Im looking for bath crayons for him at the min as a little stocking filler. Hes not mastered holding a pencil correctly yet, but when he did do his numbers with me he wrote 1-5 really well. Should he be able to write his name at this age???

Lol What's his name? If it's Max it's a different ball game to Christopher!

Ideally all children enter reception writing their name. But that's an ideal. Can he recognise it? A good way is to find a story book with a character with his name and he can 'spot' his name. Buy him some sticky labels or post its and he can label all his stuff. If it's not 'right' don't stress. He will get there. You have to crafty with reluctant boy writers!!

My son is a summer born too. I was teaching for years before i had him and obviously knew about summer borns. However what really bought it light for me was being visited by friends when he was a newborn. I held this tiny dot, just born while their child was cruising the furniture and eating food! I realised they would be in the same school year.

365days

Here's a link to get you started!
http://community.tes.co.uk/forums/p/348276/4946260.aspx

zoesmummy_2006

he's ryan, so I had hoped with it being short he'd be able to write it but nope. He can recognise it and knows his full name, and my full name and our address.

Got him some cheap bath crayons off ebay just and am hoping they might encourage him to scribble and write on the tiles. His sister is the total opposite, I cant get pen and paper out of her hands, shes always writing me stories

My friends both have girls who have just turned 5 and theyre in the same year as my son, so I know that weird thought about being in the same year lol. xx

daska

They're ALL tired by this point in the term LOL - even the 6th formers (or should I say years 12 and 13?) DS2 is not quite a summer baby (June) but he has learning difficulties which probably make him more immature than your lad.

Sometimes it's not just a matter of encouragement, it's reducing obstacles as well. If he's still struggling with his pencil grip have you tried any grips to help him? There are quite a variety to choose from. DS2's OT likes the stabilo right and left handed pens.

DS2 has co-ordination problems and came on leaps and bounds when he no longer had to try to hold a pencil and co-ordinate his movements at the same time. His breakthrough was an iPad - all of a sudden he could do things at a touch and his success on that sparked his interest enough for him to make more of an effort with a real pencil. If you have access to an ipad/iphone/ipod touch you could try some of the apps on there. We've tried a lot of apps out (partly to help the OT and SALT) and the ones that have survived are ABC phonics, Hairy Letters and Little Reader for reading/letters. For art ones he tends to use Chalkboard, Faces I make and Drawing Pad.

sammy_wheeler

massive amount of research out there to say that 'September's child will be a success while August's child will have all the stress."
exactly my reason for not ttc this month- and ttc next month instead.
this article is really good- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15490760 it mentions about teachers being helpful and sympathatic to the children who are nearly a year behind the other children in the class, and recgnosing that its not their fault, so patience on their part

angelil

I agree with 365days.

I haven't been teaching for as long as her - just 4.5 years! - but have reached the same conclusions. Children learn best from real life, and less well from workbooks and textbooks that are often written by adults who think they know about children.

I've also been living and teaching in France, where children do not attend formal school until they are six. This later entry into formal schooling doesn't seem to do them any harm - and there would be nothing to stop you withdrawing your son from formal school until you feel that he is ready to go there. Four does seem young to me.

Loanranger

What time does he go to bed?