DS1 has just turned 5 (Aug) so is now in year one. He is only just beginning to learn to hold his pen properly and is beginnig to form letters although he does them in his own individual way IYSWIM? More like drawing what he sees rather than following the more recomended ‘start at the top, down and around’ type approach. Like wise he can recognise most letters now so long as they are in a very plain font - odd computer fonts with extra ‘little flicks’ in them confuse him.

On Friday the school sent his homework home. I have no problem per se with homework, 10 minutes at home can more than equal a whole days learning in the class IMHO. He got sent home some very basic maths (5 questions, 1+1= type stuff) some basic writting (look, sound, cover and write for easy high frequency words) neither of which I have a huge problem with. But he also got sent home a ‘cursive writting book’ which is basically doing lines of letters in cursive style - that is the beginnig of joined up writting!!!! They are expecting him to do a line A NIGHT of these curly ‘C’ letters this week with the little tail that starts on the line and sort of flicks into the letter, Apparently they don’t need to join up the letters ‘just yet’. The book says age 7+ on the cover….....

Am I over reacting in being hopping mad at this?

My gut reaction - to my mind he has just turned 5 and is only beginnig to show ANY interest in formal learning. His best friend is 6 weeks younger and has just started playing with the sand in receptiopn! Surely it is better so consolidate his basic letter forming and letter recognitoion before attempting to move onto the beginings of joined up writting?

Or maybe I’m wrong? Maybe it is better to ‘learn it properly’ from the begining?

I have an appointlent with the class teacher Friday morning and really need to consolidate my ideas and opinions on this before then.

If your LO has recently done reception/year 1 /year 2 did they start learning cursive (ie joined up) writting this young or was it later? I just feel I need a few other opinions before I go into school guns blazing and make a fool of myself!!

There is actually something I read some time back about the benefits of skipping forming letters in the printing style and going straight onto cursive writing - on the lines of why teach them one way just to change it in a couple of years to expecting them to do cursive letters.

DD has just started year 1 and was writing cursive letters in year R but by her choice - a bit of a different experience here as she was writing before starting year R anyway - she was spending part of her day with a year 2 class for reading/writing/phonics and they were doing cursive writing so she wanted to at home too. I did go in to talk to her teacher about it as she was practising cursive writing at home and I wasn’t sure whether I should just let her get on with it or not and her teachers opinion was to let her get on with it as it is the writing style she will use for the rest of her life, nobody writes in just plain script usually.

Whilst our experience is different, I do feel that my daughters writing since her taking on the cursive style is much better and she feels more natural writing like that so I would personally be happy to go with the flow with it. However if she wasn’t already writing well I would probably chat to the teacher to see what was the best method, there are many in dd’s class who really can’t form their letters very well and frankly aren’t interested in writing yet. We haven’t been having any homework yet so not sure how it is working for the whole class but they don’t push those not writing and forming letters to do it. I would have thought they would assess each child to see what their needs are - that’s what seems to happen at our school.

ETA: I think it was some montessori website I read the article about which style of writing to “teach” if you’re interested in reading about it.

Dawn x

My son is now in year 4 BUT I have friends whose children are in the younger years plus I work with children and am friends with teachers at his school so know the policies haven’t changed. It is far too young for your child to be doing this sort of ‘learning’ in my opinion, formal teaching should not be started until midway through year 2, year 1 is a transition year from foundation stage to key stage 1, and especially right at the beginning should not be *that* much different from reception class! At my sons schools year 1 still has sand, water tray etc, and they learn to form letters in sand, learn maths by finding and counting bits of hidden treasure in the sunken ship in the water tray etc. Sounds to me like they are pushing for year 2 sats already, absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with Eden in that each child needs to do what’s best for them, obviously her daughter was interested and wanted to write so it was the right thing xx. But pushing learning with every child in the class isn’t I don’t think, especially with August babies (my son is 4th August). He was left to work at his own pace all through reception, yr 1 and yr 2, and was a very late reader/writer, but now is one of top in class. I wouldn’t be bothered if he wasn’t top in class, obviously, just mean that by letting him go his own pace they have really brought the best out in him xx.

The school my mum works at teaches cursive from the beginning with all children - but they use a program aimed specifically at littles, I would be concerned at a five year old coming home with a book saying “7+” knowing that they were just about handling the five year old stuff.

Morgan is not writing yet.  (She would be year one now.)  She copies the letter “m” and today for the first time wrote her name “mo”, but she doesn’t recognise the sounds ANY letter makes (she just says “that’s MY letter!”) and she can’t do the most basic line tracing worksheet, though she keeps trying to get her hands on them (to be like Jenna).  Tracing over a wavy line a few days ago her happy little orange line wandered all over the page.    If she asks for written work we do form drawing together, which is freehand on blank pages.  Straight lines, wavy lines, bumpy jumpy lines, zigzags…  Really, we are focusing on motor skills through play and sensory activities, and have no intention of doing even the most basic academics with her; as she’s clearly not ready and just wouldn’t get anywhere! 

Jenna was and did and took off rapidly at age four bar a few hiccups - she just started teaching herself cursive this week, joining up her letters without being told to or shown how (she wants “pretty handwriting like yours Mumma!” - mine is pretty scruffy lol but it is joined up): I think if we’d done cursive from the start instead of printing things for her to copy when she asked, she’d have easily and happily just done cursive from the start.

Honestly I agree that it is about what he is ready for as an individual.  Year one classes are so so mixed, I know my mum has pupils in year two that are barely beginners in writing and still trace over yellow marker.  There should be an expectation that they will progress at their own pace, and if a line of handwriting a day is too much pressure then it won’t hurt him to hold off on that.  Perhaps you could ask for line/shape tracing sheets instead, if handwriting is something they want to push him to practice, but the letter forms require too much dexterity from him?  I think fine motor is something that can’t be rushed along, and it *is* generally a year behind in boys anyway asides from taking individual ability into account.

Yes they do cursive writing at our school so until now DD2 has only seen printed letters, now she has started reception (an August baby too, so only just 4) and she has to pick her name up from the table written in the cursive style, so they immediately expose them to cursive here too.  She doesn’t know all her ‘separate’ letters yet, so I am worried about how it will all go.  But DD1 who has just gone into Year 2 has beautiful cursive handwriting, can read any book she turns her mind to, that has just happened over the summer.  Well she is a November baby so if I use her as my benchmark, then I would be expecting DD2 to be confident in reading and writing at the end of Year 2 rather than Year 1, right?  But they are all different, so you just never know.  I heard that the thing about cursive writing is that because it creates words which are joined together, it imprints the word in children’s brains as a whole and that it is a better way of forming knowledge of words.

I think just keep an eye that when they do start doing cursive they form each letter correctly…its a nightmare to join up if you have learnt to form them not starting and ending with the right tails! I cant remember when dd started doing cursive, she was also doing work with older years when she started school, but she went from writing single letters with the bits either end to joining up very easily. I did spent some time with her making sure she was forming them correctly as I was worried being left handed she may not, didnt seem to cause a problem although i think she did have left handed worksheets on letters for a while.

Would agree with this view, my Babes is likewise August born - and also the new book confirms just everything I think and have experienced about this:
http://www.hawthornpress.com/book.php?isbn=9781907359026
Most specifically: “Challenging new research indicates no difference by Year 3 between those children taught to read early and those taught later…”

redsky - 13 September 2011 09:19 AM

I agree with Eden in that each child needs to do what’s best for them, obviously her daughter was interested and wanted to write so it was the right thing xx. But pushing learning with every child in the class isn’t I don’t think, especially with August babies (my son is 4th August). He was left to work at his own pace all through reception, yr 1 and yr 2, and was a very late reader/writer, but now is one of top in class. I wouldn’t be bothered if he wasn’t top in class, obviously, just mean that by letting him go his own pace they have really brought the best out in him xx.

My friends whose LOs have just gone up from Reception to Y1, and my other friend who is a Y1 teacher all say that it is a big jump between Reception and Y1.  They haven’t said more than that to me (I think thats because friend who is a teacher is very skeptical of me HEing DS and perhaps is trying to scare me into what he is missing out on!).  I would say go in with an open mind and let the teacher explain her/his point of view first, then let rip!!

I get why theyre doing this because like flower says it is much harder to join later if you dont start with cursive. They prob dont want all the class in bad habits and then have to teach cursive. HOWEVER, clearly this needs to be on an individual basis & from what youve said it really feels like theyre ex[pecting stuff from him that hes just not ready for. It sounds like he needs loads more hands on pre-writing activities, y’know montessori style activities, tracing letter shapes in lots of different ways, with a variety of materials. It feels like theyve kind of jumped a stage with him.

Hi

Both mine started this at Nursery!!!!  And now ds is just gone into yr 1 (dd in yr5) he is advanced in his writing.  But he does have a natural flair with writing whereas it took dd till about end of yr 1.  Its supposed to be easier to pick up mild dyslexic tendancies too.  As most older childrens handwriting is cursaive the learning diffculty isnt “picked up” as quickly due to the robotic style that is/was taught (not MY opinion before i get shot down!!!!) , the idea is if they start to teach it from such an early age, dyslexia may be caught earlier.

Ive got to say its benefitted me and mine but every child is different.  Id speak to the teacher if you have concerns.

H xx

ETA - Ds turned 5 in June.

Our school indicated this was the way that is chosen by the LEA, it is was not a school choice. A local school had to ‘fight’ to do it the old fashioned way (without joining bits). Another LEA I know teach to put the joining lines at the beginning AND end of each letter but still keep the letters separate to start with. Ours just put a little hook at the end of letters like ‘a’ and introduce linking them together for those who are ready in Y1 or Y2. If you speak to the teacher about it do bear in mind it may be something she has little say in (ie: comes down from LEA level).

Thanks all! I googled Cursive writting and montesorri and was really re assured by what I found. Essentially I can see why the teach currsive now, and I do remember reading in a letter home that they were rolling it out across the whole school. Still not sure about the long lines of letters though….surely there MUST be a more (five year old boy) friendly way of teaching this? I’ll ask the teacher when I see her…...

purplecavingcat - 13 September 2011 06:02 PM

Thanks all! I googled Cursive writting and montesorri and was really re assured by what I found. Essentially I can see why the teach currsive now, and I do remember reading in a letter home that they were rolling it out across the whole school. Still not sure about the long lines of letters though….surely there MUST be a more (five year old boy) friendly way of teaching this? I’ll ask the teacher when I see her…...

Glad you are feeling more reassured.  Not got long as I am off to bed - knackered.  But, some suggestions for a more child friendly way - trace patterns in sand, shaving foam etc, there are some excellent apps for letter formation on Ipads if you have one, do lots of air writing, loosen shoulders and wrists by doing two handed ‘writing’ patterns on a board or big piece of paper.

Will get back to you when I think of some more. hth
Lou

Mine are HE’d so no school experience, but i do know that the Steiner schools start off with cursive, but not before 7.  Personally none of mine would have been ready to start cursive at the age of 5.

My dd who is 6 and a half attends OT, and recently we have seen a new one who is Austrian, who works in a special needs school during term time and in clinics in the holidays.  I was asking her about the austrian education model in comparison to here, and she the mistake that is big and crucial here is that a pencil is introduced far too early.  In Austria they don’t start school until 6 and they use chalk on mini boards or very chubby crayons for the first year to improve fine motor skills and the pencil will be introduced after this.  She says that many children here have problems with posture, grip and general writing problems that could easily have been avoided.  Sorry, i’m going off topic but I just thought I would share

As most older childrens handwriting is cursaive the learning diffculty isnt “picked up” as quickly due to the robotic style that is/was taught (not MY opinion before i get shot down!!!!) , the idea is if they start to teach it from such an early age, dyslexia may be caught earlier.

Definitely not shooting you down but really dont get this! Are they saying those with difficulties will be caught earlier because cursive is tricky for those with fine motor issues?

Since youve mentioned dyslexia, cursive is actually meant to be great for dyslexic children because they often have poor working memory function and cursive always starts at the bottom whereas other styles have varying start points and this can be hard to remember!