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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

1 2

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

How much reading / writing / drawing does your Y1/2 child do at home willingly and independently?

31 replies

imaginaryfriend · 29/12/2008 23:53

Just curious as to how keen kids are to read / write when it's not a task for school or pushed by parents.

I've seen such a variety between dd (6 - Y1) and her friends.

She's mostly pleased to read but usually she has to be gently persuaded and would want me to be listening. She loves drawing and does it all the time. Writing is variable.

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ChasingSquirrels · 29/12/2008 23:54

ds (6 - yr 1) reads alot, mostly in bed when he should be going to sleep, but also during the day.
He writes v v little, and barely draws at all.

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imaginaryfriend · 29/12/2008 23:57

How is his writing at school CS? Is he 'free reading'?

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paddingtonbear1 · 29/12/2008 23:59

my dd is 5 and in yr 1.
drawing - yes loads, loves it.
reading and writing, only when pushed to by us/school.

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Niecie · 30/12/2008 00:01

DS1 never wrote in Yr1/2, never draws but read all the time. He wasn't ever keen on reading to me but would read for hours by himself.

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ChasingSquirrels · 30/12/2008 00:02

his writing is behind the rest of his abilities - something which I am unhappy with the school about as he totally coasted in rec (I know he was only 5), but really the only thing he had to learn was to write properly. But it is coming along alot now.
He does write more now than 6 months ago - eg I got him some of those secret message pens for xmas and this evening we were writing messages for each other. And he was designing a go-go in his rule book. But in general drawing/writing would not be his choice of activity.
A friend's ds, who is 6 weeks older but yr 2 (ob v young in year) writes loads, has stories on the go and does pages of A4.

Yes free reader - happily reads horrid henry, captain underpants, mrs pepperpot, NG kids mag, Beano, MN over my shoulder etc.

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imaginaryfriend · 30/12/2008 00:15

Interesting to see how reading is preferred generally to writing / drawing.

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imaginaryfriend · 30/12/2008 00:17

CS is your ds in the 'top group' in his class? I wondered how they work it when someone is a very strong reader but not so interested in writing / spelling.

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Shitemum · 30/12/2008 00:21

At this age they've been drawing for a while so maybe it's not so interesting to them any more.
Writing is still difficult and time consuming whereas reading, if they can read well enough to read stories to themselves, allows them into a fantasy world which is one of the things they enjoy most at this age...

...just my random off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts...

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ramonaquimby · 30/12/2008 00:24

I have a daughter in year 2, she's 7.
fluent reader, would read every minute if she could! Loves drawing, colouring, making things too - v creative

not so keen on the writing side of things tho, this has been obvious since reception. She's bright and not 'behind' in her writing at all. It's been nagging me for a while too - although I think because she is in top groups for Literacy, it won't be a prime concern for her teacher to 'move' her on to match reading abilities, iyswim.

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ChasingSquirrels · 30/12/2008 00:32

well, this year he is in a mixed yr1/yr2 class, so he does quite alot of work with yr2 children from what he says. At parents evening the teacher made a comment along the lines of not being sure exactly how she was going to deal with it next year, but I am confident that it won't be a problem. In reception he was chosing reading books from yr1/yr2 and also joining them for their phonics work from half way through the year when there was a couple of others who also went up, although not number as there was no one to go up with him and the reception teacher (rightly) thought that he wouldn't be happy going alone.
At parent's evening she also noted about his writing, which I already knew, but didn't seem at all worried about it - and said that she was really looking forward to when it all came together as then all his ideas would just be able to spill out.
But his writing has improved immensely this last term.
On the other hand I have my mum, who was a reception teacher for years, telling me that her best children each year would write a couple of pages of school excercise books daily. And she says that academically ds is on a par with them.
But no doubt it will come, tbh he would be happier typing it I suspect.
To me - they don't seem to write enough, you need to practice to get better, and if you don't do it that much then evidently it won't improve as quickly.

His spelling is reasonably ok I think, eg secret messages were:

yool go silly if i run around the room, love from ds. As said "YOOL"?? and explained about you'll as being you ' will.
mummy, you are beaying (being) silly

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imaginaryfriend · 30/12/2008 00:32

Thanks for replies so far. I'm away now for a couple of days but will be interested to look at other responses when I return.

Re. drawing, I find with dd that she never tires of it. Especially when she has a theme that particularly interests her. I get her to write a diary from time to time and she quite likes doing that sort of writing but nothing too sustained. She does have friends that really love writing though.

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ChasingSquirrels · 30/12/2008 00:34

same with ds's friend that I mentioned - different strokes for different folks I think.

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ramonaquimby · 30/12/2008 00:34

I don't think kids write as much as they used to though (CS) there isnt' enough room in the curriculum anymore

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Clary · 30/12/2008 00:35

DS2 is in yr 1 - he's 5.

He draws pictures ALL the time - mostly of footballers. Will also write captions etc to them.

Otherwise he wouldn't write much if I didn't get him to.

Reading; yes he reads a lot atm, often wanting to take a book to bed (sometimes very simple ones but that's fine by me).

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ChasingSquirrels · 30/12/2008 00:35

no, that's what I think - but at that age it is a shame as reading and writing and basic number work are the fundamentals. And writing can be built into most things anyway.

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imaginaryfriend · 30/12/2008 00:36

CS dd doesn't have that kind of discrepancy between her reading / writing although her reading is definitely stronger than her writing. She does struggle with numbers though and I often wonder how that will pan out later as she has a huge difference between her literacy and her numeracy ability.

Off to pack now. see you when I'm back.

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Clary · 30/12/2008 17:51

IF I was thinking about this and I am sure it varies from child to child.

DD for eg who is 7 and in yr 3, writes all the time - letters to friends, little stories, reports etc. She also reads all the time and enjoys drawing too.

OTOH it's very hard to get her to do any kind of team game (eg football!) which is equally important imo. In other words, yes, she loves her literacy but it doesn'y make her better or cleverer than anyone else - that's just what she enjoys.

What I am trying to say is don't worry about it too much.

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coppertop · 30/12/2008 18:03

Ds2 is in Yr1. He loves drawing so does a lot of that. He will often write captions for his pictures. He's just started to become interested in books so will now look through them of his own free will, although he can't always read the words.

OTOH ds1 only became interested in reading by himself and writing his own stories towards the end of Yr2. He started to become interested in drawing at around that time too.

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Hulababy · 30/12/2008 21:59

6y DD (Y2) reads books every day - often in bed in a morning and at night, but at other quiet times in the day too. This can be anything from a simple younger childs book to longer chapter books (those aimed at this age range such as Daisy and the Troble with, or the shorter Alan Ahlberg books about the Gaskitts). I don't worry about what she chooses - up to her. She also reads other stuff all the time - DS games, comics, etc.

She writes a lot too - letters to family and friends, when playing schools/cafes with friends/dolls, making treasure hunts up, etc.

She isn't as keen on drawing and not into colouring much. She draws to illustrate a piece of writing rather than for drawing sake.

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TWINSETinapeartree · 01/01/2009 04:52

dd who is 7 and in Y2 writes constantly. Like hula's dd she writes in bed in the morning and night, she has just started keeping a little diary which was an idea someone suggested on here as she has had some emotional issues following her hard year and it seems to help her to write it out. She also likes to type which I have encouraged

She reads, she loves both fact and fiction and is just able to read the short chapter books on her own which she loves. She has discovered poetry which is her things, she also tries to write poems. She also likes to read magazines.

She loves to draw but is not a huge colouring in person. We make clothes together and she loves to draw out her designs.

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Dottoressa · 02/01/2009 21:45

Hello IF!

DS (6.5, Y2) reads and draws obsessively. They are his only real interests. He is obsessed with textile mills and cathedrals, and draws endless pictures of them, many of which are copied from the tomes he has got from the local history section of the library. He never, ever stops. He is much less keen on writing; he will do it if the pictures demand explanation, but doesn't happily sit and write stories or anything.

The only problem is that it's hard to drag him away from reading/drawing to do anything involving human company!!

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imaginaryfriend · 02/01/2009 22:57

Hello dot , dd is hard to drag away from a drawing. She draws rabbits obsessively! In all forms - natural, as princesses or pixies, we've also had super rabbits and rock star rabbits. They are often situated around castles / parks or in boats on extensive lake scenes. And they frequently wear very beautifully designed dresses with much detail and interesting colour combinations!

Dd hasn't got to that stage yet of going off to read independently. She enjoys reading but definitely as an activity she does with me.

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thirdname · 03/01/2009 18:28

dd 5 y will read/write/draw every day for fun, ds at that age did uh, nothing of those things. He did enjoy if we read a story to him but that was about it. Now however he loves reading on his own anytime/anywhere.

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Katiestar · 03/01/2009 18:58

I have noticed a big difference between my DDs and DSs >The girls are forever drawing making books ,writing diaries and letters.The boys NEVER or very very rarely.But they've all been keen readers when it comes to reading to themselves but not fussed about reading aloud

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dollybird · 05/01/2009 21:19

M two (6.7 DS and 5.4 DD, years 2 and 1) are both apparently very good readers but neither of them read on their own. DS will only read when he has to (ie school reading book) or when he's not thinking about it, like reading road signs, sauce bottles etc. DD appears to be reading the same level reading books as DS and will read his if she hasn't got her own - she loves reading but again, rarely would go and do it on her own.

They are both very good writers and will write lists and stuff. Handwriting is good esp, DS who is left handed. They both join up - is this the norm for infant school?

Also both love drawing all the time