DD starting reception in sept and being the youngest.

[wahidahamid]

Hi all
What my cOncerns are with my Dd is that she may fall behind in the class with her being one of the youngest.
At the moment I am doing a lot of work with her at home so she starts with a good understanding. Positives of what she knows is all her numbers confdientaly from 0-11. Counts to 15. And recognises numbers 0-11 randomly so next step is I am trying to get her to write numbers.
Shapes she knows alot of 3D shapes.
Alphabet she knows 12 out of the 26 confidently. She can spell her name put loud which is 6 letters long. But her writing is weak she can start off good but gets lost after a while writing her name she is 3 and will be 4 in aug.
Am I doing the enough?
Also my ds struggled with his writing alot and I can see het writing going the same way.
Ds can write now and writes sentences but it is still all over the place.
Is there anything anyone can recommend for her to get get writing skills any better than what she can. She has good pencil control but at the same time formation of things is poor.

Thanks

[mrz]

It very much depends on where your school is. I rarely have children enter reception in September being able to do any of those things.
She's still just three I would relax a little and stop worrying.

[LIZS]

dd was the youngest and tbh she has outstripped the majority academically, still does at 9 . Try not to worry.

[SilveryMoon]

Wow.
She's 3.
I'd relax tbh. She will not fall behind, I wouldn't worry about that until much later.
She's 3. Let her play and lay off the work I'd say.
My ds1 is 3 (4 in august) and is in afternoon nursery atm.
They do all of the things you've mentioned above but not to the level you're doing it.
Letter formation will come with practice but at 3 years of age, it just doen't matter.
IMO.

[CordeliaCatkin]

That sounds like heaps to me. My DD is 4.25 and has doesn't confidently recognise all her letters yet. And it is crazy to worry about writing at this age.

Your expectations seem very very high, and I would take care not to push this because you could put her under unnecessary pressure. Summer-borns can struggle but your DD sounds above average already.

FWIW, my DD is the youngest in her year, but is in the top groups and on the G&T register. I am glad she is the youngest rather than the oldest as I think she would get bored otherwise.

[ChippingIn]

She's 3... please let her just be a kid unless she is asking you to teach her stuff. There is no way she will be behind all of the others and there's no guarantee that if she starts 'ahead' of the others that she will stay there... let her enjoy the last few months of playing and not 'having' to do stuff. Go out, have fun, do messy play, bake cakes - do all the things it's hard to have the time and energy to do when they are at school all day.

[MyDingaling]

School will tackle all of the things you are worried about. Let your DD play!

[theotherboleyngirl]

honestly, just relax. Her teacher will know she's one of the youngest, and the teacher will be used to dealing with a year age range in their class.

DS is in YR and is the youngest boy in the school. He started without any extra 'help' with me. He's now in top group for reading and top groups for maths.

The skills which were more important for starting YR which are affected by their age and development are things like reliable toileting, getting dressed and undressed, knowing how to ask for help if they need it - that's much more important.

[CliniqueMum]

Sounds horrific, let her have fun. I had a friend who prepped her kid like this - he ended up being put off learning for a few years as he was bored in his first year of school because he knew it all and alienating himself from his peers.

My son is an end of August birthday starting school this year and I'll be surprised if he's writing any letters by then.

[CointreauVersial]

Ditto what everyone else has said.

DD2 has a 21st August birthday - while there might have been a gap at the beginning of Reception between her and some of the older ones who were already turning five, this gap quickly closed. Reception is all about learning through play so they don't expect children to turn up knowing everything. Relax.

[wahidahamid]

Thanks for all you replies
I was laughing coz I sound like a pushy mum. I clearly am not, she is playing and is still a child but what I was concerned about was her being the youngest she is 4 days off missing the next year. And what has done this to me is my son he is June born and struggles with writing and doing simple adding an subtraction and now is getting the support so he does things aside of his class and I was just being worried that Dd would have gone the same way.
I was going to start some sums with her hahha but reading your comments I'll back off but my ds proper struggles with adding on paper he can do it mentally but when you give him the sum on paper he struggles and he struggles with subtraction he is going to be 6 in June. But everything else on maths he can do ie shapes and measure etc
He does get alot of support an I am really grateful of this but why isn't the penny dropping? He's good at reading and spelling and now I think is good at sentence writing but his writing is poor if that makes sense.

So that is why I am really concerned for ds and doing stuff with her but I don't push her she wants to learn an wen she wants to stop I stop.

X

[wahidahamid]

Ps also by the sound of things shes doing good an I clearly can see she is ahead of ds when he was starting yr.
Just worried incase she dips at any stage. She's a little monkey all other times!!

[vintageteacups]

Rather than sums - number bonds to 10 would be more useful. That's the basis of so much more and will be one of the first things the teacher will focus on, but more so in yr 1., then number bonds to 20 etc.

I think if they can know number bonds to 10 in reception, that will stand her in good stead but tbh, I wouldn't worry as most reception teachers have children who can't do any of the things your dd can do.

Phonics are good too - I really think looking at books together and helping her recognise words in real life, like when out shopping, for sale signs etc is a good way to develop her love of words.

Cooking with you and measuring out ingredients etc will also be great for numeracy.

Gardening - planting a number of seeds, "we need one more" etc is always good too.

My two learn really well through real life learning, especially ds (6) who is a do-er rather than an academic .

[cswilliams78]

Hi,

This thread interests me as my DS will be one of the youngest too (he's 4 in June). I agree with allot of the others I think your DD sounds as though she is ready to go to school without any more prep. If she really wants to do it though I see no harm in carrying on in an informal way.

My DS is quite obsessed with learning, he's a very curious little boy and I swear he wants to learn it all for fear of missing anything at all, lol. He frequently chooses learning toys - such as flash cards above other types of toy and he asks about 1 million questions a day (pre-school teachers wonder how we cope ..so do I :-)).

Things that we do to keep it informal are often games like I spy which really helps with letters. He also has a Leapster Explorer which helps with all sorts of problem solving games and has a stylus so does help with pencil control and has some letter formation elements, he has no idea he is 'learning' but really enjoys playing on what he calls his 'DSP' (feels like a 'big boy' like his brother and cousins with their DS's and PSP's hence the name). He also has a comic each week which he really enjoys working through the spot the differences, word searches, dot to dot and counting games ...again no clue that he is learning anything! The comics really are very good for this and we find it really nice to sit with him working through it as otehrwise he is difficult to play with as he 'flits' allot and will not settle with one toy / game.

My main worry is the dressing / undressing and going to the toilet by himself although we are gradually encouraging these things, we have 3 and a half months which is a long time in development terms at this stage, so I'm hopeful. The big thing for me is to stop thinking of him as my 'baby' (he is my youngest with a big gap, his brother is 12) ..I think this must rub off on how we treat him and how he reacts (hence why we never encouraged dressing / undressing before).

Good luck,
Catherine

[vintageteacups]

Good point about the getting undressed/dressed again. DS' reception teachers said they'd much prefer that they can undo buttons/put on plimsolls etc than write a sentence or count to 20.

OPHave you got any Orchard Toyss games? They're brill. We have the Spotty Dogs game which is fab for their counting skills and taking turns etc. There are loads of fun games, including jigsaws for fine motor skills which will be really helpful.

[sarahfreck]

Could you do some fun activities to help with writing type skills. Things that would help her with motor control but not be too formal.

What about painting letters/patterns with water on the patio using an old house-decorating brush.
Using bath crayons - let her draw and write letters and patterns on herself, and the bath tiles and any willing siblings at bath time.

There are lots of play activities that help fine motor control which in turn helps handwriting - things like plasticene or playdough, bead threading, hama beads, smaller Lego, jigsaws and of course colouring and painting.

[lovecheese]

CordeliaCatkin, just curious as to what your DD is on the G&T register for?

[UniS]

your doing MORE than enough, relax. What your doing NOW is what reception class will be doing with her from sept.

Can she sit and listen? wipe her own bum? do own coat up, get dressed... those are prehaps more usefull "skills" to focus on at this stage.

In my sons reception class you can;t tell who is an august birthday and who is March or even November.

[Shep83]

Hi my son turns 4 on the 29th august and is due to start reception with children that are nearly 5.we are thinking off keeping him in nursery fir another yr or even till Easter coz he isn't able to undress and dress himself properly yet.

[aliceliddell]

we've got one of these (Aug b'day) - the academic stuff has been fine, but emotional stuff harder, she was too young imo, there were other factors and the school did not handle things well. Ended up school refuser, home ed, then emotionally aware school, so ok now. Make sure they're ok emotionally is my advice.

[mrz]

The staff will help and encourage him to dress and undress, it isn't the end of the world if he can't honestly.

[MammyT]

Shep - can your son toilet himself and put on/take off his coat? In that case I wouldn't worry too much. A lot of my child's class needed help changing for gym regardless of age. My dd said the assistant told them to practise shirt buttons on their own. Also Velcro shoes help.

My dd is one off being the youngest girl in her class and is flying. Though some of the Sep born were physically and emotionally miles ahead at the start of the year, the gap is narrowing fast.

[roundabout1]

my dd1 is now in yr1 but the youngest in her year (22/8 bday) academically she hasn't struggled at all but has in confidence. Depending on the nature of your lo I would perhaps concentrate on this & dressing/undressing. My dd did revert to wetting herself ocassionally too despite being dry for year, think she hated asking for the toilet. It is hard as it is such a big difference in age within a class especially if like my daughters school it is just one class per year.

[TheOriginalFAB]

I think you are doing too much.

I don't think age always has anything to do with how children get on at school. DD is the youngest in her class but is top for everything. It depends on the child's ability ime.

[CrapolaDeVille]

I'm not sure anything done before school actually is worth much, certainly no indication of how a child will get on at 11!!

My dd starts in September and can read, has been doing so for some time, but I don't think that means by the end of reception she'll be ahead of everyone!