DD is 5 and this is her handwriting...

[SwingingCatsAround]

... It's shockingly bad.

She was 5 in December. Her reading is much higher level.

I'm not concerned about the mirror letter/spelling, but the construction if the letters.

We're trying to get her better, but she will resist writing at any opportunity, gets cross if we ask her to correct her grip.

She has strong fingers and good fine motor (sews with tapestry needles, can do buttons up etc) she plays with play doh, tongs, tweezers, loves squeezing anything and everything lolol

What else can we do? It won't magically get better will it?

Very good!

Same with my son and he’s in year one too

It’s not even that. Kid got a laptop for his GCSE’s because school were so worried he’d drop marks due to them not being able to read his writing!

honestly, just chill. When my DD was the same age I was told she was "below average" for her class - my response that "someone has to be" did not go down well.

Is she happy? is she enjoying school? she won't improve if she's miserable and under pressure.

Luckily for my DD I was also a teacher, and old and experienced enough to be relaxed about this bloody "below average" bullshit. She went on to get great A levels (better than the sibling who used to be top of the class at everything) a 2:1 degree and is now earning more than I ever did working in education.

She's FIVE. It's fine.

Lots of fine motor skills will help with hand and finger strength.

And I assume she will be doing letter formation practise daily at school during phonics sessions, and any writing sessions. Do you know what scheme they use?

At this age children's handwriting can vary massively.

I don't think it's that bad. I remember my DS tracing over massive cursive letters in reception with a number of different colour pencils. Lots of schools start in print, but I'd prefer going straight in with cursive.

This kind of thing (free from Sparklebox).

Alternatively, get her writing big on a wall or pavement in chalk, writing in a sand tray (with a wooden 'pencil' and/or her finger), or writing your shopping list.

Why wouldn't they?

Many children of that age will know what a review is, as in a book/film review.

We send a scrapbook home with a child each week to write/draw a book review of a favourite book to share with the rest of the class. So every child in our school will be aware of the word from starting school aged 4.

Of course her writing will improve! Mine was awful at that age but in a couple of years was very good. Don't worry too much about it.

My son is the same age, exactly the same handwriting. It's slowly getting better but I'm not overly concerned, you shouldn't either. She'll get there!

I wrote a lot like that until I was probably 7 or 8 years old. Is your daughter left-handed by any chance? I am, and it can be difficult for a teacher to show a left-handed child how to grip the pencil properly. I was lucky that my father was also left-handed so he got me started learning to write before I started kindergarten.

I also wrote letters and numbers backwards until a surprisingly old age. And didn't realize that I was doing it wrong. I distinctly remember getting a math worksheet back when I was in the second grade, so about 8 years old, and all of the problems were marked with an x like they were incorrect. But I also had 100% on the paper and I couldn't figure out why I had a perfect score on the worksheet but every single problem was marked that it was wrong. I showed it to my mother and she said that the teacher had marked them wrong because I had made all of my numbers backwards. I had gotten the correct answers I had just written the numbers incorrectly.

I eventually figured it out and your daughter probably will too. But being that she's only five I wouldn't worry about it just yet.

She's five.
It's fine.

You could have written in block for her, you have even joined up some of your writing, and made it bigger, give her a break

She didn't copy my words. I wrote them so people could read them.

looks normal to me

For god sake. No wonder kids grow up feeling pressured.

Because i was told she was behind and I have nothing to compare. So I thought it was bad. Forgive me.

Please work on the correct grip for the pencil - whilst schools are supposed to teach the correct hold, they rarely do.
Lots of good things you are doing with her. Great that she's inspired to write about the film. Make writing purposeful ie help write shopping lists, little notes or cards to people. It practiced writing but in a more pleasant, realistic way !

I feel this kid has a pretty tough life ahead if your critiquing their handwriting at 5 years old..

It looks like she's doing fine to me. There's nothing wrong with that writing for a just turned 5 year old who is only in her second term of reception.

I highly doubt that the school will have said that she is badly behind. They are still starting to assess them at this stage and most of the children have barely got the hang of holding a pen or pencil properly, let alone forming the letters correctly. That will all come with practice, most of it at school.

Perfectly fine for 5.
I would probably try to correct her grip as the longer it's left the harder it is to change.

So very true.

She is 5 years old for goodness sakes!

My handwriting’s not much better and I’m in my 40s 😬 don’t take the mean comments to heart @SwingingCatsAround you weren’t unreasonable to believe the school’s guidance.

All kids learn at different times.

Some will be amazing at handwriting and pick it up so quickly, whilst others may be better at something else.

Some people always struggle with handwriting.

As long as she’s happy and is playing ok and having fun, that’s all that matters.

The only thing I would suggest is you reading to her, as that has been known to really benefit them when they’re older.
It doesn’t have to be Shakespeare, any fun book is good.

Then get her some books that she can read but don’t pressure her.

I would get my DD where’s Wally books or picture books as well as fun reading books.
The books don’t have to be challenging as the idea is to create enjoyment with books.

I think many children's writing at 5yo looks like this and some will grow up to have beautiful writing.

However when dd1 was in year R/1 they had a huge emphasis on handwriting and did a lot of practice. She has beautiful writing.

When dd2 came along that had gone out and they did almost no handwriting practice other than basic formation. She has handwriting that looks like a spider.

Ds they had a mix between the two and his writing can be neat when he tries.

So I think there is some correlation between practice and neatness.

If she likes writing, then you can get some handwriting books. Make it fun. Reward at the end etc.
If she doesn't like writing, then I wouldn't worry. Making her practice will just put her off writing further.