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?

Oh behave. I was told she was behind and I wanted to help her. I'm not beating her or criticising her. I just was wondering how I could help her.

Behind! Children should even start to write till age 6, the bones in their fingers are still developing. Our education system is diabolical.

This is not shockingly bad, this is great for a 5 year old. She’s mark making, forming letters and words.

Wow. I feel a bit sorry for her if she’s going to have you pressure her already! That handwriting is really good for a five year old? I’ve had three children and only one could write like this at her age. No wonder she growls at you. Give her time! Do you see any adults writing like that?? It will come.. and probably quicker if you stopped with the pressure!

Like the petals of a flower unfolding in the sun, child development really is magical if you let it happen: provide enjoyable opportunities to develop the underlying skills, don't introduce barriers to it happening and stand back to enjoy seeing your child flourish at their own pace.

To avoid introducing barriers don't make it about the outcome you want (legible writing). Let your child take satisfaction from their achievements, because if they have been set the task of writing a diary or a film review, they will be demoralised if you criticise their handwriting rather than recognising the value of the content. They will find it confusing to be judged for a task they weren't set (do some excellent handwriting) and not for the task they were set (write about the film you saw/write about what you did).

Learning is a marathon not a sprint and the drive to keep learning needs to come from within - don't destroy their enjoyment of story telling that will motivate them to continue writing.

Do they see you writing by hand? Because the best way for your child to attach importance to an activity is to observe you modelling that behaviour; if they see that writing to matters to you they will instinctively copy you. Whereas telling someone learning a difficult set** of skills for the first time that they aren't achieving good results quickly enough is likely to cause them to lose pleasure in the activity or even give up altogether.

** manipulating the pencil, controlling the paper, letter formation, spelling, sentence construction all required simultaneously

My DS is also in reception though not 5 yet and it looks much like his letter formation. Perfectly age appropriate and will improve with time. To add, without being overtly biased, my DS is very bright and switched on too. I'm not worried about his writing in the slightest and neither is his teacher.

Don't make the mistake my DS school did when he was 6, they pushed and pushed and pushed and sent home endless practise books and hounded me and compared him to "sarah who writes beautifully" (it was calligraphy like and way ott for a kid so an unrealistic comparison) and the result was he just shut down completely when it came to handwriting and now needs to use a chrome book in high school 😔

My son is just 5 (a week ago). He’s in a very good state school in England - he’s bright and above expected in most things. His writing is awful and worse than your child’s. I would do a bit at home - drawing, tracing, fine motor stuff, but honestly, it’s not worth your worry.

I would be cheering if my littlest did this, so I certainly wouldn’t worry, it’s not shockingly awful!
At my last parents evening I was told that he wasn’t really to start the learning part of school (summer baby), he doesn’t like writing, phonics and is behind.
However the teacher said he had tons of empathy, brilliant friends, was kind and had a great personality. That he preferred to be outside in all weathers, at the crafting table and doing various small world play and has a great imagination.
Thankfully in some ways he isn’t our first child and one of his older siblings is summer born. They were behind in all areas too until probably year 3 but still struggled a little, but now (teenager) they are in the top half of most of their subjects.
I wish someone had told me when I was pulling my hair out with our first that it all comes out in the wash eventually and to focus on all the amazing things they can do.
In response to the our little ones parents evening I replied that at almost 5 I would love that they were ahead in everything, however if I had to choose between one that could hold a pen properly and ace phonics or one that had a great imagination, was a great friend and love the outdoors and nature, I’d choose the latter.
Your little one will get there x

Did you make her write that at home? If so, please stop. Especially with the translation underneath, where you are showing her that your writing is better than hers. If it’s from school, then I don’t like their methods.

It's a long time since my two were in reception, but I certainly remember some parents being very competitive and constantly going on about how their dc were so advanced! It would be easy to get worried that your child isn't doing as well.
Parenting is so stressful!

Have already commented but just to add,my handwriting is bloody awful,always has been and the Drs I worked with had absolutely bloody awful,illegible handwriting as well!

Totally normal.

She's fine.
They do stuff at different ages. She'll catch up.

Or maybe she'll have awful handwriting, either way in a future of AI and computers it won't matter so long as she can read it.

I'm a reception class TA. That's perfectly fine and a lot better than most of my class

Why not?
My daughter wrote a contract age 5 it was the pandemic and she was asking me what I was doing (I am a lawyer ) so she wrote a contract saying I had to play with Lego with her after lunch and then we both sighed it!

Oh and she used to take orders for everyone's food and write them out in her gloriously inventive spelling.

My son used to write love letters from me to his dad and vice versa . ("To Mumy I lov yoo lov from daddy" )

She hasn't seen the translation. That was for this post.

I didn't make her write this, she did this independently.

Alternative for the chalk window markers mentioned above are Stabilo Woody. Probably more expensive but cleaning is easy in my opinion. Our DDs use it on the windows or on paper.

The writing looks normal for her age. I've noticed in year 2 some kind of magic happens to every child ( some were able to write ok in yr1 but I'm year 2 the magic happens,) suddenly they can all write well. The letters go from random malformations to proper neat letters with relatively uniform size (and a fair attempt at spelling often).
So much time for a 5 year old is spent trying to remember what the letter is called or sounds like, what it's supposed to look like and how it's meant to be formed that they can't keep all the aspects in mind and execute the letters ( not mentioning trying to fathom out spelling by sounds of copying). It is a case of retaining ah the information mentally and matching it to with hand eye Co ordination. It's really hard. A transition happens when they have a more solid understanding of what the letters are all about there's less necessity to remember, knowing A( make)/ah(sound) is the same thing, they are more familiar with what they are supposed to look like so can concentrate more on just trying to write the letter.
It's not all about practice, it's about committing aspects to memory and then it becoming automatic. It's a bit like baby led weaning where food is fun, suddenly they become familiar, capable and interested and can eat properly.
You're child is far too young to be worrying don't push them to practice for hours,it just causes misery in my opinion and can establish a life long hate. Let them develop at their own pace .
If by fluke they are 7 or 8 and still can't make letters at all you can investigate, but I really wouldn't be bothered personally.

Perfectly normal. Worry not, she’ll get there.

Make it interesting for her, give her a kids' calligraphy set as a present and sit with her, you can both perfect your handwriting. Not proper calligraphy obviously, but the kiddy exercises, where they trace letters, not write them themselves, but trace them. But the sheets have to be with handwritten letters, not block letters. In a few months people would be asking her to write out place holder cards for weddings!!!!

As a teacher, I would be most concerned about her letter formation. She’s clearly not starting the letters in the right place. Have the school shared with you how they teach this? Often they will have a little rhyme or ditty they say (eg for the letter a, I would say ‘round like a c, up, down and flick). I’d try to use these to remind her. It makes such a big difference to their handwriting in the longer term if they’re starting in the wrong place, or going the wrong direction round a letter.

We always start with big writing/letter shapes - could you get a big roll of paper and some fun pens for her to use. Writing letters in the air, making letter shapes with scarves, basically a bit like a dance move. Then practice with finger on the floor, or your leg, or someone’s back. Then actually writing it. I think if she’s happy to do a bit of practice with you at home, this could be beneficial. I would also say it is early days, so no need to panic! The fact that she wants to write for herself is excellent!

There are some big words in there, it looks like the standards are very high, maybe just go back to basics at home,get some lovely pens and pencils to make it fun, model and practice writing single letters and simple sounds/ words. It will be easier for her to perfect if the words are familiar and short for her. You sound like a lovely mum, seeking support to help your little one, good for you! Good luck with the writing and enjoy the process! Also check out Dr Becky’s explaination of not knowing, that might make you feel a bit better. www.facebook.com/share/r/1BVjFsGSYu/?mibextid=wwXIfr

@ProfessorGambol this is great advice. My ds used to write his letters in sand!

We were given letter writing practice in Reception - really huge letters in dots, and then space for your child to try and copy. We did this twice a week every week and by end of Reception he could do all the capital and Lower case letters.

i would bribe ds to do the tasks at first ; eventually I didn’t need to bribe him, just award him a sticker or praise him and now he is very happy with his writing.

Practice makes perfect

This is what I mean by she knows what to do.

She does Read Write Inc. they do things like "all round the apple and down the leaf" she knows the rhymes and how it's supposed to be done..but basically just does her own thing