to wonder if DS aged 4 1/2 should be able to write his own name...?

[superv1xen]

...went for tea at my friends house earlier who has got a little DD who will be 4 in january. she is at nursery part time and DS started full time school in sept this year.

they had the pens and paper out and my friend proudly announced that her DD "can write her own name now!" her DD then proceeded to do so, not only accurately but pretty neatly, my face looked like this >>>> she then started drawing underneath her name and drew a recognisable person.

DS can barely even draw a face (as in 2 dots for eyes and a line for a mouth in a circle IYSWIM) let alone a full person and he can't write any letters yet, let alone his name (although he does recognise letters, ie C for cat etc)

and i was just wondering should he be at that level? esp as friends DD is almost a whole year younger? he has recently had his first parents evening and his teachers seem happy with him.

[bubbleymummy]

I wouldn't worry about it tbh. I agree with the idea of rearranging letters In the bath or on the fridge etc so be can spell it and recognise it ( for his peg in school or whatever) but I wouldn't force it or put too much pressure on him. I'm very much in favour of presenting opportunities without applying pressure :) what about printing out his name to colour in or decorate or whatever and then providing blank sheets alongside that so if he felt the urge to copy it he could :)

Although Ds1 learned to read and write very early, it was because he wanted to. I really don't think you need to push children to do things, they do them when they're ready. I do believe the opportunities should be there though, so specifically avoiding things because you think they should only be learned at a certain age is a bit backwards in my opinion. If they want to learn, let them.

[superv1xen]

thanks for all the advice :)

i am not overly worried, just wondering if i should be IYSWIM

was talking to DP about it last night and he remarked, well she (friends dd) can't dress herself and still wears nappies at night :o

[ginodacampoismydh]

like you said supervits. it is about interest, your friends child is interested in drawing this tends to lead on to attempting to write.

my dd is 4.7 and cant write her name, she also will refuse to attempt. she has trouble forming the letters, but can spell it out loude. my friends dd can aparently read already when she was at mine for playing the kids where looking at books, she clearly cannot read, she also writes everything in capitals.

i would say after parents evening i was not worried as i asked about dd not attempting name and was told most of the class currently cant. but are all very good at picking up the sounds etc, so they are practicing them and writting will naturaly come once they have a regular picture in thier heads of sounds and what they look like..