to think this is the most patronising school shite yet

[moogster1a]

My ds came home from nursery with a sheet of printed letters of the alphabet. I assumed it was for him to copy, but no. There was a letter attached explaining it was for parents' info. to show how they write the letters. each letter had a helpful arrow on it " to demonstrate how at nursery they begin to write the letter". I assume in case I write letters upside down or begin from the middle of the "W" and work outwards for instance.
Also "for my reference" she had written the initial letter of ds's name in the corner.This had extra arrows to show in what order the lines of the letter "H" should be tackled. In case I've forgotten what I called him or what his name begins with; or how the fuck to write it?
She "hopes this helps so we are all writing in the same way when helping our dc ".
AIBU to think patronising cow? I am of course going to thank her on Monday for her helpful advice as otherwise I would never have been able to form the letters of the alphabet by myself.

I would have thought that the paper is also for your son´s reference.

Thank you backwardpossum. TBH, despite seemingly rejecting every handwriting lesson I've ever had (or rather, pinching the bits I like and ignoring the rest) I think learning a standard letter formation is an excellent idea. You can embellish and individualise (excuse Americanism) it once you've perfected the basics iyswim.

in general children's mark-making follows a developmental pattern, which at some point includes circular sweeping patterns.

When they are learning to spell words which don't have predictable phonics patterns one of the best ways of learning them is to spell in letter chains, which are easier to learn when joined. They become a "unit" rather than having to remember each letter discretely.

And as they go through school they will have to write with more and more speed and fluency.

Teaching letter formation in cursive style script is a result of trying to join these developmental points together in a meaningful (joined up, haha) way. Previous ways of teaching printed script were based on the idea that children would learn writing better if the letters looked like letters in book whereas we now understand that the processes of reading and of writing are more separate than was previously thought.

I think this in the middle of the constant stream of potentially useless info from school could irritate. I hate feeling patronised.. However, schools generally are trying to come from a good place - what will create the least confusion for your DC.

So, if it helps her to see that all the adults around her will advise the same thing (whilst taking her individuality into account) then in the end that can only be good.

Try and see if from your DC's point of view.

I know - nanny state, etc. Am ex-primary teacher, and always avoid re-creating school at home, I think kids need time off when they leave the school gates, so have made little use of info like that at home whenever possible, tbh.

"YANBU Thinking there's a "correct" way to write letters is BU. It's the result that matters not the process."

I do see your point but I disagree to an extent. If a child learns a particular 'wrong' way it can be hard to undo and the real impact of this may not become clear until later.

The reason we have a specific way of writing letters is for speed and fluency - it is the ideal way to write efficiently. If a child learns a different way that is slower (e.g. I noticed a girl writing 'a' as a circle with a line, this involves two separate strokes instead of one) it may not make a difference now but if they still do it in the future they will not be able to write quickly and/or legibly, and this can effect their learning in all sorts of ways - exam results, copying off the board etc.

YABU, I work in education and therefore know how to use cursive writing, BUT I had to learn this in my job and it was different to what I knew and having the info from the school reinforced this and assisted many of their parents.

Still now DS, 6yo, tells me 'thats not how you write that letter!'

suzi - I was taught to do the O anti-clockwise, as is the RH norm, but I found out when I was a precocious 12-year-old that some lefties write the O clockwise, so I started doing that - sometimes made it look like a loop when I was writing joined-up.

funny thing is, I do both ways automatically now.
My handwriting is a proper hotch-potch of methods - I spent a lot of time writing in different ways - picked up from how it was discribed in books.
But, I have to say, my foundation was how I was taught at school, and most of my letters are done that way...

Cluttermountain, if you can get hold of 'A Hand for Spelling' by Charles Cripps, you will find it gives the alphabet 'arrows' for both right and left hand writing. We use this in school for our left handers, as most handwriting schemes do not appear to make allowances for the difficulties left handers experience when writing, especially when joining.

oh, and one thing that they should do is bring back Words and Pictures on the TV.

Most of my correct letter formations i swear were drummed into me by Charlie and that floating pencil more than from school!

h - down, up, round, over and down.

I would love a sheet like this. DD is just starting to show an interest in letters and I hope I am teaching her the correct way.

Is there a website which shows this?

Thanks sayithowitis. Apart from having left handed scissors at school I think he is just doing his own thing. He is stubborn with me so it may be hard to change some bad writing habits..fun, fun!

My DH forms his letters in a really weird way and when our DC were learning to write I had to refer him to these sheets as he would instruct the kids in the wrong way. Also DS is left handed, so useful for him.

I hadn't realised how wierd DH's letter formation was until we first had a Nintendo DS and Brain Training wouldn't recognise any of his answers because he hadn't formed his letters in a recognisable way. And his handwriting is appalling BTW.

bubbleandsqueaks it's from the sparklebox website.
I'm afraid the sheets gone in the recycling so I can't give the direct link!

At my dds school they learn cursive writing from day 1, so all letters start off on the line......

Please don't use the Sparklebox site - the person who runs it is a convicted paedophile, and he profits from adverts every time you visit his site.

I think that's what you should be complaining about to the nursery, btw! Am they are using it and sending it home, tbh.

YABU but you probably know that by now.
I'm much more shocked that Sparklebox was being used!

YABU

Yes it can come over as patronizing to those of us who are educated enough not to need to be told, but get used to it, it will get worse at School :)

That said, as others have already pointed out, some parents DO need that help, & letters CAN be formed differently by different people, I think even our age can have a roll in that, at least I've noticed that with how I was taught myself & the blurb I've had over the years from DDs School, & it does make sense from a Teaching point of view & checking their development to try & have 1 rule fits all, it WILL make it easier for them to learn the basics & in time, just as we did, they will develop their own style & HOW will become less important :)

I love sparklebox, used it with DD pre school, & used print offs for spacing etc to help her with her homework, her Teachers saw it asked me about it, & now use it too. it really DID help DD

Just spotted your input & link feeney

I didn't know that & very [shocked], but still stand by print offs etc being a useful learning tool

YABU my sister was a key stage 1 teacher and she had trouble teaching some children to write letters properly because their parents had taught them differently like doing an "e" from the bottom instead of the middle. i think its mostly because the children can become upset if the teacher is doing it one way and they are not doing it "right".

It is fairly standard for schools to send out information like this and would be regarded by Ofsted as helping to keep parents informed and involved with their children's education.

If not sparklebox, who?