Do reception children REALLY write all Christmas cards

[Goldchilled7up]

I might be very unreasonable here and I'm prepared to be told so.

...but I find it hard to believe that a 4 or 5 year old child can write 30 Christmas cards, with all the children's names on both the card an envelop and also write merry Christmas on all of them

I wrote my son's cards to take to his classmates and it was hard work. He sat next to me and was excited about it. But there is no was he could physically do it. I wrote it with my own handwriting, not faking his.

I understand that he is one of the youngest and some children are almost a year older which can make a huge difference but still...

Am I being unreasonable to think that parents are writing the cards in a messy way to pretend it was their children? Maybe I'm worried and a little jealous that my child can't do it.

They've probably been doing two or three cards a night for weeks and weeks

My ds did it. Took him ages, but he did it.

My 4 yo wrote all of hers in blocks of between 5 and 10. She would be well bored doing 30 at once.

How old is your Ds lois, and how long did it take him?

Depends on the child, one of mine wrote 30+ themselves at pre-school age, another one in year 6 would still rather I did it!

I do know parents that do the messy writing bit though, which I find utterly bizarre

My Reception aged DD wrote her name in all her cards but I put 'To so and so' and wrote names on the envelopes.

Dd age 4 wrote her name. I did the rest. Ds wrote his but I did the envelopes, he is 6.

Got an even mix back of parents and children's writing. Some only had signed their name. Hardly anyone wrote merry Christmas though!

My two really wanted to write in them. I got bored before they did. I guess it depends on the child.

my boys both did theirs in reception, like others have said, 3-4 at a time no pressure they really liked doing it, it was like a build up to christmas

3 year old DS only sent 4 or 5 cards. He wanted me to "help" me write his name by both of us holding the pen, so it probably does look like I've faked his writing

Ds2 write his name independently on all of his and I guided his hand for the rest as he's a bit unsure about how to form some letters.

He had 8 to do and it took us less than 20 minutes.

I wrote the envelopes though so his teacher could read them

Mine all did in Reception yes.

4 year old DS did. I wrote the names on the envelopes, he would pick an envelope and do the card. It took 3 nights though!

Mine signed his name to them all, his handwriting is too bad to do the rest!

No. I wrote them. Job done.

Year 1 Ds wrote from and his name.

DD wrote her name. I wrote the rest. Got a mix from the rest of the class.

He didn't write merry Xmas. He put to x, love y

No parent had faked their child's writing, although it was hard to tell with some

My (summer baby) reception DS didn't write cards this year, he's just not up to it yet.

I bet a teacher can tell on-purpose messy adult writing a mile off. Surely you just wouldn't

My DS is year two, and the oldest in the year at that. He sat and did his class the other evening. We left him to his own devices and didn't think to check.

He came home, saying yes, he had given them out, but is was hard work, because he had to open each one to find out who it was for, then close it up again. He obviously forgot to write on the envelopes.

The first year, she wrote her name and I did the rest and put her name in brackets if it wasn't particularly legible.

Next year she did recipients name and her name but no message. I sat with her and she did it until I could see she was starting to flag then told her to stop.

My dd is 5 - I roped in my mother to help her do the cards after writing a list of the names of children she wanted to give cards to (15 or so).

My Mum wrote the name of each child on card and envelope, dd wrote her own name, happy Christmas is already printed on cards so no need to write that. None of the children she got a card from in her reception class did more than write their own name.

My 4yr old DD2 did over a period of several days. If her older sister was going to do cards, there was no way on earth she was going to admit she needed help...

My DD is 5, she wrote 28 plus made one for her teacher. She wrote:

To X from Y and wrote the envelopes herself too, took her 25mins.

Mine 4+7 just wrote his name, did about 15 and we sent to the friends he wanted to send to. One of his friends 4+10 definitely sat down and wrote out all the "To xxxx from yyyy" stuff, and envelopes, and we had a couple from school which looked like all child's work. Most were all parent's work though. Big variation in enthusiasm levels for writing at this stage I think! As far as I'm concerned main thing is DS enjoyed the sending and receiving, first year he's been interested at all.

A lot of the ones we got were written by the parents. When ds1 was in reception he just did a few for his best friends. He is in year 2 now and wrote for the whole class quickly and easily. dd is in reception, she will be 5 this month, she did her class over 3 or 4 nights. She wanted to, I leave it up to them. She is a competent reader and writer and didn't need to copy or be supervised which helps!