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.

YABU.

My 5 year old wrote 24 cards over two evenings. He didn't need much supervision, he worked his way down the list and copied the names himself, stuffed the envelopes and everything.

My DS wrote his. Without complaint. My face was like this

However, to be fair:

1. He didn't write the envelopes. His handwriting is God awful a little messy still and since his school use Y5/6 students to deliver the cards, I thought that would be a little unfair
2. He didn't write 'Merry Christmas' because his writing is so large it filled each card it was preprinted in them all
3. He wrote 3-6 per day over a number of days as and when he felt like it
4. He copied all his classmates names from a printed list yet still managed to make some interesting spelling errors
5. He was 5 in October, so older than many of his peers

I only expected him to scribble his name in each card so I was very proud of him for persevering with it over many evenings. All credit to his school too, who somehow manage to cram in lots of one on one writing practice despite having 30 children, 1 teacher and 1 part time TA.

Dc would be perfectly capable, but we left it a bit late so wrote their name only. 32 cards took nearly an hour with the 400 kisses added to each one.

DS2 was four in August. We didn't bother with Christmas cards to the other kids (and fortunately neither did they). I wrote the Christmas cards to the teacher and TAs and he wrote his name in those.

Asking either of my children to write Christmas cards is like pulling teeth but fortunately DS1, now 9 doesn't seemed to have suffered massively for my lax parenting on the writing Christmas card front

My dd wrote all hers (about 15 cards) upstairs at her desk on her own). I was really stunned but she loves doing cards.

Of the ones we received the majority were written by parents, a few had written their own names and one child had written the whole lot quite beautifully. Unless it was a parent faking a child's handwriting?

I think some children love doing this kind of thing and for others it is torture. If you have the latter kind of child and they/you still want to give something out, I see nothing wrong with doing the writing yourself or making some kind of crafty thing. If you/they don't want to send cards then don't do it/don't feel guilty about not having done so. Just accept it as something that some children like to do.

IMHO what Piddlepuddle said

My sisters 5 year old did. Only signature.... Took abit of time....

My DS did, but he is the oldest in his year and already 5. It took him two hours, though, to do 30 + teachers. The first couple were the hardest, then he got in the swing of it. He wrote "To X, DS".

3.8yo DD wrote hers, about 20 in total and all in one sitting. I wrote the friend's name on the envelope so she could copy. She has a thing about writing her name first though, so every card that went out looked like this:

In reception I wrote "To X" and "From" and they wrote their names iirc.

Another mum told me she held her dd's hand while she wrote though

Most of the cards which have come home from school have had the givers name child written.
Many had the receivers name written.
No adornments, apart from kisses.
Envelopes usually written by parents.
Some cards are more readable than others.
DS1 did attempt at for the dozen or so he chose to send. He has enjoyed opening them tho - especially the ones with kisses!

My five year old boy did his, took about a week with a few morning and night, my seven year old loved doing hers

Maybe if I get my son to start now, he'll get them done by next Christmas

I wrote 30 in 15 mins this morning. I suspect other parents will think DS did them anyway! I did try earlier in the week but it was such a slow tedious process, we both gave up after doing 3 cards. Next year I will be better prepared.

It's doable if the child had good fine-motor skills.

If you have a four year old who doesn't have great fine motor skills & is a summer baby, then you can hardly expect them to perfectly turn out thirty cards.

Most reception children should be able to write their name by now. If they can't it's something you should work on with them (and signing Christmas cards is a good place to start )

I received a Christmas card from a very bright 4yo today. He had attempted to write his name, but I only knew it was from him, because his mum also had written his name on the card.

Dd1 did, dd2 wrote 1 and I did the rest. Ds won't be able to at all (reception next year) so I will do his.

Yep - my reception child did all theirs.

To Name,
Happy Christmas
Love Name xxx

I sat with them and we split it up over a coupe of nights, stopping when they got bored.

DD1 wrote the names to and dd3 filled in from [her name].

That was way easier than dd2 yr 2 who was an absolute nightmare (wanted to send them but without the bother of actually doing anything!)

My reception ds2 did all 30 of his over a couple of sessions he enjoyed it but he does love writing. Ds1 didn't at that age, he wasn't a confident writer and still considers any writing to be a chore at age 8.

DS2 is in Reception. He insisted on writing names and 'love DS' in every card. It took ages. I did envelopes. DS1 is in Y2 and it was a damn sight quicker!

In nursery dd1 wrote 2 a night for a week, aged 3.5, to x love y.
In reception she wrote about 5 a night.
Year 1 she wrote them all in half hour, she loves writing.

This year dd2 wrote her name in a few cards, right letters, wrong order, aged 3.0

My DGC (5) signed his name on all 30 plus teacher's cards.

Took a while...