to be concerned about dd failing..

[fluffymouse]

So far dd, aged 4 and 3 months, only knows 3 letters, cannot count reliably, and does not recognise any numbers. She has absolutely no interest in learning, and is generally a very active child who hates to stay still.

According to eyfs she should be able to sound out and spell words and simple sentences before starting primary, as well as knowing numbers up to 20 and add 2 single digit numbers. This is miles away from where she is!

I thought she was young, and it would be wrong to pressure her she has no desire to learn. Nursery have reiterated to me the expected outcomes however, and I'm now worried about how far behind she is. However I remember I couldn't read or write myself till I was much older (6/7) and ended up doing very well in school and further education.

Should I be teaching her at home? I don't think she gets much out of preschool other than social skills.

^ Waltonswatcher Sun 04-Jan-15 23:03:47

Fluffy
At four life should be about jumping . She's a baby . Read lots to her and relax . The rest will follow .^

This.

She needs to know those by the end of Reception- not now. Dont worry.

My girls were very keen to learn numbers and letters etc (could write their own names by age 3 and fluent reading by 4). My son, on the other hand, couldn't give two figs about any of that! He is is currently 3 years and 2 months and so far knows his colours and shapes (he learnt those at nursery) and can count reliably up to 13 - that's the number of stairs we have in our house and if I'm going up or down with him, I always count them with him. All three kids and I often play hide and seek in the house together so he hears us counting then too.

He recognises the number 3 (I think because that's his age) but doesn't recognise any letters - not even his own initial. He's not interested in knowing either.

My son adores reading (looking at) books and will sit for ages just looking at a big pile of them. He also loves being read to so we do a lot of that. I figure that he'll be able to read when he's ready and as he loves books so much I really don't want to put him off by trying to force the issue of letter/number learning before he's ready.

I don't think you need to worry about your daughter. Just try to incorporate a bit more stuff into everyday activities if you feel you need to. When I was teaching my daughters their alphabet I taught them by using people's names that they knew, eg M for Mummy, D for Daddy, F for etc. I think it helped them to think about the letter/sound a bit more.

When they start reception they do lots of work on phonics to begin with and plenty of kids start school being unable to read and fly along really well by the end of the year.

If she's doing OK with social and motor skills, she'll be fine, I reckon. Even if you don't do very much with her I think you will be surprised by how much she changes between now and September and between September and next July.

"She has absolutely no interest in learning, and is generally a very active child who hates to stay still"

Very much like most 4 year olds
then! They learn by being active and exploring the world around them. My oldest son was at school at that age (July birthday) and he was not ready for it at all. Be glad she is still
able to be a baby for longer :-)