Children in reception class.....

[rosieandjim2]

Hi our dd has started reception in September and has settled in well but when me or dp ask her dose she like "big" school she says no I hate going to school it's boring she is doing cursive handwriting (joined up) aibu in thinking 4 year olds should at least learn how to form letters normally before cursive handwriting is introduced. What are your dcs doing in reception class . Thanks

That's rubbish about thee b and d, and its actually going to cause those who are dyslexic further problems. The world around us is in printed letters, reading books are in prints text and most teachers cannot write in cursive. The idea that it teaches one set is I'll founded as most are being taught the print letter then the lead ins / flick outs. It would only work if it was brought in at nursery level and all books, signage etc was also in the style.

My son started in September and his school teaches cursive too, they haven't been focusing on writing as much as sounds/reading though. He tells me about a 'new sound' every day!
For the first half term he would say every morning 'I don't want to go to school' but after that he hasn't mentioned it and he seems happy when I collect him

They teach cursive at DC's school from day 1 too. I have to say I was sceptical but DS is now in Y2 and is doing joined up handwriting and suddenly it all makes sense. Fab

My DS is 17. He learnt cursive in yr R too - it's not a new thing!
His handwriting is atrocious, and he went back to printing as soon as he was able too (yr 7). However many of his friends have lovely writing and there was no frustration around Yr 3 relearning handwriting

I have ds's in Years 2 and 4. Our school introduced cursive writing as mandatory from Reception 2 years ago, when ds1 was in Year 2 and ds2 was in Reception.

So ds1 only started writing in cursive/joined up in Year 2. 2 years later, he still struggles with his handwriting, frequently forgets and just prints letters etc.

Ds2 however learned to write in cursive and was encouraged into writing joined up from Reception. When he was learning I thought it was ridiculous and pointless - his writing, which when printed was pretty good was completely illegible in cursive.

Now, in Year 2, he has the most beautiful joined up handwriting that's clear and neat - his work looks like a well to do 70 year old lady wrote it {in a good way!). He also writes a lot, lot faster than ds1 as he's doing joined up writing automatically, he doesn't have to try and remember like ds1 does.

Personally I think it's great and only wish ds1 had been taught it from the beginning.

i work with a lot of school leavers and so many of them write with cursive writing alot of it looks illegible i just wish they would print it! seems such a waste of time

It's letters with a WHOOOOSH ds tells me! It's just a shape, learning to write one shape vs learning to write a slightly different shape.

In fact why even call it writing, it's drawing. So they're drawing a bit differently. At least they then don't have to have whole lessons up school dedicated to drawing slightly different shapes so they all make one line!

Ds doesn't find school boring though, they're mostly playing!

ArabellaRockerfella I was a reverse b/d and still have to think about it now.

In my mind it makes a lot more sense to only teach one method of writing than to teach print in reception and then suddenly switch to cursive/joined-up in year 1 or 2.

Anyway, as far as I'm aware in England the only cursive taught is just print letters with flicks to join them (with maybe the exception of 'k'). It's not really any more complicated than print. It's not like French or even American cursive which involves completely different letter shapes - this picture shows French cursive, which is taught from GS or MS (year 1 or reception):

At my girls school they learn to write cursive straight away. It's how my eldest was taught when she was in reception 5yrs ago and how my youngest is starting to learn too.

My ds (age 8 yr 4) still cannot write cursive properly and pretty much just prints. His teacher (who is lovely) at his last parents evening said she believes it's from being pushed to learn it at too young an age before his motor skills were fully developed. I was surprised at her honesty.
She said she would not push it now and just leave him to print as he is obviously more comfortable that way and it's easier to read (his attempts at cursive are pretty diabolical)!

Dd is encouraged to do flicks on her letters, but still praised for any writing - and lots of her classmates are still learning to recognise letters at all.

She's mostly loving Reception though her favourite bits are running around, so playtime and PE. Did complain that she was in the 'worst reading group' last week. Asked why it was the worst - apparently her group have to read two sentences each morning and other groups only do one or even just single words! I figure five minutes a day of reading to the teacher/someone isn't going to kill her.

If I ask what she did, it's always "nothing" which apparently ds did too. Though if I asked ds what his friend did, I got a monologue for half an hour on "Friend and I did this, friend and I did that, then we did the other". And dd will tell me all about lunch in detail and is amazed when I manage to guess what she ate (it's all down her front). To be honest I'm not sure what either of them did in class but there was a game about a pirate which somehow resulted in them reading by the end of the year.

Also, school being boring is a separate issue, I think, to handwriting. At least in DD's school, work involving writing doesn't seem to take up much of the day - maybe an hour at most. Try and focus on the positive aspects of the day with her, e.g. free choice time, craft, singing, or even things like numeracy if that's what she enjoys.

DD learned cursive from the start. Lots of 'pre letter patterns' (rows of u or o or e or l or c-type-shapes [she liked those, they filled every sea she drew for years] all joined up in a line to learn the basic hand movements first, pencil control, how hard to press etc etc. lots of diffferent media as well - chalk, whiteboard pen, pencil, paintbrush and water, squeezy bottle filled with water on the playground...

Then it resolved itself into individual letter shapes, but still in long tows, all joined up, again in all kinds of media

Then phonic sounds - great for digraphs, a single 'shape' for a sound, which just happened to be two letter shapes together.

Then words - or graphemes joined together, since their phonic teaching was excellent.

Absolutely brilliant handwriting. Much better than another school, separate infant and juniors, where they learn to print in Reception - year 2 and it takes pretty much all of KS2 to get the whole class to use a 'fluent joined writing style.

Much, much faster, too. I don't really see the benefits of 'individual letters with flicks', but I do absolutely see the point of genuine cursive right from the start.

My DS mainly plays which we love. They've been doing phonics and he brings books home to read. They're encouraged to write their names on their pictures and incorporate writing into play activities (e.g. write a ticket) but they don't have any enforced sitting down doing writing time. All the children in his class love school.

If anyone is interested search cursive on the national handwriting association website. There's a lot of info on there about how cursive from reception is misguided and how a lot of the stuff schools trot out about it helping with spelling and dyslexia are myths and not backed by evidence.

I don't think ours start it till yr 2. However my ds in yr 3 it's pretty illegible the same as my cursive writing. Sure I can write fast like it but only I can read it.

On the subject of not liking school both my ds and dd say that, in fact my ds was telling me yesterday his great escape plans, dd flits between happy to in and crying at being left. Very sad as when ds first started school the second the school gates opened the kids (from al yr groups) actually ran into their classrooms as they couldn't wait to get in not many at all seem to do that now. I presume the extra pressure from govt/ofstead has changed the way school operates. Dd gets much more homework in reception than ds ever did.