If you are a primary school teacher can you please tell me what you taught your child before they started school?

[ferriswheel]

Just that really.

Get eyes tested before they start

I think you risk them getting bored and frustrated if you teach them to read etc before they start. I didn't teach my eldest and she still flew through the reading scheme by lower juniors. She'd have been bored out of her brain if I'd taught her.

I worried about:
Toileting
Dressing and undressing including shoes
The concept that they needed to listen to and respect the teacher.

These things I imagine practically help in a classroom when a teacher and 1 TA if they are very lucky simply don't have time to help every child go to the toilet or put on a PE kit. I don't think it's weird to teach respect either. You can do it by setting good examples. Kids don't naturally listen or obey for the most part.

I was a ks2 teacher some time ago.
Dd1 knew her letter sounds as her preschool encouraged this by getting them to bring in objects beginning with the letter of the week. I think she could recognise numbers to 100 from a number chart. She couldn't read or write ir do maths. I can't remember whether she could write her name.
Dd2 i think was similar but i can't remember.

Listening to others and not interrupting is showing respect. It's like following instructions- when the tidy up music starts, the children should start to tidy up too. There are so many children who continue to do what they're doing because they have been taught to question instructions.

Children in school cannot have every decision explained to them. There has to be respect from Day 1. It's utter tosh to think that a five year old can judge whether or not their teacher is worthy of respect.

The sorts of things that Snickers listed, but also lots of language and "knowledge of the world" as it was known at the time. Not direct teaching , but just through talking about things as you go through life - the weather, what is on TV, the puddles you jump in the veg you are peeling, the birds flying past the window, the things on your shopping list, etc.,etc.,etc.,
I suppose, through the fact they'd always had a bedtime story and loads of opportunities to share books, all the things about the pattern of stories and how to handle a book etc. and, incidentally all the pre-maths stuff like matching and 1:1 correspondence and the order of numbers, and all the experiences of playing with pots and containers when in the bath, etc.,etc.
Through going to Nursery all the stuff about "being one of 30" - so turn taking and sharing and that there are 'times' that you do X or Y, and times you wait your turn or listen to others.

.... and so it goes on.

Not direct teaching , but just through talking about things as you go through life

Do you know, I taught a child to build a sand castle today. No one ever had. How sad is that?

To eat with a knife and fork, dress themselves and wipe their own bums.

Not a teacher, just a parent but it does seem to me that parents who teach their kids a bit at home give them an advantage. My kids are older now but still in primary and although I always read to them, and help with homework I assumed school would teach them what they needed to know, how to read, times tables etc, they are there for over 30 hours a week after all! But in a class of 30 a child may not get that much individual attention, and I wish I had spent more time with them on the basics earlier on. Think it will all balance out in the end though! And teachers can point out when more help is needed and offer support.

You sound quite angry redscissors.

I'm with Titty.

Good job us teachers, like our pupils, are all very different 😉

Not me but a teacher friend managed to teach her 4 yr old to carry clean tissues in one pocket, blow nose when needed and put the dirties in a different pocket. Bloody genius! I wish I could convince either of my DC to do the same. (Or some colleagues.)

Can I put in a plea though not to judge the degree of hot-housing on the outcomes. If you see parents spending hours drilling unwilling sprogs in jolly phonics, then fair enough.

DD is 4.5 and she will start school in September. Bit concerned about the "not teaching phonics/reading" comment. This has been my focus and she is very nearly there! Hopefully hasn't been a wasted effort.

Other than that, she can write and recognise her name, count to 30 independently and 100 with some help, can do basic maths. She also has basic IT skills and is massively interested in science so I'm currently fostering that.

As an only child, however, it is her social skills which most concern me. She is NOT good at sharing/turn taking...

DC1 & 2

manners, independence (getting (un)dressed, managing distractions, wiping after using the loo), listening skills. Fine and gross motor skills like using a sellotape dispenser, scissors, pencil grip.

Both began phonics. Counting forwards and backwards. Counting in 2s and 5s. Number bonds. One-to-one correspondence. How to use 100 squares.

DC1 is an avid reader and was around a Year 2 level (I didn't formally assess them). DC1 was ahead of the year group but no as much.

Working with them a little at home meant that they had confidence in their abilities.

TittyGolightly

So, would your child not listen to a teacher until they've earnt respect or not be obedient? How many weeks of a term does it take to earn her respect and wouldn't it be a better use of everyone's time if she was taught that people should be listened to sometimes because of their status.

They are not little adults. They're children and should be treated as such.

TittyGolightly

I'll be teaching DS to respect everyone as default. Respect for others is a basic requirement of participation in society, and no, it's not 'earnt' - it's something every human being is entitled to. It can be lost of course.

Kind of explains a lot though given how disrespectful you've been to others on Mumsnet in the past.

Daughter started school full time at 3.

She's been commended for her approach to school, staff and others by each of her 3 teachers (so far) and I regularly get messages from the headteacher about what a pleasure she is. So I think I'll take that (rather than a bunch of strangers online who think I'm grooming anarchy ) as proof that I'm doing a good job.

Dress self
Manners
Respectful to adults and other children
Eating skills
Helping out with jobs - fostering independence and confidence

I never did anything like phonics. I did however read to my children every day. I do that till they are quite old too. I stopped with DD and DS1 when they were 11 or 12. DS2 is 8 and he still gets read to daily.

Self care skills: getting dressed/undressed,doing their shoes up, toileting,handwashing,recognise their own name etc
Social skills: sharing,taking turns,listening etc
Playing skills: how to use a glue,scissors,paints/paintbrushes correctly etc

And very important is communication. Which is not just vocabulary and language skills,but also listening and response. You can have a kid that chatters for England, if they can't listen to someone else,follow an instruction and so on they will struggle to communicate appropriately ,at least until they learn.

Mine could both read and count to 20 before school as well as having all the relevant life skills like toiletting, dressing/undressing, eating etc.

They could take coat and shoes on and off.
They could wipe themselves.
They knew to wash hands with soap after toilet. If toilet is blocked they knew to pick
another cubicle.
They knew they could remove sweatshirt themselves if hot.
They knew that they could ask for toilet on demand.
They could open all parts of their packed lunch.
They could use cutlery (school dinners)
They knew their teacher's name.

I'm an EYP. Dd and D's had to know how to hold a pencil and use scissors. Both children learned to write their name before going to school!

In that case tilly, your dd is polite and respectful despite your influence. Good on her!

I read to my DC every day from when they were about 3 months. Talked to them all the time. Did lots of craft, singing and cooking. didn't let them watch TV until they were 2. Went to baby groups, farms, parks etc. Played games with them. Made sure they were toilet trained. My DS struggled with his motor skills so in the months before starting school I took a while helping him learn to dress himself and do up his buttons. Pre-school taught them to write their names.

They all hit the ground running academically - learnt to read really quickly once they started. there were still problems though - one couldn't hold a pencil and didn't even know which hand was dominant and another had lots of issues with social skills.

I didn't teach me dc anything... I'm their mum, not their teacher. I did what my parents did for me - read to us everyday, sang nursery rhymes, made silly games with rhyming words, went to lots of places - beaches, castles, parks, woods and answered all their questions. We sang counting songs and looked for colours in nature. We also looked for street furniture to point out environmental print etc.

I was in infants when eldest 2 dc were born. I knew the baseline assessments they would get in P1. I still didn't "teach to the test" - I just did with my dc what my folks did back in the 70's common sense and actual parenting

Me - my. Bloody autocorrect.

How to read and spell his name. We counted as we went up and down stairs, put things away, that sort of thing. Well I counted and he just joined in when he gut bigger and could remember the numbers.

That was about it, academically. He's the youngest in the class and exceeding in all key areas so my lax approach hasn't harmed him! Have friends who put their kids in every group and pre school class going who, I'd rather teach as I go along via conversation, read to him a lot and relax and enjoy the time before school starts and they start telling you you're wrong about everything

Oh, the main thing is toilet training and training them to dress/undress themselves at this age. Plus manners and kindness.