To expect my reception age child to be doing at least a bit of 'work'?

[Hmmmmminteresting]

I may have this wrong as he is my first born. But dc is in reception, prior to this he was at nursery post lockdown till end of Aug.
I wouldnt say he is particularly clever, but he enjoyed learning. He was very good at phonics, numbers and rhyming. He could do basic adding and subtraction up to 30 eg. He could do 27 take away 4 etc. Since he has started school he does nothing, they just play.
Don't get me wrong I am all for them doing this and would much rather they play than sat all day 'working'. But they are literally doing nothing. He keeps telling me its boring. I feel like he has taken 5 steps back.
I asked his teacher briefly if he was correct and she said yes, it's a transition from nursery to year 1 so its focused on play and not school work. I didnt push further but I've come away feeling really deflated.

Aibu to expect them to teach them something?!

Another one here that says stick with it , concentrate on stretching your child sideways . The U.K. education is narrow and linear , that narrowness and a string of top grade qualifications at GCSE etc will be great And it will open doors BUT it won’t make him happier or more fulfilled or more resilient or better at his job .

Those skills come from what you put around a child’s formal education. The music, the team games , the Volunteering ( older obviously ) art , languages , cooking , the exposure to different types of people etc and the ability to try again when you fail the first time ( very important for bright children who are often too used to getting things right first time)

What he has at the moment is potential , it doesn’t matter how many digraphs he knows in the long run , it matters that he develops a love of reading which both enables him to access the higher levels of the curriculum when he heeds to and crucially gives him pleasure and broadens his mind .

The aim is to raise a well rounded, happy and socially responsible individual . I vividly remember being bored stupid by the academics at primary school ( I taught myself to read by about 3 , I am good at codes etc and it just seemed obvious . My mother thought I was memorising until she started giving me new books ! ) but the things I really gained were fabulous afternoons learning craft , playing the piano, singing ,making friends and playing tag etc. I only realised this by watching my own children and now they are almost grown I can see that the things which are really helping them In their adult lives are their resilience , their ability to pick themselves up and try again when things go wrong, their ability to work as a team , their hobbies which give them pleasure, their loyal and close friendships etc

You sound like you are a great mum by the way, don’t listen to the people darling on here. You will discover that you can talk at length about how good at football your child is but god forbid you say he’s good at academic subjects .

If your son is bored then it sounds like he does indeed have a lot to learn

This. If he is bright, then playtime should provide ample opportunity to exercise that brightness. Imaginative play, problem-solving, story-telling, music, art- there is so much of learning going on. Using building blocks develops spatial skills. Playing with other children develops language skills as well as social skills. My niece used to make up playlets for her siblings to act in. Ds built a castle in the playpit and made up a whole story about how the people who lived in it sat in there and told stories about the beings who made their world (i.e. him). He also invented his own language at this age.

I would also strongly encourage doing home activities that show him that the world of learning is wider than worksheets and that the same problem-solving skills that go into e.g. a maths exercise are the ones we use when doing DIY or baking a cake. My nephews were encouraged to learn woodwork- using a hammer etc- at this age, and I even remember seeing one of my nephews aged 4 propped up on a chair cooking a stir fry. He is now at a very prestigious university studying a STEM subject. And is an excellent cook.

Art is another good one- there's really no limit to how much you can develop your drawing skills or the art of telling a story through images. And music- closely akin to mathematics in many ways.

Nature is obvious: bird watching, learning to recognise bugs and insects, the constellations, growing plants from seeds.

I am often grateful I grew up in a society where academic brightness was not supposed to make you unfit for play or practical ability.

He's just settling in, they will be working out where all the kids are over the next few weeks. I had a similar situation, my dd started school being able to read fluently and do maths (she's autistic so her development is far from typical, her social skills still suck!) after about a month I was summoned to the school and they explained they were putting her on an individualised learning plan to suit her needs but would still send home the normal spellings etc to ensure there were no gaps, we also were advised on good books to introduce etc (topics that would interest a 5 year old but harder to read basically)

Your child is definitely more advanced than most of his peers at the moment - I can’t really say whether this is through natural ability or being taught, probably both. Most of year R is about foundations, some people have said upthread about building strength and concentration. Things that are way more fundamental than most of us would think about but are really important for future education.

If he’s good at maths then he will probably always be good at maths, he won’t ‘lose’ that ability, and it will be waiting for him. Primary schools also have very specific teaching and learning tools, our school even has parents’ workshops so that we can learn how to help our kids. Actively teaching them can do more harm than good.

It could also be that while he excels in some areas, he might need support in others. And school will work on that with him. Targets tend to be very individual.

Let the school do what they do best. Your job is to nurture.

In British society OP we try very hard not to acknowledge that some children are naturally more academically able than others. As a PP said, there would be a big fuss if a struggling less able child was expected to just cope with the pace of the average ability in reception with little differentiation, but in reception at least the most able are often not stretched on academics even if they are very ready.

As another person said.... you can boast that your child is the best footballer ever or brilliant at singing but heaven forbid they be good at maths or reading.

Ps OPs child wont be bored by the play

He will be bored by the time spent on an activity designed to help the less academically able children learn the letter A, if he already knows it, the sound,can blend it with the others, recognise the upper and lower case forms.

I get you, OP. I have a bright child who was well stretched by a fabulous nursery and found the pace of early primary school a bit slow.

You are not allowed to say that on here though apparently.

All you can do is stretch him in other ways yourself. There are lots of great resources out there. Follow his lead, what he’s interested in.

He will be bored by the time spent on an activity designed to help the less academically able children learn the letter A, if he already knows it, the sound,can blend it with the others, recognise the upper and lower case forms.

Exactly

Are you a qualified teacher ?

How old is he? I remember working in p1 age 4/5??

Alot of people seem to think children playing at school and not doing anything they find interesting means they are happy. If the play is designed to get them doing something they have been doing for a couple of years it isn't fun. Imagine going into work and your boss producing some lovely coloured laces and saying we are going to spend the next hour learning how to tie our laces properly and you had to do that for an hour every morning. How many days/weeks would it be before you were bored out of your brain? Well that is how my DD felt with hours and hours spent learning phonics when she was reading things like Black Beauty or how she felt with music that involved banging a drum when she was working on grade 2 piano. I know it was inconvenient for the teacher but it was soul destroying for my DD. Her teacher made it quite clear she found it annoying and we pulled her out when the teacher told her she was a nuisance. When challenged the teacher didn't deny it.

Quoting Maria Montessori isn't really helpful, she believed in children doing self directed play learning. I have never read anything to suggest that she actively stopped children reading or writing if that was what they wanted to do.

@redlockscelt

Are you a qualified teacher ?

I think OP has definitely exaggerated by far.

Exaggerated what?

Can he use a Venn or Carroll diagram? Tell a pyramid from a cone? No to those

LOL

I put a Venn diagram in a uni essay and my lecturer thought it was wonderful and said he'd never seen one before.

OP

I think you have the idea that you don't need to panic, just relax. Make an appointment to see the teacher if you want more explanation.

A lot of learning can go on in one 'play slot' . Imagine a role play shop with a child as shopkeeper and other children buying things.

You might think the 'shop keeper' is practicing maths and the others are not doing much but they are all learning to add and subtract, if they are using play money they are using and developing fine motor skills, they are learning manners and increasing their vocabulary.

If they have shopping bags / baskets / trolleys then they are learning about space, fitting shapes, estimating what will fit where.

They may be learning to tell the time and see how many hours the shop is open.

There are probably another 20+ skills they are learning or practising.

My 5 year old has just gone into P1 (Scotland 1st year of school) having done 2 terms of reception in England before the pandemic hit, so she is "ahead" on formal learning compared with most of her class.

She is enjoying the story telling practice (Billy Goats Gruff recital) and 'practicing' drawing with chalk and water outside plus all the outdoor play that is also "counting" practice.

She's also practicing being kind, sharing, relationships in a new peer group with very different accents (Glasgow area). Plus running, jumping, going to the local playpark etc.

We are now 6 weeks in and in the last 2 weeks the teachers have been pushing her harder in maths and reading, but most of the activities are open ended enough for her to stretch herself - building a more complicated castle model, drawing a more detailed picture on the topic requested etc.

She has never once complained of being bored at school because she's always been able to play with things that interest her.

Does your DS like drawing? That's both play and really good for later pen control skills, Lego (we've done some second hand technic sets together) is great for finger strength.

I would also say I remember being bored at primary as I could read fluently before I arrived. I deliberately made the decision not to teach reading before mine started reception. I might regret that but I’d say my 4yo is much more confident and physically able than I was at that age as I’ve pushed social and sport skills more than academic ones. I was a very shy academic child and I don’t think it did me any favours really.

My dd used to come home from reception and say they had just played all day.

When I went to an open morning. They were indeed "playing".. but it was very much linked to learning.

They made rhyming soup in the mud kitchen, did phonics using footballs with phonics on, jumped on lily pads shouting out the numbers on them, used tweezers to count beads from one box to another (for example).

So, they all felt like they were playing a lot of the time, but it was very much active learning and developing the motor skills they needed for writing.

Why boy see if you can have a meeting with the teacher? Then you can find out how they think your child is doing. What he tells you and what actually happens may be very different!
More structure to lessons will come once the children have settled in. It's a lot to get used to and they tend to phase in phonics, numeracy etc. The teachers also need to assess the children to see what level they are at, this can take a few weeks depending on size of the class, any SEN etc.

My DNiece is highly gifted and has always had a reading age far higher than her actual age. But she also has a lot of anxiety and struggles to relate to her peers, she gets on better with older children and adults. And yes, she also wasn't challenged enough at school.

Because my DSis is a real bookworm (like me ), she's always encouraged her to read more challenging books, and she's long since read all the Harry Potter books and many other books. I think that's why she's as advanced as she is now.

She's also a very talented pianist, and also very diligent about practising.

So the thing to do is focus on extending his learning at home. He will be learning new things at school, however, so I think you need to flow with it. It sounds like he's settled in well and making friends so it's actually all good.

Teachers must be so bored of the "highly gifted" children. There are a few, of course there are. But in a class of 30 kids, abilities vary immensely and most of the "highly gifted" just have a bog standard level.

Half the kids in my youngest class are reading way ahead of age level or exceeding expectations. It's perfectly... normal. It doesn't make them geniuses, just normal little boys and girls reading average band level from the next year group or 2 year groups ahead.
The others will catch up.

Half the class is amazing at climbing trees. The others need a push or don't like it. It's perfectly normal too.

Some exceed at reading and climbing, some are not interested in either. They are only little ,who cares.

It's essential to be proud and supportive of your own child, but makes you sound silly to have a child amazingly "ahead of his age group" when really, they are just perfectly average.

If your 4 year old has already fully mastered shoe lace, doing his tie, learning the time, reading, time tables etc.., you have an endless choice of resources that can interest them anyway.

It's essential to be proud and supportive of your own child, but makes you sound silly to have a child amazingly "ahead of his age group" when really, they are just perfectly average.

This is the sort of attitude that is prevalent in the UK.that it is impossible that some children are simply more able. To be clear, mine isnt. He's a lovely happy average boy . But some kids are honestly just better at damn near anything, and always will be. My nephew is bloody good at everything. Honestly. And his older cousin, my other nephew, he doesnt ever "catch him up". Of course this wont apply to all situations. But in some it simply does and we are not good at recognising/acknowledging it in the UK.

Come on op - it was a big of a brag

Every school is different - in my children’s school - they are a largely academic school so the focus on homework, reading, English , maths were there from the start - this is not to say that they are all robots and have no play, it’s just the focus is a bit more on the academic side.

You have to trust the teachers here - they know what they are doing, you don’t. You are his mother, there to nurture him and build on what they have done at school. Not tell the a hill what they need to be doing. Take it easy.

Loads can be learnt through play. Also bear in mind kids start school very young in this country. A lot of countries don’t even start proper school until they’re 7.

From my experience schools are more concerned with helping the backwards children meet the "average" targets than progressing the clever ones as that is what they are measured on. Maybe that's how it has to be but it sucks for the clever ones.

An increasing number of children in Reception can't sit still, go to the toilet alone,etc.so it's up to you as a parent to challenge and interest your own child outside school - music and sport and maybe things like computer programming. Hopefully there is at least one other child in his class who is very bright too so once the teacher has assessed everyone's level they can do extended work together.

I'd suggest helping him learn to read asap as then he can lose himself in books - this transformed one of mine from a bored miserable child to a happy one. Social skills are important but not ever child is an extrovert and it sounds as if your son is doing fine. I'm afraid I have much less faith in teachers than some of the other posters here. Good Luck.

I was really worried about my 5 year old being bored as she'd probably done at least a term of the work before (6 month older cohort in Scotland so they move faster).

Although she probably doesn't need to learn the jolly phonics songs she's enjoying them as "new" songs.

We also have days of the week set to the Adams Family theme! She knows the days, didn't know the song so gets learning out of the process (improving memory for songs and words)

Phonics and maths are a tiny part of the day, everything else is much more open ended!