Aibu does anyone else have a five year old who writes like this?

[ConkerBonkers]

I am blown away by Charlotte's handwriting, she is only five. Surely this is preternaturally advanced? Link below.

My own DC who is also five cannot write like this, and I thought his writing was great...feeling bad about my homeschool skills!

Please put my mind at rest!

news.sky.com/story/george-charlotte-and-louis-make-cards-for-granny-diana-on-mothers-day-12245781

Norland nanny, Montessori nursery, private school with 18 kids in the class. Meh.

If posters don't think it is her handwriting, whose do you think it is? Did they hire an 8 year old to ghost write it for her?

Brilliant. I think it’ll stick

That was for @NeverDropYourMoonCup
Reply fail.

For those who are now worried their DC can't write as well as, here's my DCs writing.
Top writing is 16 year old DS1
Bottom is 14 year old DS2. I have no idea why he writes so small, his writing was far easier to read when it was a normal size

I know a few children who at 5 years old could write a full A4 length story in handwriting as good as that. All - with one exception - were Chinese.

I always believed it was nurture over nature: you were born bright or you weren’t. Living in Asia changed my view on that.

With the right help, any average child can achieve greatness.

Mother’s Day card from my Year 1 child. She’s left handed and certainly not the neatest in her class. Cursive is taught in Year 1 and some children have absolutely astonishing handwriting by year 2. She copied the words but would have done this in a class setting. I’m quite pleased with it because it’s harder being a leftie.

@Lucyk1

They don't learn this type of hand writing in year 1!

They do at my current school. They did at my previous school. My DS was taught cursive from reception as are all the children in my school.

She's nearly 6 and yes I do think that a child of her age can write like that my son was the same.

Many private school kids in year 1 can write like this, if the school prioritises handwriting. I’d say half of my kids’ class write like this. The spelling may well have been copied, which is fine.

My nephew in year 1 writes a bit like this. I couldn’t believe they have done joined up writing! My dd is in year 1 and her writing is nothing at all like this! He sent us this letter and I couldn’t help but compare. Of course we mustn’t but we do!

Reception class teacher here. In an independent school. That writing has made me feel like an awful teacher......I honestly can’t believe that’s from a 5 year old.

We have only just started introducing cursive on a handful of letters for the brightest few. Charlottes school no doubt assesses on entry, we don’t, so we have a normal balance of ability.

Some of my children (about 3) are writing that small. None of those three are joining all their letters like that or indeed using cursive on their own. They do it in handwriting lessons. These three also form their letters really well.

So either I and countless other teachers are hopeless at our jobs, or this little girl has been pushed ridiculously hard. Or it’s simply not her writing!

None of mine would be able to spell all those words either, so if it is her writing, she has copied or been told how to spell her words,

I love how her writing looks rushed on her own name. My DS the same age does the same thing with his!

Oh she’s year 1! Ok ,ore likely hers then, but not completely ordinary and absolutely no need to panic if your child can’t write like that yet.
I thought Reception, no way.

Ime Y1 and Y2 are the 'sweet spot' for handwriting where they focus so much on teaching cursive.

My eldest is 13 and his handwriting is awful now whereas it was beautiful 5 years ago. If he doesn't turn out to be a Doctor I'll be amazed 😂

She’s in year 1 so 5 going on 6. It’s great handwriting for her age, especially the joined up component. DD1 and DD4 would definitely be capable of the same at a similar age though so I wouldn’t say it would wholly unusual tbh. I also expect she gets a lot of external support with learning than the average person.

And Louis' is good! My boy born same week as Louis is still stabbing at the page furiously with a crayon. Writing his name is faaaaar off.

I don’t have examples but my older in year - year 1 child could definitely write 2 page stories in cursive writing in Year 1 she started learning it in nursery. My youngest child - us different they’ve stopped teaching cursive!

@Bananabuddy3 Nearly all London private schools are highly selective. One of the tests is being able to write your name, aged 3. Unsurprisingly handwriting is something nannies and preschools practice a lot.

Intelligence has nothing to do with handwriting so I’m struggling to see why people here are getting stressed.

Bloody weird to get your children to write cards feigning emotions they can't possibly feel to dead grandmother they never met, let alone loved.

She’s only a few weeks off six. But, yes for the kind of school she goes to, not surprising. Both mine started out at Private school, from 3 1/2 years in the nursery through until they went to a state school in Junior years. I’d say that’s pretty close to what they were doing at that age. But cursive writing was taught from day one. Each day in nursery the first exercise of the day was to write their name on tracing paper over a cursive template. Eventually the tracing paper was removed and they would do it themselves. Alphabet was learnt first by sight and by the time it came to writing the alphabet it was done as separate, entry stroke, cursive letters. I think the thought process is they don’t then have to re-learn the movement and placing to do cursive writing if they start with that as opposed to block script. This approach works very well for some (like Charlotte it seems) but not well at all for others, who could be set back by it if they don’t have the relevant support. But, but, that’s the huge benefit of private school class sizes - DDs classes had 9 and 11 children respectively. If all schools could operate on equal terms like that, this probably wouldn’t be unusual, but obviously that’s not possible. The state school my DDs joined was excellent, and I
without exception, the teachers and TAs were fantastic (as was the Head) but my DDs were approximately a year ahead, at least, of the classes they joined and pretty much stayed that way until they left (this was a few years back when primary schools were allowed to move on pupils through Level 5 and on to Level 6 if they were able, and sit Level 6 sats too).

Bloody weird to get your children to write cards feigning emotions they can't possibly feel to dead grandmother they never met, let alone loved.

I didn’t like to say, but ... yes

Kids have different abilities. Stop comparing.

Bloody weird to get your children to write cards feigning emotions they can't possibly feel to dead grandmother they never met, let alone loved

Not at all and all the more so if a persons memory is kept alive within the family.

@Anne1958

Bloody weird to get your children to write cards feigning emotions they can't possibly feel to dead grandmother they never met, let alone loved

Not at all and all the more so if a persons memory is kept alive within the family.

It's getting small children to pretend they feel something for someone they never met and express sentiment that isn't genuine. It's no wonder the Royal Family are so fucked up. They're taught to display emotions by rote.