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

@Arrowheart

Give all kids the same age the same privilege and education and I think her handwriting would be average at best. It's the £££££s that's got those results.

You are absolutely right. I taught in a private prep school for a bit and most of the kids had handwriting like that in yr 1. Some better and a couple worse. No selection at entry (well, by wealth, obviously), a longer school day and classes of about 16 - that's half the size of a state primary class.

@Talkwhilstyouwalk

I also find it weird that they are writing to their dead granny that they never met. It's really sad that they didn't get to know Diana but sadly they don't know any different. The pictures are sweet but I find the words a little over the top.

You can feel the absence of somebody keenly even when you didn't personally know of them or remember them as you were too young when they left/died.

@drainrat thank you, that makes total sense - handwriting at preschool? Blimey it’s a different world!

Some of my post was based on me thinking Charlotte was a reception child anyway so is partly irrelevant.

Oh absolutely agree, to any worrying parent out there, handwriting is definitely not linked to intelligence - my brightest children (so I would in this post classify this as my best readers, best at grasping new topics, able to do lots of maths etc independently) have the worst handwriting.

I always remember an interesting study at university, examining X-rays of children’s hands at different ages - and in simple terms starting them too early with letter formation (and being strict about it) can actually be damaging - some children’s hands are simply not internally developed enough to write as soon as some want (and then of course the self esteem damage that follows if they can’t and feel like they should).

Fear not worrying parents, fear not. I second drain rat, no one should be panicking.

@year5teacher

I’ve taught maybe two children who have handwriting like this but I dare say royal children have more input than a frazzled teacher and TA who are trying to stop half the class eating Lego.

I love it! Bless you & the TA, and may none of your kids actually choke. I hope you have plenty of to get you through the week!

I think my daughter’s handwriting was pretty similar to this at age five. My younger boy - totally different, you couldn’t read a word of his writing, literally, until he was eight. I couldn’t check his spelling as I couldn’t read the spelling words he’d written down in class.
If I was paying £30k a year, I’d expect my kid to write like this!!
I don’t think it’s anyone else’s handwriting necessarily, though I suspect someone told her what to write.

My year 1 child writes like that, as does most of his class. It's what you'd expect in a small prep. Cursive handwriting is taught from nursery. Classes are small, and teachers have time for each child. It makes an enormous difference.

To add.... from what I remember much of the early handwriting practice involved dotted line picture patterns and colouring in. They don't beat them to get good results or anything

My dds were taught how to write in a similar cursive style when they started primary school at 4 and still write like that to this day. I still find it quite strange.

My yr 1 DS has massively improved but when he started the year it basically looked like a bunch of spiders had jumped on the page his best friend born the day after him has incredible handwriting though and probably did so at 5

@goodbyegreenbelt good point, the best friend did go to private school for prep - and has gone back to one too

I think it's charming they are talking about Diana and 'sending' her pictures and letters. After all their Granny was the most talked about person in the world for a very long time . She was also extremely beautiful and the whole world loved her, or so it seemed, so it would be obvious to me that her grandchildren would love her too. It speaks well of the way William & Kate have bought them up imho, they have kept the memory of Diana alive for their family and it's lovely . It's the most natural thing in the world to remember our loved ones who have passed.

My dd wrote like that in Y1. She was taught cursive from pre-school (they learn the individual letters in cursive script and then switch to joined when their writing is clear enough.) My sons, otoh, are still not writing that neatly.

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.

I must admit this is pretty much how I felt. I thought it was a bit morbid when I saw it on the news but I’m obviously in the minority. My biological grandfather died when my mum was a child (slightly younger than Harry was when Diana died) and I’m glad that I wasn’t encouraged to write cards like this to him. I don’t think it’s overly healthy for children to be talking about how much they love and miss someone that they never met.

I do think that’s Charlotte’s writing though. The formation of the ‘m’ and the ‘y’ is completely different to George’s.

My youngest daughter didn't know my Dad or my mother in law. She can talk about them til the cows come home though because we talk about them to her.
And I don't even have any video of my Dad, unlike the Royal Family.

My private school educated niece writes exactly like this .... my same age child in state school does not.

My Ds’s handwriting was FAR neater in primary than secondary, just saying! He might go on to be a GP!

Some schools teach cursive from the outset.
Knowing plenty of people with children in Thomas’s, I would say that that is fairly standard handwriting for a Year 1 girl there.

It’s very nice handwriting. But as pps have said, she has an incredibly exclusive education both at school and at home.

My 7 yo’s writing is nothing like as good. And as pps have said, it’s kind of better than mine!

I do think it’s a bit weird to publish their cards to a dead grandmother they never knew, even if for some reason they wanted to make them.

Charlottes handwriting is better than mine

She probably copied it rather than wrote it.

@GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing

I do think it’s a bit weird to publish their cards to a dead grandmother they never knew, even if for some reason they wanted to make them.

It's cynical heart-string -pulling.

@katy1213

She probably copied it rather than wrote it.

Yes!

Incredible for a 5 year old.

Some schools teach cursive from the outset.
Knowing plenty of people with children in Thomas’s, I would say that that is fairly standard handwriting for a Year 1 girl there

But not standard for a Y3 boy who is also a pupil at Thomas’s? George’s writing is also very neat but it is completely different style to Charlotte’s.