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

Have no trouble believing that’s her writing - have friends with kids at the same and other similar schools - it’s good, but the standards there are pretty high!.....thank God we couldn’t have afforded the fees, my dc would have been bottom of everything!

Did you join just to post on this thread @Norbury101?

@MiniCooperLover

Who do Charlotte and George's messages look like they were written by the same hand?

Because I think they are. They say almost the same thing too.

I’ve no idea what people think is taught at private schools that results in accelerated handwriting. Aside from doing cursive script, we were no different from state pupils.

It’s just practice every day with a tutor/parent/private school! And prioritising nice handwriting as an important skill! Maybe her Maths is average...

I taught in a school (independent) which taught cursive writing from the beginning. I think it's fairly common actually. 20 years ago I did a teaching practice in a state school in a pretty rough area in a big UK city and they introduced in year 2.

I thought Charlotte's handwriting and note was pretty much what you would expect for a child with all her advantages in life and a lot of one-to-one attention at home and small class sizes at school.

No, I joined a while ago.
I felt I could offer an opinion, so I did.

That's cursive , taught as standard here in Ireland I think? My youngest could write like that at 6 yrs as could the majority of her classmates.

DS1's handwriting at age 5 was dreadful. For a start, he held his pencil as if it was a piece of chalk. Then there was the size of the letters - HUGE. He tells me now, at age 12, that this was the result of his 'big brain' figuring out that if the teacher asked them to write a page long story, his wouldn't take too long! His writing is beautiful now - still a bit on the big side, but very neat and even.

I don't know why some feel it's not her writing, it's really neat but by no means unbelievable! That said, it doesn't matter if a child has 'messy' writing or takes longer to pick it up.

It's excellent for Year 1 (I have a current Year 1 child). No doubt Charlotte has had an excellent education and is probably bright too (she always looks it!).

I don’t think it’s hers! It’s in cursive whereas George’s isn’t, which would be odd if they have had the same tutors/been to the same school and Charlotte is the younger one. And the “from” on Louis’ picture seems to be written in the same handwriting. So I reckon Kate wrote it for her.

But Charlotte may well have said what she wanted Kate to write. I usually write in cards on behalf of DS4, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that per se.

This thread is weird. So many people saying ‘there’s no way she wrote that’, yet so many teachers saying they’ve taught multiple kids that age with handwriting like that. Just because your kid couldn’t do that at 5, or still can’t at 7 or 11 or whatever, doesn’t mean no child could. As someone said above, it’s not a knock on their intelligence.

Handwriting peaks around age 8-11 I reckon. Secondary schools don’t put anywhere near the emphasis on it primaries do, so most teenagers stop caring and use a biro and write scruffily. So those of you with teenagers with worse writing than this, it’s probably that. (For what it’s worth, my masters educated husband’s handwriting is also significantly worse than Charlotte’s!)

I also don’t think it looks especially like George’s - same style yes, which I’d expect if they attend the same school as the teachers will all teach the same script. But not similar enough he wrote it for her.

I also don’t think someone else wrote it and she just signed her name. The r in her name is the same slightly misformed style as in the whole note. The kisses at the end are odd though.

I have no idea why I’m so invested in this 😂

I think it’s perfectly plausible to be a tidy 5 year olds, I just don’t think it is.

I think they were just knocked up for PR.

It’s been a bad week for the palace. Next week Will will visit a homeless shelter and Charles will rap a memorial to the queen mum.

I suspect that the Cambridges practice their handwriting because they'll be expected to handwrite many letters in the years to come.

I wondered if Charlotte copied George's message as they both wrote very similar content? Fantastic handwriting for an almost 6yo

Cursive writing is taught in plenty of schools from age 4. Several children in my son's reception class (not my son!!!) write beautifully - both pre-cursive and joined. It's crazy impressive to me, but not actually that unusual.

I love how this thread is split between people saying "there's no way on earth she wrote that" and others saying "meh, it's nothing special, loads of kids that age can write like that" 😆

Some of the comments on here are really odd... it’s a tribute to her grandmother. Do you really think the PR office went out to find a child to write it as a stunt.

Picking apart a five year old is weird.

My dc went to the same school, 3 years apart. They were taught totally different ways to write.

@lozengeoflove

My nearly 5 year old on occasions signs his name as Firbbie. He’s called Freddie. 😬 Also it looks like it was written by someone with the booze shakes.

I’m incredibly proud of him, he wouldn’t even hold a pen at the start of reception.

That really needs to be his nickname. Especially once he's a hulking 17 year old prop forward.

I know children in my ds's year who had very nice handwriting from a very young age, almost from year R. All girls in my case. Not my ds though, but he is a talented roblox player so I'm not too worried......

@feathersandferns

Cursive writing is taught in plenty of schools from age 4. Several children in my son's reception class (not my son!!!) write beautifully - both pre-cursive and joined. It's crazy impressive to me, but not actually that unusual.

Strange that nobody taught George, though?

@AgnesNaismith

Did you join just to post on this thread *@Norbury101*?

Why not? Are you stalking people?

Well you have to have something to show for that price of education.
Do you think she knew the card would be shown to the nation? That’s some pressure to write a neat note! Really don’t envy the RF.

Average to good year 1. I would expect that for a private education and cursive is taught from reception/y1. Reception flick their letters to prepare and summer term will start joining if they're ready. Y1=cursive.

It's so weird that they made the card public like that.