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

Oh yes I forgot, there’s the apostrophe as well! Definitely not all her own work aged 5

Dd2 is yr1 but already 6 & if she concentrates really hard on doing her very best handwriting then it can be like that.
Otoh it can still be a a huge range of sizes at various angles all over the page 😂. Like with everything they all get there in the end - dd1 has beautiful writing now in yr5 but in yr1 it was barely legible.
Cursive is not unusual though. They start in reception.
Definitely feasible that it's Charlotte's imo.

My grandson aged 5 has beautiful handwriting but to learn cursive at 5 is quite something. OH teacher said his handwriting resembled a drunk spider which had fallen in the inkwell then staggered across his books 🙈

It is pretty incredible handwriting. Not unbelievable that a 5 year old could have written it, but certainly not the norm. They are probably being tutored, have nannies etc and are contantly practicing.

My son is 7 in Y2 and daughter is 4 in YR, both have very very basic handwriting.

I struggle to believe this is a 5 year olds, but even if it is, it doesn't mean she's brighter.

My DD1 could write like this at age 5 - she went to an independent school and they spent a huge amount of time on handwriting. It all went completely down the toilet in secondary and is barely legible nowadays.

WTAF - it doesn't matter, there isn't a job or a university degree where you get a special badge for having the best handwriting.

@TheKeatingFive

I don’t know any children that age writing cursive.

Strange.

Loads do though, it’s quite often taught from reception now.

My DD's was similar to this by the very end of year 1, massive jump for her in the summer term once she was taught joined up.

I have terrible hand writing btw - i'm left handed, also crap at spelling, but have post grad qualifications and earn well.

Plenty of Year 1 5-year-olds have similar handwriting.

She has the best education money can buy, including private schooling and tutoring. Moreover, if it's anything like my friends' upbringings, there's an emphasis placed on public-facing skills (which includes handwriting). We're not seeing her maths homework.

It's obviously not the same hand as her brother's.

This is a weird thread.

My son is age 5/year 1 and is taught cursive only at school. Bless his cotton socks, his writing, as lovely as it is, is not remotely close to that in any way shape of form. In fact my husband still can’t write anywhere nearly that beautifully, not one letter. I’d be thrilled to receive a card that well written from him and he’s pushing 40! I really wouldn’t worry.

My DC used to write like that at the same age. I think it’s down to practice, nothing extraordinary.

@Esse321

WTAF - it doesn't matter, there isn't a job or a university degree where you get a special badge for having the best handwriting.

😂 I would go as far as saying that, in some fields of work, if you have a great hand writing style left by the time you finish, you probably didn’t do it right.

Nobody else think it is weird that the messages are to a dead grandmother they have never met rather than to any if their living grandmothers or actual mother?

Yes, really weird.

There is a camp in education advocating teaching children cursive first, and maybe she has done pre-cursive? Her next stage would be joining the letters up. They are already in cursive style.

Our 5yr olds writing has definitely improved over lockdown.

I have kids who are 7 in my class (P1/2) and their handwriting is nowhere near this standard. It’s definitely not just ‘average good’

They probably made cards for mum, granny, and g-granny but didn't show them, maybe because the publishing of the cards for Diana is a dig at H&M.

Some mental bitter jelous bitches on mumsnet tonight isnt there

A princess with a good education develops beautiful handwriting early on which is both possible and expected for her social standing and instead of just praising a 5 year olds beautiful writing, theres nasty bitter women bleating about how its not possible because their kid can't produce anything of that standard and even nastier talking about how having good handwriting doesnt make her bright. Remember your bitching about a fucking five year old child.

I reckon that Princess Charlotte dictated it to someone (either one of her parents or the nanny) and they wrote it out for her by hand and then she copied it out neatly. That’s what my mother used to do for me when I was that sort of age. It would explain the apostrophe etc as well. It’s certainly lovely handwriting and advanced for not quite six, but definitely done by a child! Then maybe she just added her name and the kisses on freehand at the end which is why they look a bit different.

@GNCQ

It's cursive writing.

They don't normally even start teaching that until a child is 8 years old.

It's no way Charlotte's writing.

Well it's more like pre-cursive, not full cursive, because the letters aren't consistently joined up, and even where they appear to be, sometimes I think it's just that the leads happen to line up, rather than it being done deliberately.

They teach pre-cursive right from the start in several of the schools I know of in my local area.

So I'd say this is neater than average, but nothing extraordinary (especially considering their resources).

It's really good. But there's a couple of kids in my children's year 1 class who are similar.

If I asked my kids to write the same I'd have to have a long lie down from the whinging.

MY two children had really good handwriting at ages 5 plus years ago, They both started school aged five, in the 70's era. I spent a lot of time, teaching and helping them to write well, and with reading as well.

My son now almost 50, composes letter etc, really well, but now his handwriting is hard to read, as he writes so quickly and it all comes out like quick scribbles. My daughter still writes well, and funnily, her writing style is exactly the same as mine. if we both wrote the same things on a letter page, you wouldn't be able to say. which was which at all.