Six year old just learned to write a sentence.

[clairemaddox]

I would like to gauge an idea of whether my six year old needs more work or not. She has been concentrating on sums and learning how to write.

She just turned six and she wrote 'i got a bag' on her own without help.

This is the first sentence she has written all by herself in her book unaided.

I know every child is different, but is this "behind" or not?

My ds was at around that level at 6 (although Aug born so youngest in his school year)and his hand writing was terrible - the school said he was behind and continued to be behind all the way through primary, however when he started year 7 this year something just clicked I am not sure if he just finds the learning material more interesting or he has just matured but when they put them in classes based on ability he is in much higher than we expected so I wouldn’t worry at this point just keep it enjoyable she will progress at her own pace the worse thing you can do is try and push it too much (we did this with reading and it is now a massive battle 🙄).

Completely agree with this. Speak to their teacher if you’re unsure about their progress.

Oh just read they’re homeschooled! Apologies

In my 6yo case (almost 7, in Y2) I would agree with this. Parents evening 6 weeks ago my sons writing was to be honest, pretty bad. He knows how to structure a sentence, use of punctuation, capital letters etc, comes up with plenty of really good ideas for his work, it’s just his actual handwriting which needs work. It’s been worse since the move towards joined up writing, when they were just learning to write and it didn’t need to be joined. although it was still messy I could read it. The move to joining up his letters he’s found hard. But he’s started having 1 to 1 help at school as well as small group sessions and doing little bits at home and there’s already an improvement just in this half term.

OP just practice as much as you can. My sons school use letter join and that’s what they’ve asked us to use at home too, maybe worth looking into?

Well I didn't put it in because I just wanted input but people kept saying speak to teacher.

I've had good responses though and feel she needs improvement in this area. Other areas I know for a fact she is doing extremely well.

are you apart of homeschooling Facebook groups or local meets?

My daughter is in a school. She is almost 6 year one and can't write at all she does know how to write her name but this is through repetition rather than an understanding of the letters.

However she is dyslexic

Children enter education in the Uk at age 4-5 here. The first year is learning through play and mostly phonics learning letters through song and drawing colouring.

Repetition of key phrases and development of fine motor skills are important.

The following years tend to see less play and capturing science, history, geography literature through reading books through drawing, dressing up, play acting and music song. Constructive play is also important learning team work.

Although school life is sometimes unsatisfactory it develops the whole child. I was so excited that both my DCs could read quite fluently wishing 4 months of starting reception.

Then on the basis that unlike most six years olds, she won’t have had a disrupted start to her education, I would say she is ok. There are plenty in my six year old’s class who have had a disrupted education who are significantly better and the last term’s homework included writing a short review about a film which is what the age is expected to be able to do. However, there will always be plenty who aren’t at standard and it’s very normal at this age to be behind without it signifying that the child will be behind at a later date.

Behind who/what?

Your DD will proceed at her own pace; and part of the joy of home education is to be free of these iniquitous comparisons. Well done for getting stuck into her teaching at home.

I know it's not what you asked, but in case it's useful...

DD's school uses a website called Doodle Learning for maths and English homework and DD loves it.

www.doodlelearning.com

Also, we discovered Outschool during lockdown - live online classes on thousands of different topics for small groups of kids. Some of them have been brilliant. There are one off sessions and regular classes.

outschool.com

I think actually the question of why you have decided to home school is a good one for you to think about, rather than a flippant (defensive?) 'well why do you school educate' response.

The point of home educating I thought was to enable learning at a pace and content decided by the child - which is what the HE community you're involved in seems to embrace. Yet you appear to want her education to be at a pace set by you based on expectations of school learning. They seem diametrically opposed principles hence the difficulty you're now in and needing to seek external input.

Perhaps think about what you want for her a little more?

Here's a piece of work (if the photo works) from my child's year 1 book. You can see the prompts at the top showing what they are expected to include: capital letters, punctuation, finger spaces, phonics knowledge, I can't remember what the hands mean, 2A means their sentences should contain 2 adjectives.

I don't think it's hugely helpful to compare, your child will obviously be able to write when they get a little older.

There is also a big difference between between the skills in decoding (reading) and coding (writing) a language.

As you asked, my 5yr old is able to independently writing sentences. She could write a two part sentence with a linking word and an adjective. She might forget to capitalise the first letter, or she might forget the full stop. The spellings would be 80% there but complicated words would be incorrect. Eg she knows all the usual tricky words such as 'was' but beautiful would be 'bootiful'.

Thank you.

@cecilthehungryspider I’m guessing the hands mean conjunctions, words like and, so, but.

It's not defensive but it's a huge question and I'm saying the reasons are just the same; it's what I think is going to give her the best education and the best opportunities in life. She can socialise with a peer group who will be interesting and varied.

I think the reasons will be the "same" in that we've chosen something we think will meet their needs.

That was my point and the reason for my question, not to be defensive.

I didn't say I was in difficulty either by the way, just seeking some input, which I've found very useful.

I've seen just from this thread that some would expect more, and a smaller group would expect less.

I'm listening to the ones who would expect more so I can aim the highest.

She wants to be a scientist so I envisage her taking GCSEs in science subjects when she is ready.

As for the English, it's so important to be literate that I want to ensure she remains along with the national average, which I can of course look up, but fancies some raw input from a more personal, perhaps judgemental perspective, so I could ensure she wasn't being sold short.

A 6 y.o. writing such a small sentence as that would suggest that she is a little behind. However, I wouldn't worry about it at the moment, because she will catch up eventually.

She'll catch up quickly yes and my focus in this area will now be some of the projects I've seen above. It really helps me to get this type of input so I can structure our weeks.

I’d expect a homeschooled child to be further than this tbh. My youngest ds is 5 and a half and his homework for half term was to write a story that he’d be able to read out loud to the class. He wrote a story about an ant called Sid who went to the beach. He did have my help in coming up with an idea for a story that he’d be capable of writing on his own, but he came up with the sentences and did all the correct spellings and punctuation etc without help. I homeschooled my dd’s through lockdown and they were flying ahead by the time they went back to school due to the 1 on 1 teaching. My dd2 (currently panicking about sats) said only 2 days ago that she wished I could still homeschool her, as her teacher spends 20 minutes explaining things to the class and then constantly repeating it to the children who weren’t listening or don’t understand. She’d spend a full week learning something in school that I could cover and get her to understand in one morning.

My year 1 daughter, can write a paragraph with 3 or 4 sentences. Her writing is clear with basic punctuation. The writing itself fits within the line (However she is a reluctant writer, so has to be coaxed).

What you describe is what my child was like in reception. However I know that a few in her class are still at this stage, but it is not the norm.

That's brilliant. I remember doing stories about ants too. Also, my daughter loves ants. I'm going to formulate a project like this for when she gets back.

I just wanted to add if she's happy to write without being made to then that's amazing. Most children in school hate writing (because we teach too much, too soon).

Also it sounds like her maths is amazing, we've only just started covering sharing equally and most of the children are finding it tricky!!

When my children were in year R most of the class were achieving this by the end of the school year (so age 4y11m to 5y10m). Some were writing writing longer sentences and paragraphs. A few weren't yet and I guess they would have been 'working towards' expectations rather than meeting expectations. I know this because they invited parents to look around the classroom and had lots of work on the walls. Are you planning for her to enter the school system at some point?

I don’t think it’s the “same” reasons- when the reason people have chosen school based education is due to the fact that their child will be taught by professionally trained experts, who know the expected outcomes for each stage etc.
That is not to say anything against home ed, by the way. But as PP says, if you choose home ed, you are choosing a particular way of learning and way of progressing where you can’t really compare it to school based. You’re comparing apples and oranges really.

Honestly she flew through the maths but I'm terrible at maths so she's going to need a tutor pretty soon as I will max out.

Her father was dyslexic and terrible at literacy and I do not want the same for her. I pushed her a bit, then focused on other things, and then she brought me the sentence. So I'm going to go back to English now and see about bringing her up to the levels I've seen here.