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 Grandson was nine when he really started reading...home educated following the Scandinavian principle of learning through play, and not starting any formal teaching until age 7. He now powers his way through books like Harry Potter, or text books about his many interests. I fully expect him to go to University when he's older, like his cousin who was also home educated.
Your little girl seems to be doing fine, and I think you should relax and let her follow her interests , then provide materials to enable her to extend her knowledge. The advantage of what you're doing is that you can have a much more holistic approach to her education.

At 6 my DD2 could read and write nothing. She was not interested. She now has a first class degree and a good job. Age 6 is far too young to be worrying. My Finnish nieces and nephews hadn't even a begun school by that age! Children all develop at different times.

So, can I ask you; do you and his teachers consider him to be "behind"?

I ask because that's been suggested a few times on this thread.

I'm not sure what you are suggesting I don't realise, sorry?

It just sounded like you thought taking GCSE Sciences would be enough to pursue a career, which I’m sure you don’t! A friend of mine home educated her ds, until it became clear that his ambition (to go to Oxbridge) would probably be better served by a more conventional route. But that’s many years down the line for your dd, of course, should that be the case.

Sorry, didn't read all your posts. I didn't see you were home-schooling DC.

You say her father is dyslexic... it runs in families. So she may need a different approach to learn.

How is her reading and comprehension?

With her science kits, do you record the results, guess whats going to happen before doing it, compare things? Writing doesn't just happen in English.

Thanks. It's very holistic yes. She likes physical stuff so does clubs for that. We do meet ups and days out.

She's definitely advanced in some areas.

I appreciate what you've said. I just want to reiterate I'm not "worried", I'm just looking for some input from a specific group of people.

Thank you again. I agree with you.

I don't think it's something you need to worry about. In some countries they don't even start tracing writing until 7 because children don't all have the dexterity and fine monitor skills they need before then.

There's lots of ways through play you can develop these skills. Maybe think about researching and implementing these at home?

Honestly, my daughter can write a sentence more complicated than that. She's 4, in reception, and I'd assumed very average (certainly she's not in the league of my older daughter who was reading at the level of a 6 year old in nursery). She may not spell everything correctly and will use phonetic sounds, still does some of her letters backwards, but 'I got a bag' would not be challenging for her.

For a home educated child, who should not have been affected in the same way as children attending school during lockdown, I'd have expected independent writing quite a while ago tbh.

But you're comparing the National Curriculum to an independent one. I'm sure there are many benefits of home education that children in the school system don't get. It's whether you're happy with her progress or not.

Can I ask if they would spell all these words correctly? My daughter can write lots of sentences but would definitely spell those words incorrectly. Thanks

Don’t let her interest in science mean you don’t put as much focus on writing. My OH is a scientist and is struggling with the writing side of things, which is actually a really important part of science as a career (writing research papers, conference stuff, communicating your work).

clairemaddox He is an adult now and all the school could say was that he was mentally retarded and needed to go to the Special School as he was unteachable and his level was that of a 9 month old baby.
As he scored 0 on his exams and tests. Possibly because he couldn’t read the questions

He has dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD (going through assessment only now) School refused to acknowledge he could have any learning difficulties as the H/T didn’t believe in them.

He is actually very bright. He just can’t focus and even though he can read he still can’t read his own handwriting.
He has taught himself Stock Trading. He has learned Spanish and atm is coming. back to an algorithm he started to write last year to help with his trading.

He is all over the place.
I feel really upset that not only did I not see sooner how bad the school was and believed the OFSTED rating but I didn’t find him a senior school that would have helped him and made allowances for his SENs.

He did attempt senior school but they were so huge and it was more crowd control than actually getting to know individuals and I think he got lost.

Although from being told he was mentally retarded and unteachable and scoring 0 in exams the senior school he started in had exams to see which level the pupils were on for different subjects.
He came 2nd out of the intake of 300 pupils in Maths.

I don’t get the impression that your worried your dd isn’t capable of keeping up, OP, just that you’ve been pursuing other interests, is that right?

If that’s the case, then yes, she probably is a bit behind in writing at the moment. I’d say her level is about the average of my son’s reception class at this stage in the year with some much further ahead. But as she’s older she’ll pick it up quickly if you choose to focus on it more.

Reading further, OP, I have a feeling your reason for home educating is because you want your child to be better /in some areas/ than a school educated child.

I think it would be great if you could let go of your own aspirations and concentrated on what your child is good at and interested in rather then push her in areas she is not ready for yet or not that interested in.

Btw I also found your answer about the reason why you want to homeschool weird, possibly defensive. As if you dont have a reason, or a well articulated reason. Later you mentioned you want to tailor the educations to her needs but to me it seems you are tailoring it to your own needs driven by your anxiety that your child wont be good enough.

Why does it matter what other people's 6 year olds are doing?? Stop trying to compare your child. I have a 6 year old too, I have no idea what anyone else's 6 year old is up to, nor do I care. I'd speak to her teacher if I was worried, I'm not as we have 3× parents evenings a year to let us know how they are doing and what they need to work on if anything. Speak to her teacher if you feel she's behind, I'm sure they will give you pointers to help at home if they perceive she is behind where they'd expect her to be.

A little bit behind but I wouldn't say drastically.

My 6 year old (nearly 7) has one of those little diaries with a padlock that she writes in about her day and feelings and how I am a wicked evil parent for saying no chocolate for breakfast and she does write in full sentences but not complex ones and not much grammar if any. Mostly things like 'me and mummy went and got Andrea a birthday present that was a dolly and I wanted a dolly but mummy said no. the bitch'

But on the other hand her maths is atrocious. The 3 times table still eludes her. Think she gets that from me, my maths was awful too.

A few people have mentioned learning through play in a number of European countries. From experience (DCs at primary in the Netherlands) this is very specific play to teach the skill of going to school, learning to listen, take turns etc. Also there are lots of activities to teach fine motor skills - drawing patterns etc.

The children then learn to read and write in year 3 so around 7 or 8. They do all have beautiful handwriting (all that pattern drawing had a purpose).

I am not sure what the big gain is for learning to read & write early.

I’ve only read the first page so sorry if you’ve had this answer 20 times. My DD has just turned 5 this month, she’s been writing short sentences since just after Christmas, but I think the main point is it’s independent writing that her teacher focuses on, they give ideas or a subject, and DD has to come up with her own sentence.

When we were home schooling my older DS (due to lockdown) at that age he was expected to write short paragraphs. My kids also do lots of science experiments and attend lots of clubs and focus on their likes at home, I don’t think that would make up for their knowing less writing and maths, it’s an addition, not a unique advantage to home schooling. However all children are different, I’m sure there are probably kids in both my childrens classes that are both further ahead and further behind than my kids, I wouldn’t worry a this age. If possible though I would look at school targets and try and keep to a similar line (like how would your child do in the Y1 phonics screening), mostly so that if your child does struggle you are well positioned to spot it while they are still young.

Ha , so very true 😁

You've articulated it better than me!

OP when people HE it's usually because they wholeheartedly buy into the principle of child rather than adult led. But you appear to have tried it this way for a year or two, discovered that means she is storming ahead in some areas, far behind in others. In a HE environment this is exactly what is supposed to happen - it's a feature not a bug!

But the being behind has concerned you, even though that's expected, and you're now switching from child-led to adult-led - mimicking school!

I certainly won't, that would be very silly.

I teach children of the same age and the majority of them write a lot more than that independently but I wouldn't worry about it. From what you have said it seems they are achieving in line with their peers in other areas and you probably haven't focussed as much on writing yet. I'm sure they will catch up quickly. Are you teaching phonics? It's a good way to kick start reading and writing and giving independence, which can then be built upon with spelling rules etc as a child gets a bit older.

Well, imho most people who send their children to school isnt a well-though reason but something that is just a normal expected thing to do.

No I don't think that at all. I've got a degree myself, I'm unsure how you think anyone could be under such a ridiculous impression.

I didn't sound like I said that... and you know I didn't mean that?

Anyway, obviously GCSEs are just the beginning.