What age would you put this child at?

[Cbeebiesisdifferentonasaturday]

For writing etc? Any teachers to give feedback would also be very helpful 🙏

Anywhere in primary school up to 12 to be honest ive seen a lot of dodgy handwriting & trying to not get distracted by what the writing says

No idea, but that CAT drawing is amazing!!!

This is how children learn to write - where's the enjoyment if they have to get every letter right every time? Let them play with the shapes and the feeling of writing, let them make their words - they are communicating - that is the purpose of writing. It's not bad teaching, it's emergent and developing writing and totally normal. Some reception won't be 5 until this August, that's a whole school year with 4 year old hands and motor control. Imagine failing at 4 because your letters are incorrect. Glad my kids don't go to his school.

Yes I thought similar. It looks copied rather than independently produced. A “pushed” child ( ie home taught to copy/ reproduce rather than having learned the alphabet and how to form the letters ) might do it as young as 2 or 3 but I’d say there is a bit of“ unlearning “ to do.

I also noticed the spelling , especially of “one” which is not phonetically consistent so not a word that would normally come with that level of handwriting, and that made me wonder if it is an older child ( even as old as 6) who is just struggling a bit with handwriting ( some very bright children actually do as their concepts/ spelling outstrip their motor skills).

Taken as a whole though, and ignoring unusual letter formation etc, I’d say a 4 year old in reception ( or 5 if they have an autumn/ winter birthday)

I wanna go to doggy land!

I'd say 4 (non expert).

And having now caught up, I see she's not been taught handwriting yet where you are, so that makes sense of the less practice in fine motor skills and handwriting in particular. With that additional information, I still think she's doing great, and she'll pick up the handwriting very quickly when school get teaching it because she's clearly got an interest. And she'll have the bilingual skills to boot. Lucky girl.

5-6?
Maybe 6-7?

As someone with a 5 and a half year old and a 3 years old lots of people here are seriously overestimating the capabilities of a 4-5 year old.

My kid (who is doing perfectly fine in writing according to his teachers) can write his name, with letters of wildly varying size (one might be half the page and the other normal size) and with half the letters backward.

This matches in style with the handwritten parts of birthday cards he received from classmates. My 15 year old was the same at 5.

He cannot really spell at all as they are only just learning this concept now (spelled House on a drawing the other day as Hows as they basically just try to match sounds to the sounds they have been taught letters make).

My 3 year old who starts school in September cannot write anything at all.

4 or 5. Looks like early reception standard.

If she's learning a different way in the country you are in I don't think it is a good idea to confuse her with the British way. By the time I was in year 2 I was in my 3rd school and 5th teacher. My handwriting was a mess as they all seemed to have different ways of forming letters. My handwriting never really recovered and is still a mess at 70.

Are you moving back to UK at some time, I imagine that could be worrying about how she will fit in with what kids are doing here but I wouldn't worry, she will soon catch up.

Good reception kid or slightly struggling year 1 kid.
Or if additional needs then doing great for an older kid still. Don't worry about where your child is compared to others, as long as they're doing their own best then it's fine.

Don't compare with UK practices or the effect the practices produce.

My kids all went to school in the US, where formal reading and penmanship were taught (with complete success) later than in the UK. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Your child is expressing herself very well. Imagination is clearly excellent, and that drawing is lovely. What matters here is that your child is engaging with writing, and incorporating writing (and drawing) into daily activities.

5 ish

As some one who has spent many years teaching in key stage one, I’d say an average 5 year old , year 1. Letter formation isn’t great, but that’s not uncommon as sometimes it’s not taught well and children are left to learn by copying. Also some children struggle with all sorts, pencil grips etc, and there are different styles. I have some cursive taught terribly!

If you are planning to stay where you are for the next couple of years and they are happy with her progress then that is fine. She will catch up the minute they start more formal lessons and in the meantime I expect she is spending time doing more creative, fun, active things. If on the other hand you are due back in the UK then she will raise eyebrows and probably be put in a catch up group. I wouldn’t worry too much about plodding through a reading scheme, by all means read with her and enjoy books but as above, if you are confident in the system where you are living then I would let her progress through that system.

Yes to this.

3-4

My DD is the same, we live abroad and education is in French. Her writing looks about right for her age range, given that she's bilingual

The letters are not formed correctly, with the tails going off in unorthodox directions.

Four yrs , because of lack of 'correct' letter formation.

@Cbeebiesisdifferentonasaturday The cat /dog looks nice though...Confidently drawn.

That's similar to DSs in a school news book I found recently. He was year 4 so 7 or 8. He could read very fluently but really struggled with writing. In hindsight I think his brain moved faster than his hands.

He is in his 30s now and has degree in Politics and Philosophy from a Russell Group uni plus a professional qualification. His job involves writing reports advising multi national corporations how to make the most tax effective cross border deals. There's reports have to be well written because their purpose is to convince the boards of these corporations to use the company he works for to oversee and run these deals. Obviously they don't have to be handwritten but my point is that his early handwriting was no indication of his intellectual or academic ability. Although he does actually have very neat writing now.

4-5?

Just out of interest, what is the average reading level in the U.K. for an almost 6 year old? Interesting to see how they do things differently.
A lot of my native friends here say their children the jump from Pre school to formal school quite a jump/challenge, I’m wondering whether to just read every day in the summer holidays (her to read a a book, we already read stories every night to her) and let her write lots (in her own *Interesting style 😂…hopefully it will be less of a shock 🤷🏻‍♀️

Application of phonics including digraphs, finger spaces showing understanding of different worlds etc. It would be a very able 3 or 4 year old! A reception child may be able to write it but it certainly would be average in year one too! If the child hasn’t been taught letter formation they are doing fine.

Isn't it! I thought how beautifully it was drawn too. Very free.