Out of interest, how many of your "just" 4 year olds can write?

[sandyballs]

Dropped my DDs (who are in 4 in two weeks) off at the in-laws this morning and MIL started on her favourite topic - her friend's grand-daughter (smae age) who can write her name and several other things very clearly. As I was leaving I could hear her saying to my DDs, "now we have to spend the morning practising your writing so you can be as good as xxxx". It does pee me off that she puts this pressure on them, and compares them. I've told MIL that they will do it in their own time and to back off a bit but I know she thinks I'm not encouraging them enough or spending enough time practising with them. They starts school in September so they'll have enough of that then, surely they should be having fun now!

BTW they can write their names, although some letters are often upside down or it reads from right to left!

Roisin - I don't think Twigeltt means that all 7 and 8 year olds are at the same level of reading/writing, but that the level each individual is at does not necessarily depend on the age they started.
I thought there was plenty of evidence to support this. In Holland and Norway they don't start to read / write until 7 but achieve better overall results by nine than in the U.K.

And best at reading / writing doesn't equal 'brightest'. Sandyballs' DD will not end up brighter because her GM puts pressure on her to write her name at 3.

I think we (in the UK) might have the wrong end of the stick about what goes on in some European countries where they "apparently" start school later. My cousin's DS is in a regular Dutch state nursery in Amsterdam (his DW is Dutch) and it seems very similar to a pre-school class here (DD is same age as his DS). They definitely do introduce letters, numbers and so on.

There was some more recent research that cast doubt on some of these 'late schooling' countries' educational standards. Finland always do superbly well, but other countries like Germany were falling behind in the standards used. I haven't got time now, but I'll see if I can find a link later.

Have to agree with those who were saying that a lot of it depends on the name itself. Was trying to get DS to sign a card. He drew a circle, realised he'd gone wrong and then said he didn't want to write his own name he wanted to write Olivia (one of his friends). Thought this showed a reasonable level of intelligence and lateral thinking TBH.

I agree Bozza - hence my ds1 can write 'Tom' but finds 'Thomas' harder!!

dd is 4 in April and attends a state nursery school, two and half hours a day since Sept 2004.

They do lots of play activities which are called quality play where they get the chance to practice writing etc. It is not 'real writing' though but is called emergent writing or pre writing skills. DD has started to do this quite frequently now. She can also write her name and some other (short) names that are readable.

I think some of the children can write more than dd but quite a few seem to write less - so as everyone else has said they all learn at their own rate.

My DS 4 in Dec, can just about write the first 4 letters of his mane (sadly for him its long!) but they are very wobbly and sometimes back to front, but getting there. I don't think you can expect it at this age. They will get there in their own good time.
I haven't read all the posts but its very common to write letters back to front right to left or start at the edge and run out of room so continue elsewhere or just put all the letters in the wrong order at first.
Anyway that IMO is what they will learn at school unless they show an interest beforehand in which case there is no harm in learning surely? But if they don't want to....

My DD could write her name (Aurora) and things like "mummy and "daddy" when she was 4. My Ds1 who is 3 1/2 can write his name, but he was taught in nursery and not at home. I have never taught mine letters nor numbers really. They seem to pick these things up in nursery/school.

I don't think they can actually write at this age. They can just memorise things and copy them down on paper. I don't think it matters at all. They'll learn soon enough like you say!

dd2 is 5 and could write her name and nothing else before she started school in Sept, now she sits for literally hours writing, copying and spelling words, she has lovely handwriting already - she loves it because I NEVER pushed it IMO.

competitive MIL's doncha love 'em???