Boys aged 3 and 4 must write more - Childminders and Nurseries to be ordered by Government to get boys more interested in making marks

[nannynick]

Mumsnet Preschool: Boys aged 3 must work more?

Seems to be an extension to the existing Making Marks requirements of EYFS.

Why can't Government accept that boys and girls are different. Why can't they accept that there will always be some children who are at a much lower level than others... why this need for all children to reach a certain standard.

Another case of every child is unique as long as they are all the same me thinks.

hmmmm

nothing wrong with making sure you offer lots of mark making opportunities muscle developing apportunities alongside everything else.

but, why would you make children sit down and write before they are at school? Some children are interested, great encourage it! Some children would rather play with the lego or ride bikes or splash in the water tray - all of these things will aid their motor development which will in turn develop the muscles needed for writing.

The EY curriculum is supposed to have equal weight across all six areas of which writing is a quarter of one of the 6 areas.

my 4yr boy is more of the sit and play/run around/kick balls/ride bikes then sit and write his name

sure by the time he goes to school in sept 2010 he will manage it

why cant children just be left to play and have fun before they start school as there is plenty of time for learning at school
whole generations have survived before not learning to read and write until they get to school and actually having fun

For goodness sake, why don't we just allow our children to be children and enjoy the short childhoods they do have.
Perhaps we should be looking to scandinavian models and leaving children well alone before introducing reading and writing.

I care for two 3 year olds. The little girl can draw fully recognisable pictures of people, houses, etc, and can almost write her name. The little boy is not interested in whether his marks and drawings are recognisable. He loves to "draw" and always says he is drawing his Mum, but in reality he just likes the colours, he likes making dots by bashing his felt pens on the paper. But he presents his artwork just as proudly to his mum as his friend does. As long as they are drawing, and being given all the opportunities they need that should be sufficient. When I started Childminding 19 years ago the focus was on giving children a happy, safe environment where they had opportunities for physical play, mixing with their peers, messy and creative play and activities to develop their learning. We did not have to take photographs all the time to prove we were doing all this.

When I see Childminders kneeling on the floor taking photos of the children in their care playing at the toddler group I just despair of how we can carry on, and how many more hoops we will be asked to jump through in the coming years.

I spoke to a local paper today about the topic of the many childminders who are giving up because of the extra workload which has been dropped on us over the last few years. It seems that Childminders in some areas are now hard to find. Yet the Government talk about giving parents more choice in the care of their children. But parents will soon have less choice, as the flexible, relaxed home based care where siblings can be cared for together (and which is favoured by so many parents) will no longer exist.

This makes me very cross. I choose to use CM because I want my children to be raised in a home based environment. If I wanted them to go to Nursery, I'd put them in a flipping nursery!

yet another reason not to send ds2 to nursery!

my almost 5 year old, who started reception in September still hates writing. he isn[t interested in learning to write his name (though he recognises the letters)
he doesn't like drawing either.

however he is very good in other areas, very physical, very good at numbers.

forcing children to do things they are not ready to do will only put them off

worst of all the crap is, 'purposeful play', that means adults taking over and controlling childrens imagination and stifiling inititive.

My boys HATED anything to do with writing at a young age, loved painting and model making though, my daughter would happily write away at 3. MOST BOYS ARE DIFFERENT TO MOST GIRLS, NOT SLOWER OR DIFFICULT JUST DIFFERENT. FFS WHY ARE ALL THESE EDUCATIONAL INITITIVES SO BLOODY FEMALE LEAD....

I have very strong feelings on this. My DS went to nursery who really didn't push him to write as he wasn't interested, didn't make a big issue of it, said he's do it when he was ready. This carried on through reception, he left reception with low FSP mark for writing but nobody at school minded or was particularly bothered. When he went into year one, the teacher followed a reception/foundation stage based curriculum for the first term and gradually introducd a more structured/national curriculum approach during the second term. DS still didn't want to write and had to be persuaded to put pen to paper at all. Nobody made a fuss or minded. Now in year two, he's in top group for writing and is predicted a level 2a or 3 by the end of the year. Nobody has really made a fuss about that either, and he certainly doesn't know. He has had the best early years writing experience without doing any emergent writing, much mark making or drawing and withoug showing any interest in 'the writing activities' on offer. I'm immensely grateful for the lack of fuss showm by his wonderful teachers and for thier attitude of 'he'll do it when he's ready' He has.

well said!!

DD (4) is a whole different kettle of fish though and seems to be getting just what she needs from school as well - lots of pre-writing, drawing and dressing up. Tis amazing how these fabulous early years teachers are giving my children the best of what they need when their needs are so different. It may or may not be significant that all of the teachers involved (nursery, reception and year one) were nursery nurses for years before doing teacher training and that all of them believe very strongly in the 80% child led 20% teacher led method of teaching in reception and no forced mark making at all.

"This makes me very cross. I choose to use CM because I want my children to be raised in a home based environment. If I wanted them to go to Nursery, I'd put them in a flipping nursery!"

My feelings exactly.

Just found this in the Indo article:

"The guidance, which will be sent to nurseries from January, will include advice to set up role-play activities tailored to boys' interests, such as builders taking phone messages and writing up orders, post office employees writing on forms, and waiters taking orders from customers."

OMG do nurseries really get little kids to "role play" having shitey boring real-world jobs?

The lack of imagination makes me want to cry.

Any adult who tries to get my daughter to spend her childhood pretending to "fill in forms" will have me to answer to

"tailored to boys' interests, such as builders taking phone messages and writing up orders, post office employees writing on forms, and waiters taking orders from customers."

yeh, cos boys only like builders and pretending to be waiters. ffs. their stereotyping them wherever they turn.

they want to step back and look at places like sweden and norway where they accept that putting pressure on young children is more likely to totally put them OFF learning, and thus start them at school later and yet still top tables within europe for exam results etc later on in life.

i am actually more than a little outraged by this.
am one step closer to HE my boys

they're, not their.
am so angry i can't even type!

My boy is 4, in reception, can't write his four-letter name, and i'm pretty chilled about it to be honest. If the school wants to get worked up and focus on teching him, I don't mind. But, he won't be pushed at home. We do number practise at home (tracing of 0-10). That's enough. Not doing the alphabet as well.

"This makes me very cross. I choose to use CM because I want my children to be raised in a home based environment. If I wanted them to go to Nursery, I'd put them in a flipping nursery!"

I'm afraid the introduction of EYFS has reduced you option to nanny if you want to have a say in their care.

I know. That's why I am now skint and a SAHM.