Literacy delay? 7/8 yr old

[triplets]

Hi all, one of my trio has come home with a letter today saying he is to have special lessons for literacy delay, mainly handwriting. Should I worry at this stage? He reads ok I think, he is on the Chip/Kipper books level 11 amd can read them nicely. He has an outstanding amount of general knowledge, but I must admit his handwriting is poor, very. Also we were told not to teach them their tables, now in yr 3 they have to know their 2,3,5,10s, it might not sound difficult but I am finding itso, they should have done then much earlier which is making me feel guilty for not doing them at home. Its no excuse I suppose, but to be honest, by the time we get home from school, sort clothes, lunch boxes, have a drink and biscuit, its 16.30pm, then its making supper for 5, baths etc, any way I am sure you all know what I mean. Trying to squeeze in daily reading and homework before they get too tired is hard, just feel I should do more here, but then I feel they spend 30 hours week at school and if by yr 3 they dont know their tables then its not only my fault. Help!

Schools have a scheme called ELS- extra literacy support which is used to target children in Year 1 who would benfit from a little extra Literacy input. There is a similar scheme in Year 3 I think called Additional Literacy Support which tries to do the same thing. The kids spend time in a small group with a good TA and love it. We use it as a confidence boost as much as anything. I would be pleased he is getting something extra but wouldn't read too much into the "delay" thing at all.

ds (8 in March) is having problems in exactly the same areas. Can't imagine your homework workload for 3 ! He is struggling with times tables - currently working on 3x. He is also starting to get extra help with handwriting. He and another boy in the class can't do cursive (ds has never been taught) so are being shown strategies for groups of letters which they practice each morning. Really don't think your ds' problems are that unusual and woudl welcome any help on offer - so don't feel guilty.

Thank you everyone, I do worry, well to be honest not worry so much as feel guilty that I dont seem to have the time or energy as I did was my beloved Matthew, he could read and write beautifully before he was 6. Celia2 have you been on here before, there arent many of us triplet mums around, how old are yours, mine will be 8 in Jan, 2 boys and a girl, they are such special children but boy are they exhausting, wish I could knock off a few years!