How do i know??

[lisad123]

My DD is 4years old and i dont want to sound like a typical mum of thinking my child is wonderful and bright.
She is very chatty and speaks very well, counts to 30, can add small numbers, recozinies most letters, writes her name, draws VERY well and can spend long time consentrating on activities.
Does it sound like a normal 4 year old? I was very surprised that when we went to visit her new school for sept they suggested we started teaching our children to write their names!!
Thanks

Lisa

She sounds like a normal bright 4 year old to me. What would you do if you were told that she was G+T, would it make a difference to anything?

sounds well within the range for normal to me A large proportion of DDs class could write their own name when they started in reception, and knew the vast majority, if not all of the alphabet. THere are a few now at the end of reception who cannot do these things.

Maybe the school meant, if your DC cannot write their own name it would be good if you could encourahe this skill over the summer?

She sounds normal and bright, not necessarily g&t. I have a DS who was like that - clever boy but not that out of the ordinary.

I dont think i would any thing different but maybe keep an eye on how she was doing with class speed. I just rememeber being so bored at school. She hasnt started school yet, is due to start in sept.
Thanks
Lisa

I have to say though, do believe she is a gifted artist, as in drawings. But both me and hubby love art and draw/paint, so maybe just because of that
L

How lovely to have a child who is gifted at art. If you and dh are both artistic then you'll be able to encourage and help her with this

Sounds above average but not necessarily G and T. dd started school at just 4 (end Augsut b'day) and sounded similar and has thrived but would n't put her as G and T. fwiw I don't think it would be helpful as such to be categorised so young anyway, they all need to build up a repertoire of skills, practical social and academic, which is what Reception and KS1 encourages. Remember the advice you have been given has to be all encompassing, but may only be specifically relevant to a minority of children.

thanks for the help and advice. DD is my first child and i have always worked with children with special needs so struggle to work out what is "normal".
Im looking forward to having time at home with her when LO is born in Oct.
thanks

l

LOL, my dd will do full drawings of people with eyes ears, noses, everything, flowers with shade, and she has amazing skills with tiny little beads that I struggle to thread.

LOL

L

my dd could read fluently at 4 and knew all her letter sounds at 2 & could double digit add up at 4 etc etc - BUT now she is coming to the end of reception others have cought up in her class - she's still ahead and on their G&T list (for what that means) - but don't worry about G&T listing etc as it puts more pressure on you as a prent wrrying about whether you are doing enough/stimulating them etc...just be happy for what they are.

sounds lovely and bright as a button lisa
My ds1 had all his artistic streak all but ruined at school so be aware that they often ruin creativity and to cherish and nurture it in your own home
finally now ds1 is 13 his secondary art teacher LOVES him, but we had to fight to keep his art love alive, tragic nearly.

My dd is 4 and also starting school in Sept, she has some visual difficulties but is writing (badly) but can read well and is very very numerate.

Piffle - can I ask you about your comment on art at school? What was the problem? I have a just turned 2 yr old dd who paints (with a brush) pictures of faces (with eyes, nose, mouth), flowers and bugs, snakes with heads, noses and tongues and stuff like that. It started at 18 mo out of the blue. She writes a few letters and numbers.

Dh is very talented artistically and his brother is a professional artistic - I am quite good but nothing special. I was hoping she might enjoy art at primary school and I'm wondering how you salvaged your dcs creativity.

I am the musical one and alas, dd shows no signs at all of sharing that with me!

As part of the wider discussion - she knows all her letters (by shape and sound) and counts to 10 (and can tell you how many of somethings there are). She is starting to pick out three letter words here and there and concentrates to the point of obsession on puzzles of all kinds. She doesn't really talk all that much though and is very shy - in company she often just won't speak at all. I think quite a lot of toddlers know their letters and numbers but if she really starts reading soon that would make me wonder (I'm not teaching her - I'm just waiting to see what she does). The big thing I wonder about though is really the art - that really does seem different to all her peers. Jill

Sounds bright, but I don't think G&T. My DD is bright (but not G&T - at least, no-one at her nursery has mentioned anything! ) and is 3yrs 7 months and she can...

• Knows all her letters, reads about 50 words, writes her name and a few other words such as mum and dad. She can also sound out words phonetically and generally work out what they are saying... if they're easy words (no phonemes).

• Can count to about 40 (but she gets confused with 20 and 30), she can add simple numbers and subtract numbers up to 5. Recognises some numbers written down, so would know that 23 is twenty three and not thirty two.

• Can tell the time to the nearest 15 mins. She taught herself the O clocks aged 2yrs 8 months, and we taught her the rest just after her third birthday.

• Can draw - mostly faces, but she includes the pupils inside the eyes and she can draw spiders with their little legs on.

• Good at jigsaws, does about 100 piece puzzles - quite easily, must buy her some more!

*Has a very good vocab, and can be very manipulative at times!

Like I say... She is as bright as a button, but as far as I am aware, she is just bright rather than G&T. My reason for thinking that is that she responds well to what we do with her... she is interested in reading, so I've done some with her and she picked it up easily, but with the exception of learning to tell the time (which she did herself), it is mostly her learning stuff that I have pointed out, or done with her - such as counting stairs as we walk. IMO that makes her bright, but not G&T.

HTH - I find it fascinating to hear how other children of a similar age is doing, just because you don't always realise when they do somethind special (like she did with learning to tell the time), or when they are a little more behind (as she was when all her friends were drawing and she couldn't.
I'm waffling, but you get the point!

My eldest dd is 15 and has always been quite a clever child. However, when she was 3 - 4, being the proud parent, I thought I would teach her to read. She was fab at it - really great. She could read a few Biff and Chip books cover to cover at age 3. It was only when I took the book away from her and she was still reading it, that I realised she had totally memorised it. So beware of teaching reading too young as it is understanding that really matters - most children can decode patterns, but I believe that the understanding of what is being read comes later.

As for art, my eldest again is gifted in art - she is brilliant (even if I do say so myself). The difference between her early drawings and my other completely non artistic child, is the proportions of her drawings. I don't think that we could really tell that her drawings were good until she was 11 or 12, but she did have good proportions and objects would be placed correctly. Also, she drew the sky right down to the ground - not just a line across the top.

Just my observations.

figroll

Sounds like me as a child with regard to drawing. It didn't really become clear to anyone except my Mum that I was good at art until that sort of age.

I thought I was terrible even at 6 because I couldn't do the neat little houses, flowers, people that my friends could do. Looking back think I was always trying to actually look at the object and really represent it rather than do more symbolic pictures. Sory symbollic isn't quite the right word. Being young and not having the skills all my pictures were messy and scraggly

Yes - I know exactly what you mean. Many of my eldest dds friends could draw brilliant fish, or houses, but they were just lovely neat and childish representations without any reference to the actual object. They drew what they thought, not what they saw.

I have watched my dd drawing and her eyes flick up and down constantly to make sure that she is getting it just right. She also has such a lot of patience when drawing, which she totally lacks in other activities.

What I find quite sad is how little appreciation there is for a talent in art. She is going to give it up in 6th form to concentrate on "proper" subjects: maths, and the 3 sciences. Also, the course work is horrendous at GCSE, enough to put anyone off.

I agree with that - ie, not teaching them too young. My youngest wasn't taught to read until she went to school and she picked it up very quickly indeed and now reads much more fluently than the older one (who I taught to read at 3 - like a fool).

I always thinks of potty training - you can teach them at 18 months and it will take you 6 months, or you can teach them at 2.5 years and it will take a week.

Sounds exactly like my dd!

Hep!! what can I do? I have two kids in a bad state school ..my son is now 8 and my daughter is 7. both are bright kids..my son is very bright and I was hoping that school would bring out te best in him ,but sadlt it has not.

I an from an ethnic background and was the first in my family to go to university and grad school. I feel that the teachers see all the kids in the school as average and because my son is bright I feel they are holding him back!!
He goes into yr 4 now, and the chool Ofstead report was very bad!
So move him out you say!! ok I have heard about the Gates school in Victoria park. Is it good...any views!!

The mums at my kids school are all working class and think I'm mad for complaing!! ( nothing against WC as I cme from very poor background!! I worked hard to move up and out and after a bad divorce I'm picking up the pieces to a shattered life!!! I do not want my kids to become government sats....e poor black kids ....gang crimes I want them to do well I will give them a good ed even if I have to go on the game to pay for it!!)

Sorry ...help

Just curious Dool - why do you find it relevant that you are from an ethnic minority background? (I presume this is what you mean when you say you are from an ethnic background - we all are)

I'd say sod what the other mums think about you pushing for a decent education for your two children - what's more important - what they think of you or the education your children get.

Definitely keep asking the school for reassurance that they are challenging your two enough.