Joined up writing in Y1?

[zam72]

My DS is just 5 and has started in Y1 this term. Seemed to have taken to Y1 pretty well - very enthusiastic about going in and how the day's been. Yesterday at bedtime he ended up in tears saying how he prefered his old class as he can't do 'joined up writing'??? Do they really do joined up writing in Y1!!!??? I learnt that at 10yo?? Has my DS got it mixed up or do they really teach joined up writing (given his printed text and reading aren't brill to start with) at 5yo?? If so, why?! He said he doesn't know the words he's meant to be writing and the teacher's too busy to help (class of ~26).

He find reading and writing pretty tough - neither are coming easily to him but he is progressing. But he's a bit of a perfectionist and although we praise him and are happy with him he seems to know what writing 'should' look like and knows his isn't the exact same, so its wrong, so therefore will give up.

Any thoughts appreciated. I'm going to speak to the teacher tomorrow but just wanted to know whether DS could be right and they do teach it that early - or whether I just need to talk about him finding normal writing challenging at the moment.

If you had a y1 child who wasn't taught cursive at school would you be pointing them in that direction now then or waiting until school does it?

Are they taught to write letters with an exit stroke (flick) or "ball and stick" (circle with a line for a)?

That's a difficult one. Personally I would start to guide them towards it, but then I'm a bit of a pushy Dad! Maybe ask the school when they introduce it and try to link in with that. For example if you do writing together, you could model joining it and then then your child may try to do the same.

MRZ - I think they have introduced some flicks but ds doesn't often remember to do them and it's all very easy going at the moment. If I remind him he will do the flicks on e.g. an a

I think it is important that the correct letter formation is reinforced even if the letters aren't fully joined yet as it makes it easier when the school does introduce cursive handwriting. I'm afraid I would go down the nagging constant reminder route until it becomes second nature

Is it simply a case of him adding a flick to all the letters that this works for easily then (e.g. a but not p)? Sorry for dumb question....

No he must learn how to form the letter correctly - most letters are formed in a continuous movement without lifting his pencil ending on the exit flick (exceptions are f i j t)

He does it in one continuous movement with say an a or h but I guess there's a whole new load of stuff for him to learn then for other letters. Yikes. Is there a link to something online so I can see the right way?

So when writing "h" he would start at the top go down to the line back up the same line half way then over down to the line and flick?
teachingtreasures.com.au/teaching-tools/abc/letters-plain/letter-chart.htm

Yes re the h formation. I think he's finally forming the printed versions correctly now (it took a while). I'm in half a mind to leave it a couple of months as he's now finally getting confident at writing and comfortable doing it for fun so that way I can let him have a break and just enjoy it without moving onto the next thing to learn?

Before teaching him a writing style it is worth checking with the school if they have a standard way they expect children to join. We only add loops to descenders for example