dd's writing - bit of a panic!

[littlebylittle]

dd (5)had birthday party last weekend. Lots of card with very proficient writing inside. Have not pushed dd with writing and she is just interested now, in reception. I'm worried that her current writing ability will mean she is assumed not to be so capable in other less mechanical areas of literacy. I am ashamed of myself for sounding a bit pushy. dd is pretty creative, makes up stories, can lead a group in singing, role plays etc and I have thought these are important to nurture and that writing will follow. Anyone else had experience with child starting reception not really writing and it not holding them back with their progress.

You're right. It was just the talk of being in yellow group that set me a fluttering! I have no evidence to suggest these are ability groups or even if they were that they are anything other than short term. And if adults in room working with a group at a time they need a way of organising them.

A new phonics song to sing every day and today she told me all about blood. Slight inaccuracies in knowledge of circulation, but knows heart pumping blood. Not bad I say.

My DS1 is 5 and in Y1. At the end of reception his writing was truly appalling, barely legible, huge, badly formed letters born of the fact he had trouble holding the pencil and controlling its movements.

After just 4 weeks back in Y1, it suddenly seems to have 'clicked' with him, and his writing has become lovely. I firmly believe that it's about them having the physical capability to hold and control the pencil, coupled with being at a point where they want to do it.

Also, bear in mind that writing on birthday cards is usually often supervised by a parent, so the end product is often neater than it would be were the child completely left to her own devices.

She's in reception. Try not to worry - it'll come together soon.

Don't try to push her, but if you want to make sure she's "ready", I'd suggest encouraging fun activities that use the right fine motor skills and muscles, so that when she wants to, she does it well. I'm thinking of things like drawing, colouring in and simple dot to dots if she can recognize numbers.

Yes, with regard to the birthday card writing i remember reading my cousins' perfect thank you notes which seemed to trump mine. But my mum used to give me guidelines and leave me to it whereas their mother would sit over them. I now think looking back that mine were more interesting and if you look at what we're like now, I def use writing skills more often for creative purposes and for what it's worth have done more academically (and I'm genuinely not sure what it's worth). dd very accurate, if only recently, with colouring in and since school is practising letters at home. Surely reception teachers have more than any other year group to assess progress frequently and the early start some make with handwriting will be irrelevant to overall progress. I believe dd is pretty capable. Otherwisw, why do all schools I know of say it's not necessary to teach children to write before school, even if they don't discourage it?
Thanks for comments, will try to obsess a little less - after all birthday thank yous will provide ample opps for practice

DD's writing was a disaster until a couple of weeks ago. She is 9.5 and started at a new school. Her teacher said she couldn't work out what DD was writing (which is an exageration) and would like her to start to use cursive writing. DD hated it, she had to change her whole approach, BUT, although it's a bit loopy and swirly for my tastes, you can read it now.

When the dcs were 5 I used to write their thank you letters with my left hand and pass it off as theirs ..

Tee hee! Am wondering how long it's acceptable for me to write dd's. She could "write" them now but random letters that I have to read are her speciality. Can't write princess yet so that could be a problem!! Maybe next year...