Ideas for improving DD's writing

[purplearmadillo]

DD is 6 and in year 1. She is doing really really well with reading but her writing is nowhere near as good. School seems just to be concentrating on reading for the whole class but since hers seems to be above average for her age (based on book bands and as far as I know - no feedback from school) I would like to try to help her at home with her writing.

We have lists of key words - she can read the year 1 and year 2 ones, so I was thinking about getting her to write a couple of sentences a night with each word. Does this sound ok? I also thought about a couple of sentences each day in the holidays as a holiday diary. I'm only thinking about 10 - 15 minutes a day, just to supplement what she is isn't being taught at school.

Does anyone else have other ideas? Am I worrying unnecessarily? I know friends with children in other schools have been told its important for them to advance at the same pace in all the skills, but DD seems to be racing ahead in reading and I think her writing is being left behind. She's in a mixed year class with a teacher who doesn't have a good reputation, and I don't want to make a fuss at school, just do what I can to help her at home.

"I know friends with children in other schools have been told its important for them to advance at the same pace in all the skills"

sounds like rubbish to me. Based on my (limited) experience and observation, most kids read a lot better than they write.

The holiday diary thing sounds like a good idea and might be made easier with a nice new pen and notebook. Writing a sentence using the key words sounds a bit dull tbh. I think many key words will naturally fit into a diary entry so I wouldn't do that separately.

If it's her handwriting then encourage her to make lists, registers (if she plays school), thank you letters or maybe even organise a penpal with another MN member.

Hi purplearmadillo; do you mean that her actual letter formation and neatness are not very good, or that it is the content of her writing that needs work?

BTW I concur with crazy's comment about kids usually reading better than they write at this stage.

They read first, then the writing catches up.

Thanks, that's reassuring. Two people with children in the same year as DD in separate schools had been told not to push reading because it was important that skills developed at the same time. Its interesting how widely teaching ideas vary across schools.

I do mean handwriting and letter formation, as opposed to the content of writing, not even really started on that yet. She is still doing things like reversing letters and the size of her letters varies widely within the same word. Perhaps I am just expecting too much from her, my own handwriting isn't great either!

purple - daft about your friends being told that skills have to develop at the same time. Reading and writing are not the opposite of each other, iyswim - there are far more subskills involved in writing, so it makes sense for it to develop at a different rate.

Letter reversals etc are developmentally common until the age of at least 7.

Be wary of putting her off writing, or giving the impression that her written skills are a cause for concern. If she likes to write then make it fun, a positive experience for her because then she's more likely to want to do it again!
Will she have to do thank you letters after Christmas? - perhaps get some really pretty paper, nice pencil/pen etc so that it seems more exciting.

what about one of the fun handwriting skills sticker books? Could be a stocking present? You can usually pick these up from the supermarket, and i know my daughter liked doing this and getting the stickers.

i agree with making it more fun-my DS got a lovely writing set from Paperchase with aliens printed on the envelopes and stickers to use. He enjoys using it to send (very random) letters to people.

Purplearmadillo- My children all had messy handwriting until they were 6.5 ish when their handwriting became brilliant almost overnight. It happened at the same age which makes me wonder if it is a physical milestone?

I worked on the even letter thing with my children at home when they were y2 ish. Dd had noticed that letters like "g" go below the line but they hadn't learned at school that it's ok so she had been writing it on the line. Our school seemed to offer plain rather than lined paper in earlier years so once I offered lined it automatically became much neater.

one of my sons had terrible handwriting - its much better now, as I made him write a coupe of sentences every night, and if they werent good/neat etc I made him do a third one (I am a despot/dictator/ogre etc!!) He soon improved, because of practice and started to take more care..

I put my foot down when school wanted him to do joined up writing, as that confused him (and me- I couldnt read a word!!) so I told him (and school) that he will pick it up later in life (most people do!!) and concentrated on normal proper handwriting!!

I agree with snice and jacquiel. If you have a look at the 'mark-making/writing' area in school you will see a variety of different shaped papers and forms for playing 'writing'. Collect envelopes, junkmail, stickers, shopping list pads, cheap notecards, postcards etc...

Just to add to Adair's list- post it notes are fab too. Dd also liked filling in forms so I saved application forms, payin slips from banks, school letters ...

The great thing about credit card applications etc is that they often have squares so that helps to encourage writing that is evenly sized.

My DS (Year 2) had similiar problems last year at the end of Year 1. He hated writing and felt very self conscious about it because he felt he wasn't as "good" as the other children. His pen control and letter formation was poor. After a recommendation from mrz on here we tried Write from the Start. 5 minutes a day alternated with tracing sheets to get the letter formation right. It was excellent and 6 weeks later he had developed very good handwriting. The knock on effect is that he is so much more confident about using it at school and now wants to write.

Thanks everyone, there are some really good tips there but I also see its not something I need to be too worried about at this stage. I will just try to encourage her with fun things without making a thing of it.

I agree about reading ability not matching writing ability.

My DC has a reading and spelling ages way above her years, but her writing is at the expected level for her age. The teacher doesnt focus on her at all or give direction so she cant be bothered, and as time has gone on, this hasnt improved.

We are currently trying to get her to type stories on the computer I have worked through her stories with her and shown her how to improve and its given her food for thought. We will see in the new year if anything has sunk in. We are also discussing how books have been written and what makes them interesting or not.