have I taught my 3 year old to write wrong!

[mrsunreasonable]

My Son is in Nursery Class but between being at private day care nursery and school nursery was at home with me for a short while while on maternity leave. It was then that he decided he wanted to learn to write his name I don't know why but I taught him to write it in capital letters but now I see all the other kids work on the wall in the classroom is in little letters. Have I buggered it up?!

Nope, he is only three and like a little sponge! just show him the little letters and he'll pick it up just as quickly, if he hasn't done so already.

I don't think so mrsunreasonable but I'm no expert. I am around a lot of children though with my volunteering work, and find that the younger ones do like to write their names in capital letters. It is only later that they move forward to recognise and then write the small letters.
Perhaps someone in the teaching community can advise, but its wonderful that he was interested and you did this together...

Lots of children turn up at school having learnt capitals and have to relearn it. Just show him how to do it with small letters, it'll be fine.

No, not a problem. Just start him practicing lower case now.

They are to relearn all that in reception as well once they start cursive letter writing. I was horrified to start with but now DD is in year 1 she has beautiful joined up writing, so I think it's great!

They HAVE to relearn.

Me too, by the looks of that post!

If he can write it in capitals he can write it in lowercase, I would teach him as from what I know teachers prefer children to be able to write it in lowercase from the start at school.

My DD happily learned her name with capital first letter + little ones for the others - but she has recently started writing it all in capitals - just because she can, I think. ;-)

I'm sure her nursery school probably point it out to her, but to be honest, she's at the age where she'll do it all the more if you make a deal of it.
Just keep it fun and don't worry too much at this age

my DD is 3.5 and has just taken an interest and she always writes a capital at the start. School don't seem to have an issue with this so far. I did try and ask her to do it all lower case, but she is adamant that that's how it's done. It is, so I can't really argue!

I got a lot of grief when my DC started at school because she had been taught capitals only at nursery. The teacher then had to undo and reteach which meant more work for her.

I believe teachers would prefer children to learn lower case first, but capitals as well for names (not quite sure how you would explain that to a young child)

DS likes to write certain letter in capitals, but as he will swap between upper and lower case regardless of what he is copying or when he is not copying but I'm supplying letter sounds. I'm not fussed, he CAN do either, just prefers the shape of certain uppercase and certain lower case.

Loves pointy a (A).

Teachers do prefer lower case letters, but not because it is more work for the teacher; it is much more work for the child. It can be very difficult to help children relearn. Children are quite capable of understanding that names start with capital letters - although remembering to use this piece of knowledge is often another matter.

"It can be very difficult to help children relearn"

Yes, in our case, it was

I am confused by why it is hard for a child to simply understand that a name begins with an upper case letter and the rest are lower. Don't your children listen to you?

I cant remember exactly what the issues were, other than the teacher telling me she had to undo everything she had been taught at nursery.

May be it was the teacher just making a point, I cant remember.

I think it's just as important to teach them to write the letters properly, so they are not, for example, drawing a circle and then a straight line next to it for 'a' or 'p' or 'b' etc. For a lot of kids, this will need to be relearnt anyway. So, if you're going to teach him lowercase then teach him to do it as you would write it, and not just so it 'looks ok'.

RoadArt....what I really meant was why aren't children just taught in the first place that a name begins with a capital, especially when learning to write their own name, this is how we would write our names as would any other adult teaching them at nursery or where ever.

What MerryMarigold said.

If you are going to teach your child to write, it's much better to make sure they form the leters correctly from the start. There will be books in Smiths that show you how. And I really would start showing him lower case letters sooner rather than later, otherwise a skill that they have learnt and are proud of just turns into something that is much harder for them than it would have been if it had never been learned at all when they start school. It makes things much harder for the teachers, and they won't thank you for teaching your child incorrectly.

MerryMarigold...I think that that could be counterproductive actually for many young children with an interest in writing. Both my girls now 3 and 4, started the way you describe, the 4 year old now writes beautifully with the majority of letters formed correctly. The 3 year old forms some correctly, the ones she has been taught, but many are not, should I tell her when she is writing while I cook tea, oh hang on a sec stop the writing you have started doing by copying letters in the book, you're not forming the letters properly, but I can't help at the minute I'm cooking tea, so best to stop as it will be hard to re-learn. I can't think many parents would actually teach children to write letters as you describe, don't children just do this by copying letters themselves?

DS certainly "self taught" by copying letters, he was only 2 when he started writing his name, and soooo proud that he could do it. He not been interested in colouring or drawing so writing has been his way to learn pen/ pencil control.

Evolucy, you don't have to stop to tell a child that they are doing it wrong, but it is a good idea to show them how to do it right.

You have to think ahead to when their school wants them to start writing with joined up letters, this is much easier for the children to learn if they are forming the letters correctly.

Your dd's sound like they are doing well with writing, but for a lot of children, if writing is something they find hard, it can hold them back in so many ways. They don't want to do work that they are interested in if the find writing really difficult.

It's not hard to do, it's mostly about starting the letter from the right point. I'm a preschool teacher by he way, and I think most Early Years teachers would be likey to agree that correct letter formation is quite important. Not that children of 3 have to be learing how to write, but that if they are, they should be shown how to do it properly.

I agree curlymama, but I am not sure that it is always realistic. I am aware of how to form letters correctly thanks but there are a whole host of things that 3 and 4 year olds are learning, and I just think that sometimes if they are interested it may be better to let them get on with it without too much presure of this is how you should be doing it. As UniS said it can be a very good exercise in pencil control anyway. Of course you have to think ahead and I am certainly not one for not being proactive in helping children in their education from an early age, but I do think that there needs to be balance of trying even if its not the 'right' way for the child to do it. Of course they should be shown how to form letters correctly, but what if a child is not really interested in being shown how to do this at 3, but they do like writing in their way?

Maybe it's just me that finds the little diagrams useful then! But my writing, while neat, is a bit curly wurly and probably not correct.

I certainly wouldn't discourage a child from writing at all, but I do think there's a difference between letting them learn by copying, and showing them the correct way. At 3, as long as they are aware that there is a right way, that's enough. But it doesn't take long for bad habits to be formed, and that should be discouraged.

Btw, ds2 who is 7 has terrible handwriting, so I really can't claim to know it all on this subject. I just know what we would do at nursery, and unfortunately I learned all this after ds2 had already formed a couple of bad habits!

The other issue is, which format of letter writing will they start with when at school. we had nursery - capital letters, 1st school, basic letters, 2nd school - cursive, 3rd school basic letters.

This has been a major headache for my DC who didnt know which way to go. Every teacher was telling her something different and whichever way she chose, she got confused. One teacher said her every letter starts at the bottom, the next said, every letter starts at the top.

Long term this has caused major problems with correctly forming letters. I sometimes watch her and see her thinking twice about where to start, especially when printing.

(It didnt help because we moved around a lot with jobs so there hasnt been the consistency)

Well you can actually hardly read my writing most of the time, as kindly pointed out to me by my 4 year old, I think I have taken joined up writing to the extreme, I blame the fact that there is just not enough time!
But yes I agree it is about a balance of showing the right way but not discouraging their own attempts.