What children ACTUALLY need to be able to do before they start reception

[primaryschooladvice]

All your child really needs to be able to do before they start primary school is:

-Take off coat and hang up coat on their own
-Undress and redress on their own including shoes
-Be toilet trained and be able to wipe their own bum by themselves
-Be able to focus and sit for at least 10 minutes
-Be able to open lunchbox and any pots ect inside and feed themselves independently

That's it if you send your child to school being able to do these things they will thrive there is no need for your child to be able to read, write, spell, count before they go to school as many schools use different methods to teach this and sometimes have to spend way too much time reteaching children who have learned it in a different way and i know hundreds of teachers who would be over the moon if all children starting reception could do all these things

So there is no need to be competitive and say well my child can divide 56 by the square root of pi or to say well my child was so advanced we had to teach him how to read so he would not get bored its just not needed they need to learn how to play independently or they will fail in school as being able to do things independently is important learning to read, write, spell all before 5 is NOT

totally agree, my DDs nursery and school had her name with a photo of her beside it to let her know where to hang her coat. i taught her colours and numbers but not much writing as when i went to school at 4 almost 5 i could write and recognise letters but my mum was told off for it because the schools teach a set way. plus DD was way more into art than spelling when she was younger

she's just finished primary one and it amazes me just how much she's learnt in such a small space of time!!

Agreed. But...... My DD is ex-prem and finds spatial/physical things difficult. We try, try, try and she will get there in the end, but she won't be able to do all that by September. She does however find learning facts and reading very easy and it would have been impossible to stop her, even had we wanted to. Unfortunately the overnight very late conversion to toilet training seems to have been forgotten during the last week so I'm hoping she'll have remembered by September. Please.

I think the school will be supportive. DS will have a 1-2-1 all the time so she will be help him with all the things listed, it just makes me sad he wont be able to do them on his own.

TheCoolWeb, my ds was also prem which I think has contributed to his poor motor skills - they were always rubbish even as a baby/toddler, he was very late to sit up (corrected), couldn't do shape sorters, put duplo bits together, etc etc. Is actually only since having term dd that I realised just how behind he was!

I completely agree.

But I nearly went spare reading books with my DD, because she kept asking me what EVERY SINGLE WORD was. So I started telling her how to work out what the words were. And now she is reading. But I honestly didn't do it on purpose. I just didn't know what else to do because she was so insistent on wanting to know what the words were. Is there something else I could have done?

Now I am worried that everyone will think I am one of those competitive types. I'm really not. I don't even want DD to go to school yet, I think they start too young.

I think lots of children start reception knowing how to read don't they?

No

I know of at least a couple starting at the same time as my DD that can.

I am bothered, now, though, by what people have said about teachers having to 'unteach' children who have been taught the wrong way, etc...? What if I've done the wrong thing...? She really loves books though, and as I said, didn't know what else to do. Certainly didn't want to actively discourage.

In any case, she's not on Dickens yet or anything... and isn't as advanced as those others that I mentioned, I expect, as they are significantly older (DD is young for the year, 4 in Aug).

OK, on MN everyone's child/the poster's themselves all seem to have started at 2. I knew it wasn't expected, but didn't think it was particularly unusual. I myself started reading at 9months yes mum I think you may be getting a bit confused

at poster's
my extraordinarily early reading did not translate into grammatical accuracy at the age of 31

In my time teaching reception I have had the occasional child start school able to read - no more than 1 in a class of 30 and not every year (most years none can read)

No one expects children to read, or not read, or anything else at dds' school - they just come, and start from wherever they are.

And I have to say they mostly end up in the same place a couple of years later

I read (had big sister, asked parent to teach me) aged 3. My brother wouldn't/couldn't read till he was probably nearly 7. Guess who achieved more in the end...

One thing the teachers do ask at dds' school, at new parents' evening (by which time its probably a bit late) is for parents to use Jolly Phonics if their children are keen to get started. I can't remember how my Dad taught me, but vague memory (early 60s) tells me it was pretty much phonics based, somehow.

oh right :) Feel better about DS not being able to now :) I think he is doing brilliantly but keep finding out about children who were reading Wuthering Heights in their first term etc

I stressed horribly with dd1

Poor dd2, I just follow her lead and go with the flow....

I agree with this, Cory:

With all due respect, there are children who develop coordination very slowly and are going to be struggling with shoes at just 4 yo. We worked endlessly with ds and he still wasn't able to do all the things on the list. I don't know what else we could have done: unlike some continental countries, you don't get the option of deferring school if you feel your child is not ready.

My son was exactly like that. It was simply developmental.