DD writing in capital letters at pre-school

[fatfloosie]

Yesterday DD came home from pre-school with loads of pieces of paper with her name written fully in capital letters and also as the opposite of what it should be, ie NAME and nAME. (She has been writing it correctly, ie with initial capital, since autumn.)

Then out of nowhere later on she wrote a sign to say that her granny was allowed in her treehouse. (The previous day she had 'written' one to say 'no bees or flies allowed' but it was just zigzags with a pretty border.) The sign says YdBNN (Nana Biddy) on the first line and then dloNg (Grannies allowed). Most of the letters are mirrored as well. This is her first piece of free writing other than her name. So proud .

We had no idea where the capital letters had appeared from so asked at school today and no they don't do capitals but on the wall in her little group's room is a poster with Aa Bb etc on it, so I'm fairly certain she's cribbing from that. At home she's only got lower case foam letters for the bath.

What now? I've never done writing properly with her at home - she forms her letters any old how. I've feebly said a couple of times 'would you like mummy to show you how to do letters properly' (she wouldn't) and tried to explain about starting at the top (futile). I kind of thought there was no point doing anything at home if they weren't doing it at school (plus wouldn't really know what to do anyway) but if she's going to start freestyling like this should I be doing something? Are we storing up problems for Reception if I just leave her doing her own thing?

leave her to it -she obviously is enjoying letters and it's all learning

they are so much fun when they start writing signs & shopping lists etc

yes leave her to it

at this stage it's more like marks with meaning IYSWIM

adorable innit, gawd all mushy at the thoughts of what she will produce, so sweet, awwwwwwwwww

thanks workshy and RandomNumbers, that's great advice to go to bed and sleep soundly on

Take a walk down your local high street - count how many capitals you see v lowercase.... Hmmmmm.... Capital letters are EVERYWHERE!!!!! Children tend to pick up on them very easily - that is why in school the British system focuses so heavily on lowercase... Let her play... Make signs, shopping lists, read with her etc(everything you are doing) and enjoy seeing her writing bloom!!! (Soooooooo exciting!!!!!!!!!)

Don't worry!!!! She is exploring writing and if she is copying from what she has seen in the past that's even better!!! Encourage her and every so often remind her where capitals should be but it's best not to make a big deal of it as the last thing you want is for her to feel like she is making mistakes. Awwww bless her cottons - reminds me when I taught infants :-)

That's v sweet.

As long as her name isn't Loreen and you haven't let her play on the laptop, I would just let her explore.

Gently nudge her towards the correct way but don't make a big deal about it. I taught reception and they used to get a bit annoyed or upset when they thought they could write their name and then they had to relearn how to do it with only 1 capital at the start.

It's amazing how many parents teach their children to write their name in capital letters (because they are easier to write as the lines are usually straighter). I know you didn't teach her this way but just slowly and gently nudge her to using her lower case letters.

If she goes to school using uppercase it doesn't matter but it'll be a bit easier for her to relearn it now than later.

fatfloosie:

My DDs were both slow to sort out the when to use and not use capital letters and both said they liked the big letters because they seemed easier to make.

In Reception this will gradually be handled - nobody is expecting a 4 year old to arrive at school and be able to form all their letters perfectly. And this absolutely doesn't have to be sorted out formally until ~May of Year 2 - so there's plenty of time.

You're aware this is an area to work on - when you meet with the teachers let them know that she's writing mainly in capitals, so they know. And most likely they'll be very relaxed about it, which will reassure you.

But lead by example - make sure that when you write her name on things for school that you don't use all capitals yourself. Get clothing labels and name tag stickers which also use both upper and lower case correct - again so she's seeing it all the time. It seems a small thing, but it becomes an example she always sees (like her name on her school bag, etc...) and will feed into her automatically forming her letters correctly as well.