My mother's horrifed, but I think it's brilliant!

[manchestermummy]

Reception DD1 came home with a piece of work about her favourite game:

The duc duc goos I luv the best.

My mother is disgusted and thinks it's appalling she's not being taught to spell properly, but I think it's ridiculously cute and I am so proud of her.

Bit of a stealth boast, but there you go

Seriously, this is okay, isn't it? It's very neat.

I have an American friend who has shared some of her 5 year old's stories on (the dreaded) FB - I really enjoy them: latest was

"I wus in the snuw.I so sum thing undr the crismischree. I ran ovr to it. I so that it was A pesint. I lookt uliDl closr it HAD a tag I looct uliDl closr it had my name"

OK the spelling is not exactly text book but you know what she's saying (ok 'uliDl' took me a moment or two to work out....); if she were being made to spell everything perfectly what are the chances of producing that quantity of writing? they will get there, with the spellings - it is just putting a different step first (like riding those pedalless bikes and learning to balance first, then pedal, rather than learning to pedal with stabilisers, and then to balance)

very sweet and lovely! Well done your dd

ds2 has been writing a lot of this sort of thing in my diary lately. Mum i luv yoo bcos yoor byootfl seems to feature a lot. He is 5 and a half. I'm impressed, having a 9yo whose writing is still almost illegible!

So your poppet is doing very well indeed.

consikwintlee! Brill

My reception age DS's approach to spelling is enthusiastic, brave and ambitious. It is rarely right, but it is comprehensible (especially when you know how he pronounces some words).
I think it is a wonderful stage, the excitement of realising that you can make marks on paper and have other people understand what you are thinking is mind-blowing.

That reminded me of when my DD wrote that her friend had her leg in a 'crst' - and then when I worked it our realised that to a 4 year old that was cast...her friend had a broken leg!

Fab! You have to treasure this stage because it passes..... DS in Y1 still comes up with some gems, but a lot less than in YR.

Very good, OP! If the kids had been forced to write about their favourite game with correct spelling, they'd have probably all decided it was 'tig'.

I can't remember exactly what spelling mine came up with in something about trees ...yewkliptus maybe - I probably wouldn't have dared try it even.

Well done to your DD, I think that's fabulous! My fave spelling from DS (also in reception) was a Google search for ^nyoosoopamareeobruvz'... can anyone get that?! :)

I can
New Super Mario Bothers
My Ds has dyslexic like problems so we still got some creative phonics for a few years. My favorite was Awfisherly for Officially

I liked DS2's "oarsome" in his diary after a particularly good day

Clever and cute

I have a treasured hand written note from my dd when she was too scared to accompany me and her big brother to the funfair despite her hook a duck for a prize addiction.

"Please win me a good prize on the huk a duk"

Ahhh those were the days

got it, bruffin! :)

These are so sweet, kind of a continuation of the cute toddler mispronouciation phase. She also wrote a letter to Santa asking for a new doovai which has been my fave so far. And yesterday a story about "feeyalling sad".

I would like to know how to play duc duc goos.

Actually me too... Librarina are you a librarian?

Yes, and a Girl Guide leader so maybe I could play it there.

Wave at a fellow librarian librarina

I've worked in a school, where they didn't teach spelling until year 3, so the children weren't restricted in their creativity. The only rule was that they had to be able to read back what they had written. It was brilliant!

THe primary my children went to used to do the same thing, until pressure was started on to teach spelling and they brought it in. I was very sad.

I think as long as they are learning phonetics, it's far better to let them gain confidence in writing rather than imposing spelling from such an early age.

And her writing is great!

DD wrote a sentence about her trip tp cliforps. Reception teacher was delighted.

I love consikwentlee!

I teach secondaryFrench and the kids' spelling is atrocious but at least if they write pas ku they are saying it ok and not the dreaded parsuh kew =-O

That's very good for age 4.

The bristish system is unique in that children are taught to read and write at a fairly young age, and they make many spelling mistakes and have messy writing because of this (it's great that you say your dd's writing is neat!)

My children aren't taught to read and write until the year they become 6, and then they are expected to learn cursive writing immediately and spell correctly from the word go.

I still have the story DD wrote about the tiger who came to tea, apparently he ate all the Samwjos

Samwjos! I love this.

Excuse my ignorance, but what's Duck, Duck, Goose?