Non competitive spelling and reading. I hate it!

[Aloha]

My ds is really good at reading and spelling. it's his chance to shine. I hate the fact that his school don't hold public compulsory reading and spelling competitions in which the parents get to cheer on their children and see who comes last. I mean, competitiveness is so important, don't you think?

Come on, let's give these kids their chance to shine and find out who comes last!

But they do. It is called SATS

Oh, do they do sats in public now? With everyone watching and the results for your child broadcast to everyone?

Ah 'Aloha' - should have guesed you started this one.
For the record from my childhood I remember the double whammy of being bullied for being 'the bright kid' and then extra bullying for being no good at sport. Interestingly all the bullies were good at sport but totally disruptive in the classroom.

does anyone remember that spellathon that was on bbc a few years ago?? it was on everynight for a week or something.

and itv did one too.

Self refernced leveling is the way things are going Aloha.

Your ds wil have to get used to the idea that he only has to compete with himself.

There are studies that sho this is the best we to get academic improvement you know!

But in a minute I will get parents shouting at me because they don't get told where their kids are are in the class any more!

Can my son join in? Our paediatrian thinks that my son might be dyspraxic and we been refered to occupational theraphy for an assessment.

He is very good at reading, but finds spelling harder. My son is deaf and it makes hard to know what word he is supposed to be spelling!

However I think its a mistake to avoid all physical activity just because a child is dyspraxic. My son needs to build up his upper body muscle tone and physical exercise helps him with this. Its no good a dyslexic child running away from learning to read and its no good a dyspraxic child doing no physical exercise. It just makes the problem worse.

My son goes swimming two to three times a week, does gymnastics (which he likes inspite of being useless at). Our paediatrian has recommended horse riding, but I haven't yet had the chance to arrange it. At the moment I am paying for my son to have one to one swimming lessons so I can't afford horse riding lessons at the moment.

. cracking idea.

Don't worry. Before long, every child in his class and every parent will know that he is brainy. It may not be overt, but the competition is equally as fierce, believe me. I found this out the hard way.

And soon there'll be tests and exams...

Let the sporty ones have their moment of glory. My ds will never be among them, but he'll trounce them in numeracy any day

My dyspraxic DD got her 100m swimming badge last week Frances. Never mind that it took her till almost her 10th birthday - she has worked so so hard to get this far. She is taking her grade 2 ballet exam next month too. The amazing thing is that as far as ballet is concerned she used to be the little ugly duckling trying to imitate the swans - now she is good enough so you wouldn't really notice that she is not a proper swan.
I am a million times prouder of that than the fact that she hasn't got a single spelling wrong in their weekly tests this year.

stand up spellings?

reading book red

the blue table

its all there. and kids know it.

there are prize days,
certificate days etc where parents can attend at my twins secondary school.

Thats fanastic news RosaLuxembourg. Its great to hear that your daughter is doing so well. I think that hard work can overcome a lot.

My little boy is only five years old so your post gives us hope.

You might laugh, but I am just relieved that my son can now run across a field at sports day. When I think back to wheh he was two years old and I was having to do daily physio with him it just makes me shudder.

Rosa - that is a lovely post about your DD - I can understand how proud you are of her

Custardo is right - the children know the exact pecking order on each subject by y4 IME.

Mental maths, spelling out loud, marked tests given back, who sits with whom - all of it makes it very obvious to children whether they are successful or not at a subject. Even down to whose art gets displayed on the wall, or who gets invited to take music lessons or join the choir.

I think which reading a book a child has is about teaching them to read. Its nothing to do with competition.

There would be absolutely no point in my son been on the lower stages of the Oxford Reading Tree. He would gain nothing from reading them.

If he's good at reading and spelling then good for him. If a kid at my ds's school gets an award for literacy/numeracy I'd be there clapping like a good 'un.

My ds will probably never win a literacy award. I don't think you should ban them though.

Thanks for your kind words guys. There is plenty of hope for your DS Frances. My DD1 used to hate sports day because she always came last in every single race. Now she doesn't come last anymore, usually second or third last but not absolute last and that's good enough for her.
One thing I will say is that somewhat counterintuitively I encouraged to take up the violin three years ago to help with her fine motor skills. She has perservered although it was very difficult for her and I think it has made a big big difference to her co-ordination. Her handwriting is now not too different from her classmates when up to the end of year four it was similar to a five-year-old's writing. And she is getting pretty good at drawing. I think you are taking the right approach by encouraging your DS to work at stuff that doesn't come naturally.

RL you have no idea how good it is to read your post My DD is 8 and has dyspraxia. Her writing is an issue at the moment and it is lovely to think that there's a really good chance it might be less of a problem in a couple of years.

She really would like to have a go at gymnastics so she's going to have a go at that in a bit. She plays piano which I think has helped with her writing so interesting to hear about your DD and the violin.

Chocolateteapot, I am not musical myself but somebody recently said to me that the reason music has helped was because it encourages the right and left brain to work together - don't know the theory behind this but it sounds encouraging. All I know is that something happened almost overnight - she has had the same teacher for the past two years and she told me in September that she couldn't believe how DD had improved over the summer holidays - she thought it was something we'd done and we thought it was something she'd done!
I felt very bad about the writing because it embarrassed her so much and we tried everything to help - she got extra help in the classroom, I bought special pens, worksheets etc but nothing worked and then it just happened. Hope it happens for your DD too.

How odd. We made huge deal of it when a child at the school I taught at got one of the top marks for her AS level.

And I rather disagree that it is unacceptable to be brainy. Acceptance is IME based on other criteria - music, clothes etc.

Every parent in the school (well, those that attended) saw DS2 come last in his running race last year, when he was still 4 and in Reception. Not one of them saw him read fluently from "The House at Pooh Corner".

DS2 would love a Spellathon - he does his brother's Y4 spellings for fun sometimes.

I hate Sports Day. Lots of children don't shine at anything, so I find the argument that it is a chance for non-academic children to do well odd. DS1 is quite bright and not at all sporty, so he is never going to get recognition for anything in competitions.