DS 6YR Old hates writing.....

[Ali2009]

Hi there,

My DS who is in P2 hates writing. He's a very capable and enthusiastic boy about learning but finds writing an absolute chore. He comes away with statements like "I'm just no good", "I can't do it", "I hate my life" etc not very good things to hear at such a young age. He seems to get overwhelmed by the keep your letters small, write more, punctuation, neat writing. Its really knocking his self esteem.

Thanking you in advance for any tips

Can I join in asking for tips. We have exactly the same and it's awful. Ali is your DS a leftie?

Mine was exactly the same. I told him that everyone has different switches in their heads (eg writing, swimming, maths, whatever) and they all come on at different times so that his writing switch just hadn't come on yet! Then made long lists of everything he was good at. They all get there in the end, just a nightmare stopping them losing all confidence until it happens.

And keep telling him that just cos teacher goes on about it, she does so because it's her job, but it's really not such a big deal and one day he'll be fantastic!

And tell him that that's why in Scandinavia they don't start reading and writing until age 7, boys in particular lack the necessary fine motor skills until then so are set up to fail in our system. Makes me so MAD!

I have the same problem (ds age 8). He hates writing, has no interest in putting pen to paper,doesnt seem to have the imagination to create stories like his younger sister either. His spelling is awful too and I think this is why he doesnt enjoy writing.

He is really good at maths and sport though, and I just think that by the time he actually leaves school the writing would have clicked, after all they are still young.

Some kids just get it,others dont!

(We are also in Scotland,where they seem to be very strict on handwriting skills, spelling and puctuation from a young age)

oh signing in here as another mum with a writing refusnik (aged 8) In fact I was called in today by his class teacher as he had practice sats today - 'long' writing - and he just put his pencil down and said he could not do it.

Luckily we dont have sats here in Scotland, my ds would have done exactly whatyour son did! 6 lines is an essay in my ds's opinion (and would probably take him an hour to do just that!)

ds2 is 9 and in Y4 and it's only since January this year that he's actually started to make progress with his writing

he has fine motor skills problems so writing isn't particularly easy physically anyway and he'd do anything to avoid a writing task

when he did have to do something he'd get really upset and say "I'm no good at writing" etc

he was (is) very good at maths and science however and loves reading (devours books, has very high reading age) so we just kept reinforcing how good he was at everything else and that the writing would come in time

and guess what? it has his writing is now much neater - and quicker too - he's writing with pen (he was very resistant at first but now finds it easier than pencil) and because he's finding it physically easier, it's mentally easier too so he's not constantly trying to avoid writing tasks, but honestly it only clicked half way through Y4 (and there were times last year when I wondered if it would ever click!)

your ds will get there eventually

My daughter is the same and is year 3 (aged 7). She hates writing, thinks writing half a page is a good effort for an essay. She is also being pushed every day by the teacher to do much much better as she has a very high writing target. She is full of ideas and very imaginative but like you wondering what tips you have to deal with school so they can encourage and nurture her so it clicks with her.