DD 'rushing' her work... how to encourage her to take her time a bit more?

[notnowbernard]

She's only 6 and in Y1 so am not massively concerned about it or anything, but feedback from her teacher is that she is very capable of producing really good work, but tends to rush a lot

For instance, doesn't join-up properly (is this REALLY a problem though?!) uses random capital letters, and literacy stuff tends to be on the brief side

She is doing v well at school and is bright and a keen learner and enjoys school. So I don't want to make a big deal - but IS it a big deal or not?

And how do I encourage her?

Am new to all this education malarkey

You are describing my 12 year old to perfection. She has just started secondary school and I wrote a similar thread a few months ago and she was still doing the random capital letters at 9.
As to whether it's a big deal I am not really sure.

DD's teachers used to get a bit exasperated with her as she did have a lot of really good things to say, but it was so rushed and messy that they couldn't read it. Maturity does help as they do start to see the importance of being neater and doing things properly. Although the teachers were exasperated with her most of her teachers love teaching her, they use her bounce off of and she is an enthusiastic learner, with lots of good ideas, which apparently the other children used to copy.

I have come to the conclusion she can't be perfect and the energy and enthusiasm that makes her fun to teach is probably what causes the rushing of work an we have to accept both parts of her personality. She is getting there and is starting to care a lot more now.

Thankyou Bruffin

That us how dd is described, as enthusiastic with good ideas that she is happy to share in group time etc

Yesterday she came home and wrote an account of the class trip earlier in the week. She wanted to show it to her teacher, because apparently the one she did in class that day was "too short with not enough adjectives" !!! She's 6!

Anyway, the work she did at home was just lovely. She was pleased that she'd filled it with "exciting words, Mummy - that's what an adjective is"

I think I will just need to encourage her love of the actual learning, rather than the actual performance/result IYKWIM (for now, anyway)

I was very like dd as a child as well

Lots of "Has the ability but could do better/try harder comments"

Predicted really good GCSE grades but underachieved

I've done alright, have a job I enjoy and is valued etc but I would like not to have to turn in to my Mother in 5yrs time and nag constantly

DP was even worse...

From what you've written I would wonder why she rushes her work at school... is it because those who finish first get a sticker/extra praise/free time/to draw etc.?

As a teacher I wouldn't worry that much about the joined-up writing but random capital letters in the work of a child who was capable of using them correctly would eventually become quite frustrating! With older children I give them different coloured pencils to be used to edit their work before they bring it up to me; red for exciting words, blue for punctuation etc. etc. This means the super-speedy workers can still get their ideas down on paper quickly but gives them an opportunity to actively improve their writing ... using a different colour makes a bizarre difference, possibly because knowing that the teacher will be looking for evidence of the blue/red etc. means they will seek out opportunities to use it.

SE13Mummy Thankyou, that's a useful post

I think (according to her teacher, anyway) she rushes to 'get onto the next thing', if you like. And as she's Y1 I suspect 'the next thing' is probably a play or fun-based activity