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Primary education

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Original poster

give it a rest about your kids being bored at schools....

58 replies

sereka · 06/07/2010 15:02

Hi Guys,

I have been reading through a few post on here.

Parents seem to constantly go on about their kids being bored at school because they can read before they started school and the teacher giving them lesser ability books. When you say they can read before starting reception.. what exactly are you saying?

My daughter is starting reception in september and she recognises just a few words and i would not class that as being able to read.

We read books together and she enjoys it.. its really funny as if we read a certain story she can look at the pictures and then tell me the story back again days later.. this is her making up her own words but is always correct. Also she will get a book for the first time and just say the words she knows on the page and then make up her own story from the pics. Have me in stitches most days surprisingly she has lovely handwrting skills already. Form her letters properly and can write her name. ( i have very good penmanship so maybe she inherited that from me.LOL)
What should i be doing to help her more?
will she learn to read in reception?
I feel like Im not doing enough as so many of you have kids already reading...

Regards

OP posts:
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Litchick · 06/07/2010 15:03

Boring people get bored

Bonsoir · 06/07/2010 15:11

School can be very dull.

MathsMadMummy · 06/07/2010 15:11

your DD sounds lovely

some kids do read before they start school (I was one of them) but it's by no means the norm so I wouldn't worry - actually your DD is probably ahead of some of her peers, some won't even know their letters yet.

you should maybe post again with a different thread title though as it doesn't really go with what you're asking!

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 06/07/2010 15:24

So your thread title is "give it a rest about your kids being bored at schools...." but your question is what you should be doing to help your DD more and whether she will learn to read in Reception? You might get more relevant responses if the two matched.

It doesn't sound as though you need to do anything more with her other than keep on reading books you both enjoy, and she will probably learn to read, a fair way at least, in Reception.

Original poster
sereka · 06/07/2010 15:25

Mathsmadmummy,

that is true about what im asking doesnt go with what im asking... But at first wanted to speak about moms who constantly went on about their kids being bored at school.

Sometimes maybe the poor kids didnt even mention this but its some pushy type parents who are concerned maybe about nothing.

I read quite a few threads today and they were all going on about the same thing. if the teacher not giving ready books to their level join the local library, there are vast number of books available there.

OP posts:
emy72 · 06/07/2010 15:27

Your thread title is a touch inflamatory imo, don't you think?

sarah293 · 06/07/2010 15:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 06/07/2010 15:29

When I started school I was reading freely and fluently (had already read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, for example). If I'd been forced to read my way through every single book on the reading scheme starting from the bottom (fortunately I wasn't) I would probably have been bored and kicked off, whatever books I was reading from the library outside school.

I do think any very inflexible reading scheme policy does a disservice to many of the more able children, and it would put me off a school. I know of one of DS's nursery contemporaries who has been seriously turned off reading by the attitude of the school.

But so long as the school has a reasonable amount of flexibility and responsiveness I don't think we need to fret too much about the exact gradations of difficult of the books.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 06/07/2010 15:30

difficulty

MathsMadMummy · 06/07/2010 15:31

I don't think a lot of these parents are pushy, in fact I posted on another thread about how lots of parents are simply trying to be involved in their child's education - exactly as you are, by asking how to help your DD.

viewing them as pushy doesn't help anyone. a bored child can often become a disengaged child, and then an underachieving one.

MitchyInge · 06/07/2010 15:36

mine show/showed up now and then at school, and then probably mostly for the social side of things - their education doesn't cease to be a parental responsibility and school is about much more than that isn't it?

that's not to say there aren't rubbish teachers, sloppy lesson planning and unimaginative classroom management going on that could lead to less than stimulating experience I suppose

Hullygully · 06/07/2010 15:39

Yes they are. And it's about time too.

ermnopecantthinkofanewname · 06/07/2010 15:41

I think your comments are really naive. Your dd hasn't even started school yet.

I agree about people putting the idea of being bored into their children's heads when it hasn't even occurred to them. Also reception is loads of fun for the vast majority of children even if they can already read.

This comment has riled me:
"I read quite a few threads today and they were all going on about the same thing. if the teacher not giving ready books to their level join the local library, there are vast number of books available there."

BUT why shouldn't teachers give children books at vaguely the right level (it's never going to be perfect)? It's not especially difficult. Yes I could go to the library and give dd books at home but shouldn't a teacher be able to manage this.

By the time my dd's school started giving out books she was able to read longer sentences and mid-length words. What would the benefit of her, say, starting off on "a cat" type books have been??

I don't get your OP frankly either. You criticise other parents and then are asking what you can do with your dd's writing and reading?

MitchyInge · 06/07/2010 15:42

anyway how would you know your child was bored unless you spent entire school day there with them?

coming home tired and saying 'nothing' to the question 'what have you done today?' doesn't mean much

mummytime · 06/07/2010 15:53

MitchyInge - how about this: DD decides instead of washing out her paintbrush to paint the school, doors, windows, dressing up box, toilet doors etc. She is bored, and desperately wants attention, now I have to make sure we give her just as much for her good behaviour (if there was any today) as her bad behaviour yesterday.

A friend who homeschools, when I told her suggested maybe we should send her to our local very academic girls school.

Actually coming home not tired, and asking for more homework is probably another sign of boredom.

MathsMadMummy · 06/07/2010 15:59

surely a child could tell you if they were bored?

Malaleuca · 06/07/2010 16:04

I have to say I am also surprised at the number of children mentioned on mumsnet who can read, write etc before they start school. I've taught for over 30 years and can count on one hand the children who came to school already reading. One I remember was quite unusual, had learned to read at 2, and was identified very early on as exceptionally high IQ, something like 1 in 200. I have taught in low socio-economic and leafy green and some children learn incredibly quickly once taught, but they were most assuredly not reading before they came.

MathsMadMummy · 06/07/2010 16:09

on my first day in reception (4.9ish) I read a Dick Bruna book to the class. during my first read-to-the-teacher session, I said "I can read upside down" so I did. Wow, I was a precocious little madam!

I was allowed to sit at the back with my own books when the others learned to read, in fact the teacher brought in her daughter's books for me. I wasn't a genius or anything - I just happened to take to it really. some kids just get there sooner. my DD is not one of those kids though!

ermnopecantthinkofanewname · 06/07/2010 16:27

Are you merely surprised malaleuca or doubting us?

InvaderZim · 06/07/2010 16:41

I was reading longish before I went to school (age 5). My kindergarten teacher didn't even notice apparently, the silly woman! I wasn't bored though, there was so much playing to do!

MathsMadMummy · 06/07/2010 17:05

I also don't remember doing much learning-through-play stuff. I just wanted to do puzzles, reading and writing! I would've been bored otherwise I think.

Feenie · 06/07/2010 17:59

By Bonsoir Tue 06-Jul-10 15:11:27

"School can be very dull."

I find that rich from someone who insists learning shouldn't be fun, Bonsoir!

civil · 06/07/2010 18:10

As I said on another thread...my children never get bored of playing. (and I think they're bright children)

And I - as a child - never got bored of playing. My sisters and I got millions of As at A-level between us and yet we would play and play and play; our games were always more fascinating than homework. (which thankfully we never had at primary school)

We would build dens, roll things down hills, have swimming competitions, start magazines, organise garage sales, set up spy rings etc. So, what is wrong with playing.

However, the reading book thing is different - if we had had to wade through every ORT book, I (as a parent) would have been very bored. Luckily, our school gives children books at the appropriate level.

Bonsoir · 06/07/2010 18:20

Feenie - it wasn't a complaint . And I don't insist that learning shouldn't be enjoyable; I insist that you cannot expect to be enjoyable all the time. There is a very great difference.

May I be so bold as to suggest you take a course in logic?

Feenie · 06/07/2010 18:29

No .

I could copy and paste you, but I can't be bothered.