My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Boys and writing

5 replies

houseofboys · 29/01/2010 10:24

Hi, any advice would be welcome here. My six year old is in yr two and have just discovered he's having to have extra help in writing (which his teacher says is poor) and numeracy, where he has some gaps in knowledge. He says he hates both and I find it hard to motivate him. But on the other hand he's the top of the class in reading - on lime/grey books. I've always thought that the reading meant he was bright so didn't worry too much about other stuff so was bit shocked to discover problems in other areas. I'd also thought that boys always weren't so good at writing, as their fine motor skills developed later, and that I didn't need to worry that he is slow to write and its untidy. He has SATS next term and while I hate the whole Sats thing I obviously don't want him to do worse than others. Should I be doing more with him at home? Don't want to stress him though - he's a real sensitive soul and daydreamer and needs lots of down time after school.

OP posts:
Report
Whippet · 29/01/2010 10:32

House ofBoys - I don't have time to post a lot here, but I just posted something similar recently about DS2 (7)'s writing, and there were a lot of useful responses.

Also search 'handwriting' in the archives.

Lots of it is poor fine motor skills in young boys. There are pen grips, exercises, writing sloped desks etc that are meant to help.

I have also talked to DS's school, but at the end of the day I think it all comes down to practice,practice etc. DSs teacher was commenting on how little writing boys do outside of the classroom these days, and it's true. Girls still often do diaries and more arty stuff, but boys are often on computer games, which don't strengthen the same/right muscles.

Report
pedaltothemetal · 29/01/2010 12:34

Your boy sounds very similar to mine. At the start of Year 2 the teacher highlighted his writing as a cause for concern and it was one of his literacy targets.
We have worked on it through spelling practice, I used really strict direction as my method - I insisted that he started writing smaller - short letters are short and tall letters are tall and that no letters are flying up from the line. I was amazed by how quickly we saw results and so was he - I cried after our first session, I was so proud.
The one to one really made a difference - I will add that he was physically ready to write properly unlike year 1, he just didn't know he could, he lacked the confidence to try.

So 3 months on from when the target has been set by his teacher, his writing has been completely transformed and he's very proud of it too.

If your ds needs help with numeracy then why don't you let him have a play with a numeracy based website like BBC Bitesize.

Report
sprat1 · 29/01/2010 12:48

Hi. DS1's writing was very poor and he attended a handwriting group at our local hospital in year 3. He was encouraged to do lots of stuff to strengthen his upper body. Wheel barrows, Propelling his self up and down the lounge on his tummy on a stateboard. Animal walks. We made them into games and did them before school. Also practice things like spreading jam butter etc. helping with cooking in general. lego lots of. If you have more than one DC fighting. Get them to kneel up on their haunches and push each other over!!The other thing we were told to do was just a tiny bit of writing at home so just 1 letter perfectly written 5 times not load and loads. We also had hand stregthening excercises. press the tip of your thumb and forefinger together to form an O, get someone else to put their thumb and fore finger into the O and break the link. Stand in a circle and squeeze the thumb on the person next to you. Doesnt hurt I promise.For maths I have found whizz education good if he likes the computer

Report
pedaltothemetal · 29/01/2010 12:57

We did the kind of activities Sprat refers to in Year 1...all the fine motor/strength building exercises - we just didn't insist on him writing properly - we thought the school would take care of that but it just didn't happen for him.

Report
houseofboys · 29/01/2010 13:25

Thanks. Hard to know how much he doesn't want to and how much is can't. He also has little staying power at things he doesn't like. I think i'll try doing a little at home try and keep it focussed... have wondered if it was because I didn't let him play on the computer much, doesn't using a mouse help?

OP posts:
Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.