Milestones debate

@Claire A, I never really thought about that cause my daughter is exactly the same as Liam. She is also very shy when asked directly, not always with us though but with other people. When she plays she is fine with everything & when she warms up to you & in the mood, she will perform.

AdeleF, Yes, tiredness, hunger etc does play a vital roll in how they perform with tasks. I 100% agree with you there. I have no idea what times they do their assessments but it does make sense what you say. I will do a few exercises over the long weekend & assess her myself & will write a letter to her teacher explaining how I feel about everything. My husband drops her off & picks her up so it's not gonna work to ask a man to talk to the teacher...........they just don't know what to say

Hi,

I found that with small kids, a lot of their "performance" is linked to how they feel at the moment. If they are tired, you can do whatever they will not do what you want them to do.

I have a problem with the way they assess our children. They schedule a time and do the assessment without taking into account on how our pre-schooler feels at that present time.

If they assess my daughter (who turns 5 on Tuesday) after ballet, she does very poorly as she is already tired. I have experienced irratic reports because of this. Now, I just look at it and if I have any dispute I go and discuss it with the teacher, because I am well aware of what my child can and cannot do. If I need to practise something at home, I will disscuss it with teacher first.

i have also seen differences in what the school report says and what i KNOW my children can do for eg Liam (almost 4), according to school report counts to 5 adequately, yet at home I hear him counting perfectly to 22 - I believe that he should receive a good / very good for counting to 5
Because Liam has an older brother he often picks up things beyond his age for eg colours - he can tell you which primary colours to mix to make other colours, yet his report says he needs practice with colours.
But Liam can be shy when directly questioned, in play he is fine, so I think it is how the "questions" are broached - if they are asking him directly, he will get flustered, yet if you listen to him playing, he is fine.

With Brandon who is also 5, his report says he needs practise balancing on one leg, yet he does gymnastics and that is one of the exercises and his gymnastics teacher is very happy with his performance, and at home he can do at least 40 seconds on his right leg and about 30 on the left - so I am not sure where he should be on this.

As for writing, I draw little dots / lines in the shape of the letters and get him to copy them, it seems to be working, but as Bronz says, putting the name on top of the page and getting him to copy also works - strangely enough he can write his friends name (Xavier) from memory, but needs help with his own

I will definitely bring it up with the teacher. I will take end of last years report & show her.

Definitely keeping it fun for her & she luckily enjoys it. The app that does the shapes gives a metal if you get each shape right & she just loves it

"I am almost finished my teachers degree for birth to Grade 3" I assumed something like that he he he Could pick up that you have some sort of teacher's background

Maybe bring it up with the teacher that she is able to recognise all the shapes but her report said she could not. Take the last report with you if you do.

Remember to keep it all fun, otherwise it will just be work for her and she wont be interested.

(Oh just some background I am almost finished my teachers degree for birth to Grade 3 - for where i am coming from)

Thanks for the reply Bronz.

I do go over her basic shapes etc at home & I downloaded a very cute app on the tablet that will show her 3 different shapes & then ask her to select a rectangle or square etc & she does that perfectly. I will just continue with all of this at home. I am just puzzled cause end of last year's report there were no issues regarding the shapes & now that she moved up to a bigger class she has problems with all of them!!!!

I definitely agree with you regarding the attention span. They are way too small to concentrate for so long & their brains are like sponges. They are taking so many things in each day & then trying to process it all. I will take your advice on letting her 'write' her own story & so on.

Tying shoelaces is between 5 and 6.
Writing name starts coming on after 5

I also read that so I'm not too worried about that. My cousin's son just turned 5 in march & can almost right his name perfectly. He is just struggling with his 'd'.

I will definitely write her name on her drawings. Last night & wrote her name down & told her to look at it carefully & what the letters look like. I also bought her these learning mats where she can learn how to write the alphabet, numbers etc & then we can wipe it clean & start all over again I just love those mats & they are so cheap.

Hi momtoc

The teacher should know by know if your daughter knows her shapes or not! Try asking her the shape names at home now, assessment would have been done recently. Well it should have. Try go over the basic shapes with her (triangle, circle, square, recangle, star and oval) in a fun way to reinforce them if you would like. Try cutting out shapes and letting her make a picture using them and while she is making her picture talk to her about the different shapes.

I would not be worried about her attention span yet, She is still small. You can work on it if you want. Oh, get her to 'write' her own story so she has a rea interest in it and see how much she remembers a bit later. Cut pics from magazines or let her draw a couple of pics (or a combo) and ask her to tell you what is happening in her story and you write it down on the back.

There is no harm in going for an assessment at an OT, It will only point out areas that you can improve on and show you her strengths.

Tying shoelaces is between 5 and 6.
Writing name starts coming on after 5 (Grade R)
Writing words is grade 1. (6-7)

A nice way for her to learn to write her name is casually writing her name at the top of any page she is drawing on. Soon she will start playing with the letters and trying herself.

I hope this helps.