My current fifth grader was like that in first, had second grade cut short and then Covid. Last year his teacher raved about what a great writer they are. We didn’t do anything special, it just takes time for some kids.

My 2nd grader has decent penmanship and terrible spelling. He’s a fluent reader, skilled at math, and can do basic computer programming. He can’t tie his shoes that well. My point is that if your kid is doing well overall (in other words, learning stuff), calm down. And, every person is better at some things than others. It’ll be that way for the rest of their life. Your teachers will tell you if there is a problem. And try not to compare your kid to others. Who knows what’s up in their lives.

One of my kids had terrible handwriting at that age, and I didn't worry about it, but the bad handwriting persisted. When I homeschooled him, I had him do a page or two from the book "handwriting without tears" every day. That's all I did and it solved the problem. He liked that time because he got to listen to his audiobook while he wrote. It just took five or ten minutes.

The problem with bad handwriting is that later on he might be expected to do assignments that require writing, but won't be able to compose well because he issuing all his working memory on handwriting.

I think kids don't get enough pen and pencil practice, so it's not unreasonable for a parent to give them some practice. In your shoes, knowing what I know now, I would have my kid do handwriting without tears five minutes a day while he listened to something he liked, like music or an audiobook. But I also wouldn't stress about it. Kids pick up on your stress and that causes all sorts of problems.

^maybe it was a few months later. I don’t even remember!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here - Please stop now - your son is fine - way too early to get caught up in the race to nowhere. Just encourage him to do his best.

But may I ask why? We were blown away by some of these kids’ writing skills. Our first thought was “what learning loss?” These APS kids are ahead of the game. I don’t want my kid to fall behind. Should we do nothing?

NP. Yes. You should do nothing. I felt like you when my son was in first grade. The teacher was not concerned. A few years later, one day he came home with this paper and I didn’t recognize this neat handwriting. It was his. Kids really do develop differently. It’s the very beginning of first grade. There is a huge range.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here - Please stop now - your son is fine - way too early to get caught up in the race to nowhere. Just encourage him to do his best.

But may I ask why? We were blown away by some of these kids’ writing skills. Our first thought was “what learning loss?” These APS kids are ahead of the game. I don’t want my kid to fall behind. Should we do nothing?

My daughter mixed up b/d while writing and had poor penmanship at the beginning of first grade. By the end, she wrote beautifully with proper spelling. We did not do anything additional for her. I wouldn’t worry, OP. A lot can change over the course of a school year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here - Please stop now - your son is fine - way too early to get caught up in the race to nowhere. Just encourage him to do his best.

But may I ask why? We were blown away by some of these kids’ writing skills. Our first thought was “what learning loss?” These APS kids are ahead of the game. I don’t want my kid to fall behind. Should we do nothing?

The bolded explains it all. OP, you live in the land of overachievers, you know that, right?

Exposing your son to lots of books by reading to him, reading with him (taking turns reading aloud) and encouraging him to read is the best thing you can do right now. Very basic writing skills are taught in first grade. He’ll learn a lot about writing this year. You can discuss what things you each like or dislike the writing in books you’ve read together.

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here - Please stop now - your son is fine - way too early to get caught up in the race to nowhere. Just encourage him to do his best.

But may I ask why? We were blown away by some of these kids’ writing skills. Our first thought was “what learning loss?” These APS kids are ahead of the game. I don’t want my kid to fall behind. Should we do nothing?

My son is in first grade and probably average? He can write whatever he wants neatly if he tries (usually rushes) and spells everything phonetically (ex. I luv skewl) so it's far from perfect.

Teacher here - Please stop now - your son is fine - way too early to get caught up in the race to nowhere. Just encourage him to do his best.

Can write a paragraph with perfectly formed letters.

My first grader is more like your son. Can't distinguish b from d. Not a reflection at all of future potential! Older child was similar but things just started clicking mid-way through 1st grade.

There is a huge range.

My husband just got back from our back to school night and said some of the kids in my son’s first-grade class have very good writing skills. The teacher hung little stories that each first-grader had written on the wall.

Some of the kids had spelling and writing skills that looked like they were at a fifth-grade level. Others had so-so writing skills.

Meanwhile, my son wrote numbers backward and couldn’t spell out several words like “Lego” and “play.” The teacher had to fill in the rest of the letters for him.

I know kids have their own pace of learning, but we were both disappointed that he was a bit behind the other kids.

He is above grade level for math and his teacher has handed him some worksheets on addition, subtraction and multiplication.

What are your expectations for first-grade reading, writing and spelling skills? Because clearly we have work to do.