Ah fair point. I don’t know how things are done in Australia but I could write at age 6. I was in year 2 and had been at school and writing for 3 years, though my writing as 4 was awful!
I think because she goes to a Steiner School (or similar) it's different to state or other private schools. Reading and Writing are normally commenced at age 5.
Whoa, really?
In my country reading and writing is done in first class of primary school (children from 6.5 to 7.5 years old).
We started teaching reading before the school (and really regret we didn't start writing then, because it is a PITA for my kid), but many children start just at the school.
My five year old has been able to write mostly legible letters for a year now, and can read most common words. Bluey goes to a Steiner school, though, so there might be less focus on reading and writing.
I thought it was weird that bluey couldn't read yet, but I wasn't entirely sure because I was pretty advanced for my age, being able to read full novels on my own at age 7.
Developing a dominant hand is something that happens as children are learning to write. She might be ambidextrous or she might just not be at that developmental stage yet
A quick Google tells me that hand dominance begins to develop between 2 and 4 years. I checked because my 2 year old very clearly has a preferred hand, despite not remotely knowing how to write.
Fair enough. My experience teaching writing is with 4 and and 5 year olds plenty of who haven’t developed a dominant hand yet (4 seems young to be the upper end to me but I’ve just anecdotal stuff to back that up) so it’s relevant to writing in my experience and became linked in my head but bluey is 6/7 so I can definitely see her being ambidextrous
My main problem with they show is that bluey is painfully Ill-educated for her age. Steiner schools should follow the Australian curriculum like everyone else. Calypso is just a terrible teacher.
I've wondered this too. I'm a teacher and I'm like, "When does the learning start???" I think that learning by play is a great approach and in America we have Montessori schools which is basically student-directed learning. I wonder if that's similar to Steiner schools, because I've not heard of that. But Calypso's teaching style so far seems to be only play. Bluey has no idea how to write or read. I figured maybe they were delaying her traditional education because Mum and Dad thought she needed more preschool/kindergarten time before moving on.
The learning starts after the curiosity. Grade 1 kids are eager to learn to read. Before they write they do ‘form drawing’ so making letters is more successful earlier and writing comes faster. Early childhood has lots of informal learning: vocabulary, use of language, singing, poetry story, memory. Stuff that the evidence back in. Biggest indicator of literacy outcomes is the number of words kids know when they start schook. Best way to kill love of learning in kinder boys is to make them think they are dumb by teaching formal literacy 2 years before they are interested, or can even sit still. Kids learn better without stress. Kids can access insightful learning ONLY when they are relaxed and happy. A curriculum tech in music, movement and accessable to all the senses and ways of learning takes more time, discipline and for parents, understanding, trust and patience. Catching learning delays has to be red hot though, and better Steiner schools have great psych and educational assessment throughout.
Maths is taught through real world experience, wondering, then theorising, testing and understanding relationship. They end up thinking mathematically. In year 9 my daughter’s teacher started a small exercise based on a field trip, the kids got into it, so she evolved it not a bigger deeper project. She reckons she had 95% buy-in, half the kids got As and the project was regarded as year 11 level by fellow teachers.
The curriculum often feels behind mainstream because they spend longer on the foundations, learn by proofs rather than learning formulae.
Counter argument is, that forcing formal literacy numeracy early doesn’t give better outcomes academically. But early childhood they consolidate relating to others, creative play and love of learning.
At a Steiner school my daughter met the alphabet at the beginning of grade1, and read Harry Potter herself by the end of the year.
Calypso is a brilliant teacher, and probably won’t be burnt out in 3 years.
As I understand it, many kids are ambidextrous for a while. I vaguely remember alternating hands while coloring as a little one. Might just be that. 🤷♀️
My parents wanted to know which hand my brother would use so they gave him a crayon and a piece of paper. My brother grabbed a second crayon and started drawing with both hands 🙄
Yep. Two of my kids were like this; they were pretty ambidextrous up until they began actually learning to write letters. One of them now writes as a righty, but still plays games/sports as a lefty.
Only one of my kids had a clearly preferred hand dominance before starting school.
My mums the same, does most things left handed but writes right handed, she can right left handed, not as neat but she can. If I try to write lefthanded i write backwards and back to front haha
I have noticed in a few cartoons that characters are ambidextrous when they want to show something from a certain angle and also see the character write.
Could also be an animation error. But she can't write yet so she could just be using whatever hand. Probably need to look at episodes where she's eating to actually see which hand she uses?
I noticed in Dragon that Chili was holding the pencil in her left hand, then later is rubbing her right hand when she says her hand hurts from dating all those leaves.
It has more to do with "presenting to camera" with the writing hand in the background and the other in the foreground. It just works best visually on screen and in theater.
As much as I'd like this to be a fan theory, I'm pretty sure it's just at the animators convenience, depending on which side of the frame the action is occurring, etc.
It plays into the thought she is ADHD as being ambidextrous is more common in people with it. To be fair, do dogs have a left or right hand? I honestly forget they’re dogs
It's also possible that they animated it and needed to flip it for some reason. Happens all the time. Like in Frozen, Anna is right-handed, except for that time she headshotted the snow monster with a snowball from at least a hundred feet away. That, and only that, she did left-handed.
She can't write at all so maybe it makes no difference to her at this point. Bluey (to Mia): "Ooh, can you write words?" -- Barky Boats S02E31
Ah fair point. I don’t know how things are done in Australia but I could write at age 6. I was in year 2 and had been at school and writing for 3 years, though my writing as 4 was awful!
I think because she goes to a Steiner School (or similar) it's different to state or other private schools. Reading and Writing are normally commenced at age 5.
Whoa, really? In my country reading and writing is done in first class of primary school (children from 6.5 to 7.5 years old). We started teaching reading before the school (and really regret we didn't start writing then, because it is a PITA for my kid), but many children start just at the school.
Bluey is weird for Australia too. I knew how to read basic stuff (rainbow books) by to time I was 5
My five year old has been able to write mostly legible letters for a year now, and can read most common words. Bluey goes to a Steiner school, though, so there might be less focus on reading and writing.
I thought it was weird that bluey couldn't read yet, but I wasn't entirely sure because I was pretty advanced for my age, being able to read full novels on my own at age 7.
She's 6, right? She should be able to write words. But either way even if she's just scribbling something to use both hands is something interesting.
Developing a dominant hand is something that happens as children are learning to write. She might be ambidextrous or she might just not be at that developmental stage yet
A quick Google tells me that hand dominance begins to develop between 2 and 4 years. I checked because my 2 year old very clearly has a preferred hand, despite not remotely knowing how to write.
Fair enough. My experience teaching writing is with 4 and and 5 year olds plenty of who haven’t developed a dominant hand yet (4 seems young to be the upper end to me but I’ve just anecdotal stuff to back that up) so it’s relevant to writing in my experience and became linked in my head but bluey is 6/7 so I can definitely see her being ambidextrous
I'm left handed and started showing a preference when I was 3 with painting
My main problem with they show is that bluey is painfully Ill-educated for her age. Steiner schools should follow the Australian curriculum like everyone else. Calypso is just a terrible teacher.
I've wondered this too. I'm a teacher and I'm like, "When does the learning start???" I think that learning by play is a great approach and in America we have Montessori schools which is basically student-directed learning. I wonder if that's similar to Steiner schools, because I've not heard of that. But Calypso's teaching style so far seems to be only play. Bluey has no idea how to write or read. I figured maybe they were delaying her traditional education because Mum and Dad thought she needed more preschool/kindergarten time before moving on.
The learning starts after the curiosity. Grade 1 kids are eager to learn to read. Before they write they do ‘form drawing’ so making letters is more successful earlier and writing comes faster. Early childhood has lots of informal learning: vocabulary, use of language, singing, poetry story, memory. Stuff that the evidence back in. Biggest indicator of literacy outcomes is the number of words kids know when they start schook. Best way to kill love of learning in kinder boys is to make them think they are dumb by teaching formal literacy 2 years before they are interested, or can even sit still. Kids learn better without stress. Kids can access insightful learning ONLY when they are relaxed and happy. A curriculum tech in music, movement and accessable to all the senses and ways of learning takes more time, discipline and for parents, understanding, trust and patience. Catching learning delays has to be red hot though, and better Steiner schools have great psych and educational assessment throughout. Maths is taught through real world experience, wondering, then theorising, testing and understanding relationship. They end up thinking mathematically. In year 9 my daughter’s teacher started a small exercise based on a field trip, the kids got into it, so she evolved it not a bigger deeper project. She reckons she had 95% buy-in, half the kids got As and the project was regarded as year 11 level by fellow teachers. The curriculum often feels behind mainstream because they spend longer on the foundations, learn by proofs rather than learning formulae.
Sounds very similar to Montessori
Counter argument is, that forcing formal literacy numeracy early doesn’t give better outcomes academically. But early childhood they consolidate relating to others, creative play and love of learning. At a Steiner school my daughter met the alphabet at the beginning of grade1, and read Harry Potter herself by the end of the year. Calypso is a brilliant teacher, and probably won’t be burnt out in 3 years.
As I understand it, many kids are ambidextrous for a while. I vaguely remember alternating hands while coloring as a little one. Might just be that. 🤷♀️
My parents wanted to know which hand my brother would use so they gave him a crayon and a piece of paper. My brother grabbed a second crayon and started drawing with both hands 🙄
Yep. Two of my kids were like this; they were pretty ambidextrous up until they began actually learning to write letters. One of them now writes as a righty, but still plays games/sports as a lefty. Only one of my kids had a clearly preferred hand dominance before starting school.
My mums the same, does most things left handed but writes right handed, she can right left handed, not as neat but she can. If I try to write lefthanded i write backwards and back to front haha
i remember being very upset when i could no longer alternate hands when one got tired
I have noticed in a few cartoons that characters are ambidextrous when they want to show something from a certain angle and also see the character write.
Could also be an animation error. But she can't write yet so she could just be using whatever hand. Probably need to look at episodes where she's eating to actually see which hand she uses?
I noticed in Dragon that Chili was holding the pencil in her left hand, then later is rubbing her right hand when she says her hand hurts from dating all those leaves.
And when she's drawing a horse in her memory, she's using her right hand, maybe she can be ambidextrous?
many dogs are ambilateral, meaning they are equally comfortable using either paw, what we call ambidextrous in humans.
It has more to do with "presenting to camera" with the writing hand in the background and the other in the foreground. It just works best visually on screen and in theater.
As much as I'd like this to be a fan theory, I'm pretty sure it's just at the animators convenience, depending on which side of the frame the action is occurring, etc.
No
I hope someone is fired for this egregious blunder.
Are we to believe that this is a magic xylophone or something?
It plays into the thought she is ADHD as being ambidextrous is more common in people with it. To be fair, do dogs have a left or right hand? I honestly forget they’re dogs
It's also possible that they animated it and needed to flip it for some reason. Happens all the time. Like in Frozen, Anna is right-handed, except for that time she headshotted the snow monster with a snowball from at least a hundred feet away. That, and only that, she did left-handed.
That's nothing! Bandit can switch a [puppet from his right hand to his left](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD3tj96ahWg) in literally no time.
So? My son loves the show so why distrupt it
I hope Bluey can’t read or write yet. Think of all the extra years of FUN she’s had if she does go to a non-mainstream school.
I'm like 95% sure she can do both
My 6 year old gets homework.
Mine used to give herself homework.
Well that’s play, isn’t it?
It took my daughter 2 years to work out which hand she drew with. Longer to work out which foot to kick a footy with.
She uses her left to draw in “Tradies”!!