Is this normal for a 5 yo boy??

DS is 5 and shows no interest in starting to write lol He knows his alphabet, he can recognise some letters (but not all) but he just doesn't want to write! I am trying to encourage him nicely and not make it a chore or anything (he isn't at school yet, but he is starting next year) so as to not put him off anymore. I thought I would try to get him to at least practice his name (which he can do slowly with a lot of help) so he could write his name on Christmas cards, but nope, he isn't interested at all. Please tell me he isn't going to be only kindergarten child who cant write!!! lol (Numbers on the other hand- he can count, add, recognise all the numbers, but cant write them either lol)

Oh and I'm not usually into the boy differs from girl thing, but his three year old sister is in love with letters and writing, but actually said she hates numbers lol and it automatically made me think of it as a boy/girl thing, has anyone else noticed a difference between their kids???

Any ideas on how we can encourage him?? At the moment he plays a game on the computer which involves typing and spelling and I encourage him to do what he can there, and if he asks me to type something we sit there together and he types, we sound out the word and talk about the letters we are using etc, but is that encouraging or discouraging??????

Any ideas would be muchly appreciated :)

Yes, it's normal. It actually sounds like he's progressing really well toward literacy, he's just not ready to do the actual writing yet.
Many children really aren't ready till 6-7. I would not push it at all, and let him concentrate on learning other things. The writing will come when he's ready.

does he like drawing? have you tried different pencils/pens/crayons?

My son was the same. He definitely won't be the only child going to school who can't write. He is going to be fine :)

Thank you!!! I knew it was ok, its just nice to have that reassurance!!! His favourite thing to write or draw with is textas of course lol Which i do take advantage of sometimes lol Even drawing though- he is getting better- his things actually look like something now lol But again, comparing him to DD.. she blows him out of the water lol she has been a colouring queen since she could hold a crayon (as in she actually colours and even attempts to stay in the lines and uses a different colour for different things- where as DS at that age was just crazily scribbling one colour over a page and that was it) I think I am just learning how different my babies are.. not better or worse, just different :)

I think i will just let him keep having fun :) Plenty of time to learn :) He is convinced that when you get big you just know, and he isnt big yet.. lol so i guess he is telling my he isn't quite ready yet, so i will wait :)

Thanks ladies :)

Yes, normal! When he feels he is ready it will be much more fun for him!

I would just concentrate on having fun and playing. Also I would probably be setting up some fun activities for him that aren't to do with writing but are getting him to practice his fine motor skills and use his hand muscles which will be important next year when he has to write at school. e.g. drawing with lots of different materials, painting with lots of different sized brushes (and fingers!), practicing cutting with scissors, stickers, ripping up tissue paper and making collages, puzzles, play dough, clay, paint in squeezy bottles, sensory play with rice/beans/sand etc, beading, building with stuff around the house and sticky tape. Lots of things! Have fun! :)

Yep, my little guy is the same!
Though recently he has sparked a bit of interest, in one word only - POLICE - he writes it everywhere like a tag lol. Guess what daddy does for a living ;)

Does he like to draw, paint, or colour? Any activities like this (even gluing things with a glue stick) will help develop his fine motor skills. Sometimes they enjoy "writing" if you dot the letters in first, then they can trace over it & get the feeling of accomplishment without the hard bit of having to know what to do. Start with the first letter of his name (kids like "owning" their letter LOL). Likewise, drawing or tracing over shapes or pictures can be fun, esp if you use pictures of whatever his interests are. You can download simple line drawings in the coloring-in part of most kids websites. I remember having a tracing paper book when I was 5, I loved that thing!

PS you're quite right, each child is their own unique person. My 2nd DD sounds very much like yours - very focused on coloring, drawings, now writing, etc. But I think this is because she has a very strong visual sense, as in that's how she processes information. My eldest DD on the other hand was very auditory - so for her learning to write was all about learning the sounds (and her handwriting is still terrible even at age 15 LOL), the rest of it fell into place once she was in school. Most importantly - keep reading. Read everything you can to your kids & talk about the words you see. Reading Magic by Mem Fox has got some great suggestions because this stuff doesn't come naturally to everyone.

Yeah he will do letters with the dots, but gets bored of that after awhile. I have heaps of activity books for him with letters and dots etc. I think we might try find a words as well- he always loved the books where you find the pictures of something, so I thought we could step it up to find the word- I might even make my own with words he already recognises.
He loves building things out of lego- that helps with gross motor skills I hope :) As far as recognising words and things like that I think he is fine- or even above level thanks to his Minecraft lol He can tell you exactly what everything is in the complete inventory- I mean EVERYTHING (there would be well over 500 things there- he can name them all!!) lol, what it does, what its for... he is a mastermind at that :) That's where I am trying to get him to do his own typing- there are different commands that you can type, and once you have typed it once you can chose which one to use again (ITMS) and once we type in the ones he uses he can then pick which one he wants without any help- he just remembers which one does what. :)

Sounds just like DS1 last year. No interest at all in writing or reading.Very much into puzzles and lego. Loved anything with instructions to build. Started school this year and is doing fine this year. He reads and writes as well as any other kid in his class but his thing is maths. He is amazing at maths. I think it just makes a lot more sense for him.

Dd1 was the same before she started school and the same when it comes to homework. No interest in reading, writing, spelling.

Loves her arts and craft though and has a table set up where she can use freely.

Loves being read to too.

Only recently started to really enjoy reading herself and spelling (she is turning 6)

Sounds normal to me. Liebs had no interest in reading or writing pre-school either. Loves it now. I wouldn't be pushing it and would ease off the 3yo too.

My DS was just like this. He has made a lot of progress this year in kindergarten but it still isn't his favourite activity!