Revision books for summer hols

[theredhen]

My DS is aged 13 and will be in year 9 in September. He has asked me to get some revision books for the summer hols and his teachers have recommended the CGP ones.

I am happy to get English and Maths KS3 ones but DS is already a level 7 in science and the CGP one on Amazon says it covers levels 5-7 at KS3, so I would like to know if I need to get GCSE ones? However, there seems to be so many different ones to choose from. We don't know at this stage what science/s he will be taking at GCSE.

Can anyone recommend something suitable?

[webwiz]

To be honest if he's keen and wants to do something extra over the summer I'd steer well clear of revision guides and use it as an opportunity for him to read around his subjects. Obviously any fiction or non fiction is useful for english and there are a huge number of accessible maths and science books available. Get him down to the library rather than revision guides.

[gramercy]

Those CGP ones are a bit dumbed-down if you ask me.

I picked up the French GCSE one in Oxfam and was really irritated that it kept banging on "Now here's a hard bit..." "Here's some grammar - it's a pain, but you have to learn this..." If you're telling someone something's hard, then the chances are they will groan and feel there's not much chance of their understanding it.

[GrungeBlobPrimpants]

Why does he need revision guides?
English - lots of reading, maybe try some writing
Maths - ummm, must admit I dont have any bright ideas here
Science - SOOOO many activities 'around' science - kitchen chemistry, wildlife investigations, astronomy - much, much better to do this
If he's bright and looking for stimulation, ignore subject boundaries and just go for general reading about stuff/visiting places etc. This will supplement anything he does at school

[roisin]

As he's doing so well, I would steer well clear of the curriculum tbh, and just give him opportunities to do wider/broader things if he wants to.

On the science side BBC Focus Magazine is great, my boys (12 and 14) both love it.
loads of fun experiments here
ds1 loves this book
and this one by Brian Cox which I can't understand at all.

Or what about one of the fab science museums around the place, they often have brilliant workshops in the school hols. Or why not plan next year to go to one of the Science Festivals? Not sure where you are, but the one in Edinburgh is amazing.

[theredhen]

Hi. Thanks for the replies.

The reason I am looking at revision guides is to give him something other than computer games to do when I'm at work and this was at his request anyway.

On my days off we will be doing stuff together, museums etc. so i thought a bit of focused learning might be a good idea.

I think I am going to have a visit to the library and get some interesting books for him and the magazine recommendation looks good too.