Bond 11+ study aid books

[winkywinkola]

Anyone used these? Any good?

Do you start from the very first one as a rule?

[PastSellByDate]

winky it really depends on why you want to use them.

To be honest doing bond books from age 5/6 will mean by the time the 11+ rolls around your child will be bored to tears with this kind of thing.

I used these in Y5 in the run-up to the 11+ using age appropriate books 9-10/ 10-11 and 11/12. We rapidly shot through 9-10 (too easy), finished 10-11 and were working through 11/12 by time of 11+.

My advice if you want to support learning at home is this:

encourage reading - more importantly talk with your child about the story, how the author makes it interesting, meaning of words, etc....

encourage learning new words - don't let your child get away with simply glossing over difficult words. Encourage them to learn what the word means.

some areas have written component to the exam - so encouraging good writing style (legible, clear cursive script) & grammatically correct content is important.

encourage maths skills - adding/ subtracting/ multiplying/ dividing - get these as secure as you can by end Year 4 - then Y5 can be about focusing on the tricky stuff - calculating area with partial information/ working out nth terms (sequences)/ simple algebraic problems/ word problems. [our solution was an on-line maths tutorial/ maths workbooks/ on-line maths games]

If you haven't looked into the 11+ (or are over-keen to prepare) my advice is visit the 11+ forum regional page for your area - you'll find guidance there (sticky's at top of the regional page) for what the local tests cover, how to prepare, what is useful, etc.... link here: www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/11plus/index.php

HTH

[winkywinkola]

Thank you very much.

I'm just concerned that I can't really help them much myself.

[BornFreeButinChains]

I have been on 11+ forum and it says start as early as you can, do all Past says and if there are books for your child's age, then get them.

I cannot see how they would get bored of it, the books themselves are not long, there are not many of them.

I see workbooks everywhere now, in Tescos, in toy shops I think its great. I wish there had been these books when I was young.

If your child thinks they are fun, all the better.

[MilkRunningOutAgain]

My DS loves them, and wants to work through them every year, I think they ate good at highlighting weak areas quickly.

[PastSellByDate]

winkywinkola:

I'm just concerned that I can't really help them much myself

Still unsure how old your children are - and I think this is important.

If they're in YR or KS1 - listening to them read and regular nightly reading is the best help you can give. It can be frustrating and slow progress - but helping them to gain confidence with sounding out tricky words and discussing what words mean is really important and a huge help. I really play it up when I don't know a word. Hmmm - I wonder what that means? Let's guess - we guess. Then I wander over to DH's office and get the dictionary and look it up - and see if we were right.

For maths - there have been a lot of discussions about early maths skills/ counting. Just use search on mumsnet or if you're particularly stuck - don't be worried - just post - how do you explain how to do XXX in maths to a x year old? People will give advice and you can pick the one that works best/ makes the most sense for you.

YEAR R - OXFORD OWL website has early reading/ maths advice for parents about how to support your child/ games/ resources: www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home - it's FREE.

KS1 (YEARS 1-2):

Woodland Junior School has a brilliant page for supporting maths: Woodland Junior Maths Zone: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/ - the hundred square/ place value/ addition/ subtraction sections under 'NUMBER SKILLS' - have some great games and with just a bit of exploring you usually can find something that works. Again this is FREE!

Maths Champs (free website): has games for ages 5 - 11 that are grouped into skills for ages 5 - 7/ 7 -9/ 9 -11. Link here: www.mathschamps.co.uk/#home

With phonics (so learning how to sound out words = decode words) - talk to your child's teacher - but most schools use a certain phonics package - (i.e. Jolly Phonics) - and often there are resources that you will be given from the teacher or that you can buy. Jolly Phonics has a nice set of 7 colouring books which gradually work through various sounds - and also offer good writing practice. We missed the boat for this with DD1 - but it made a big difference for DD2 - who enjoyed using them, lots of colouring besides phonics work - and it seemed to really zoom her along with reading skills.

Mumsnet Learning at home zone is also very useful - especially with advice on early reading/ maths: www.mumsnet.com/learning/learning-zone/learning-zone-introduction

FOR YEAR 2 - in preparation for SATs.

BBC Bitsize has KS1 SATs games in Literacy/ Maths/ Science here: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/ - your child will probably be familiar with these - many schools use these in class for practice. Very useful - as you can set level of difficulty MEDIUM - HARD - REALLY HARD - and I really like that it starts MEDIUM. So if it is tricky for a child - it doesn't make them feel too bad.

FOR KS2:

Well Woodland Junior school resources is just a great place to start: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/ - you name it they probably have a link to a webpage or ideas to help you get started - The HOMEWORK HELP tab (right now it's top right of the icons) - is brilliant when you have that assignment FIND ME 10 FACTS about HENRY VIII or THE SEASONS.

St. Ambrose Primary has a spelling page with very useful on-line quizzes to help practice spelling rules: www.saintambrosebarlow.wigan.sch.uk/spellingpage.htm - I started using this in Y4 when our school dropped spelling but DD1 was all over the place with her spellings - spelling with: whith/ wyth/ weth/ with - in the course of one paragraph.

Highly recommend CGP literacy workbooks (available bookshops/ larage newsagents/ amazon/ etc...) from Year 4 - great for learning grammar rules/ and they sneak in some useful explanations on spelling rules.

Again - math champs goes into maths skills for this age group.

Learning multiplication tables can be a trial for even the most patient parent. Obviously Woodland Junior School Maths Zone is a great starting point - but I also recommend multiplication.com: www.multiplication.com/ - my girls loved the games - but there are resources/ videos/ advice on how to explain it/ etc.... which is really helpful.

There are all sorts of maths books out there - but my advice is let your child chose the one that appeals to them - there's everything from books with lots of pictures/ games to very traditional books with only numeric problems. You're child will naturally gravitate to the one that will appeal to them - and that means they're more likely to use it.

Finally - never underestimate the power of children's magazines. They're easy to ignore - but believe it or not - most have word puzzles, pattern or sequence games, etc... - all of which build good skills and don't seem like work. Plus there's lots of reading. DD1 was a very reluctant reader but was so into Dr. Who she'd spend ages reading every last detail and hint about the new season.

Finally - winkywinkola - Relax. The internet and search engines makes all of this so much easier - you just type how do you XXXX - and there are tons of websites or you tube videos to explain it. View a few - chose the one that makes best sense and let your DC have a look.

It isn't just down to you to teach your child. There's the school, grandparents, friends, siblings, etc.... It's amazing what sponges children are. Your job is to be cheerleader (there proud as punch for awards/ certificates) and to encourage a positive attitude. I think a lot of the problem with learning for children is that they're frightened to get it wrong and/or they don't like it when it gets tricky. So combat those attitudes by encouraging them to see that you get more out of the process of trying to do something than you do achieving it (although that feels great, it's fleeting - and when you look back it was that process of working toward that goal that you enjoyed). Also fight the battle of only wanting to do things if they're easy - and that is the tricky bit. Often children give up if it gets hard or they're teased - you really have to encourage them to see the value of perservering.

HTH

[winkywinkola]

Past by, thank you so much for your v v helpful posts.

Ds1 is 9, year 4. Dd is 7 in year 2.

I will carry on and do all you suggest.

Many thanks.