How to help dc's prepare for the 11 plus when I'm not at the standard myself?

[Duggee]

I've viewed the past papers for the 11 plus and the csse and whilst I find the maths papers easy for myself, I find the English papers challenging and can only get half marks when I do them myself (some answers are guessed). We wouldn't really be able to afford a tutor so is there anyway I can help my children or improve my knowledge? I have a C in English language at GCSE, but I have a degree 2:1 so I'm not that terrible!

I have dyslexia so I'm wondering if that's hindering me. I'm really keen for them to give it a go, any suggestions?

[Ferguson]

How old are they, so how long do they have before 11+ ?

For English, reading as much and as widely as possible, paying careful attention to spelling of words, punctuation, how descriptions are used, may help.

The children should have access to a good dictionary, also a thesaurus, and a basic 'rhyming dictionary' to help with writing poems.

If, as they come across new or unfamiliar words, they write the words in a notebook, so compiling their own personal dictionary, this may help with spelling. When writing stories, use the thesaurus to find more interesting words.

To help with spelling and 'sounding out' this is a very useful book:

An inexpensive and easy to use book, that can encourage children with reading, spelling and writing, and really help them to understand Phonics, is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews section. Just search ‘Phonics’ and my name.

As they (and you?) get older or on to more advanced writing, text books by Lynne Truss and David Crystal explain how to improve one's writing. There are adult books by both authors, but they also do ones aimed at children.

Let me know if there are specific weak areas, and I'll see if I can help further.

[Duggee]

They're only Young, oldest child about to go into year two. But unjust wanted to prepare myself really. I wasn't intending for them to do any thing extra work really just expanding on their current school work and reading. My daughter has gone through all the Oxford reading tree books and is free reading already so I think she has more of an aptitude for it than me! Her reading age is about 12 but her conprehension is no where near her reading age.