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How do I help my reception child catch up in the summer

28 replies

Luna9 · 24/07/2016 18:44

My DD is 5, Winter born; she started reception behind compared to her peers and is still behind at the end of the school year. The school report shows 9 areas of learning were emerging (below average), 6 expected, and 2 exceeding (the creative ones).

She improved a lot over the last year but is still been behind in speech, reading and maths. I would say 10 months behind; she knows all the phonics and can read/merge some words. She can count up to 20 but not backwards; I don't think she can't count in 2s or 5s; she still gets confused identifying some numbers up to 20. I would say maths is worse than reading as I have concentrated on reading more.

I would like to help her catch up during the summer; at least for the first 4 weeks we are at home; I am sure half an hour to an hour everyday won't hurt her.

Could you recommend any material, programs, books, online resources I can use in the summer.

I think she is very young for a tutor but perhaps I could pay the teacher or teacher assistant to do half an hour everyday after school when she starts year 1.

My concern is that children who start behind remain behind as they always get allocated to the bottom table.

Thank you

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Leeds2 · 24/07/2016 18:51

Play simple games with her, like Frustration so that she has to count forwards. Or dominoes where she has to match numbers. Orchard Toys also have lots of educational games.

Do some painting by numbers.

Bake, so that she has to measure out ingredients.

Enrol her on the Reading Challenge at your local library.

Get her to write out your shopping list.

Play cafes, where she has to write out a menu and price list, and how to pay for what she orders, or how to give change.

Get her to write out a postcard to her grandma/uncle/ a friend - someone who will hopefully send one back!

Only small things, but they might help reinforce what she has been learning at school.

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Luna9 · 24/07/2016 18:57

Great ideas! Thank you

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SisterViktorine · 24/07/2016 18:57

perhaps I could pay the teacher or teacher assistant to do half an hour everyday after school when she starts year 1.

Teachers just do not have time to do this- I doubt it would even be allowed, after school is still part of directed time.

I recommend getting the Numicon 'at home' kit and working with this. For reading maybe Dancing Bears book A, or Bearing Away if she needs to go back a bit further.

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GreenSand · 24/07/2016 19:04

Yes yes yes to all the games and fun learning suggested by Leeds.

We have changed schools several times this year (a house move, and then a none UK school not using phonics), and got a gold stars workbook to make sure we'd covered all the basics.

Mainly for my older one, but we are also doing a diary over the summer. Most days he is writing the day, and drawing a picture of his day, writing a sentance or 2 about his day, or 'writing a story' - maybe 3 sentences about whatever he wants. Not sure if she'd be up to that this holiday or not?

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user789653241 · 24/07/2016 19:44

Yes for reading challenge and diary. It doesn't need to be long, lots of drawings and sticking tickets etc. is fun.

For maths, I recommend this site, if she doesn't mind online work.(It''s free site.)

www.khanacademy.org/math/k-8-grades/early-math

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Leeds2 · 24/07/2016 19:56

Also, count your stairs (or any stairs!) as you go up them, and do it in reverse when you come back down.

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user789653241 · 24/07/2016 20:10

Abacus is really good for place value. Lego for counting in twos.
Number plate on the car, house numbers, how many windows, etc.
We used to count bird's nest on the tree when driving.
When eating sweets, count in 2's and 5's etc.
Maths is really fun.

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ExAstris · 24/07/2016 20:17

Teach Your Monster To Read is a free online game that my DS loves. It starts at simple letter sounds and progresses to reading full sentences using games etc with a cute customisable monster as an avatar.

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Kanga59 · 24/07/2016 22:26

Maths 3-5 app is good. there's also Maths 4-6. red icon.

playing games with two dice so that she can see her number bonds to 12. snakes and ladders...

just asking her what one more, one less is

my son did a writing book from poundland this week. It was good for practicing pencil grip and letter formation

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Luna9 · 25/07/2016 07:32

Excellent ideas and resources. Thank you

We started the dairy yesterday; bought the numicon; I have some games too and will look at the applications

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AnguaResurgam · 25/07/2016 07:57

If you go for a walk and it goes down a residential street where there are no front gardens or only tiny ones, get her to read out the house numbers as you pass. It'll feel like a game, but she'll be repeating patterns of counting forwards (and backwards) in twos.

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Autumnsky · 25/07/2016 12:09

Summer holiday is a good time to catch up.You can certainly do it at home yourself. It's important to have a plan, it would be nice if you keep a record yourself.

I remember CBeeBies Alphablocks is quiet good for phonics, DS2 liked to watch it when he was in Reception. And also BBC KS1 bitesize games are quite fun. DS2 liked it very much.

Board game, like snake and ladders is good for children to learn counting, and some games involve 2 dices is great for simple adding.

And even the KS1 books from the shops are good fun, as these are normally well designed, it's colourful and interesting.

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Fairuza · 25/07/2016 12:16

Don't worry about counting in 2s and 5s at the moment, that's covered in Year 1.

Prioritise the basics - number recognition and ordering to 20, counting accurately, adding and subtracting with numbers to 10. Get them into practical contexts as much as possible, counting sweets, taking away 5 to give to someone else, how many have you got now, who has more?

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Nicknamegrief · 25/07/2016 12:25

The 'bottom' table you refer to is where a child who needs extra help in school will get it and in my experience they get that help and if they are capable of moving on they do. It is often the children in the middle who stay in the middle, IME.
My second child was 'behind' right up until year 2 and only started to catch up with his peers then and is currently exceeding in all areas (year 5). He was too immature for school in reception and therefore school was not an education but an experience.
We decided not to push until year 2- and we didn't need to his development just caught up and caught on fast. We decided that we would focus on foundations such as a love of book (we read to him and read a lot of variety). We played lots of phonic based games. He loves Star Wars and football so did rhyming games, segmentation (into syllables), initial phoneme and grapheme sorting for names of footballers and characters etc etc. All things that could be done in the car, on foot etc. As well as maths activities. He was very anti school after his reception year and we didn't want anything that seemed like work. We listened to audiobooks and lots of oral strory telling. In year one he settled down a bit and we just worked on his strengths and I met with the teacher fortnightly at first, then every half term by Spring to see what was going on. He started to get it and make progress.
Holidays are really important to rest and have fun. I was really worried if I pushed things that my boy would either go back to school fed up of things, tired or both.
Of course you know your child best so maybe this won't be a concern or issue for you.

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Autumnsky · 25/07/2016 12:59

No need to worry about to stress the children, as long as OP keep it fun. At this stage, DC learn in their daily life if the parent plan it well. There are some great ideas in previous post.

Children do need activities that plays outside, but also activities that stimulate their brain. Otherwise, it would be boring as well.

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Ditsy4 · 25/07/2016 16:02

Moved two children off my table this year. Year 3/4 and another in Yr 3. Moved two Yr 5s up for Guided Reading. Lots of games is the way to go. Some children just take longer to mature than others. Especially noticeable with twins. Reading for 10 mins a day but lots of reading to the child and library visits. Shopping lists as they love to help shop and get excited when they realise they can read the labels. I started DD off with cut out packets and gradually cut down until just the name of the product. We then went to a proper shopping list book for her. She loved it and shopping gets quicker after the first few goes.

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LiveLifeWithPassion · 25/07/2016 16:08

BBC bite size is good but I don't know if they have reception age stuff.

Number songs on YouTube

Dot to dot books.

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Autumnsky · 26/07/2016 10:13

I remember BBC bite size KS1 has some interesting games, like number sequence etc.

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user789653241 · 26/07/2016 10:22

This site is great too.

www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/5-7-years/counting

Also if you use Topmarks Search function on the page, you can find lots of useful resources as well.

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leccybill · 26/07/2016 10:24

Lots of brilliant ideas here.

Just wanted to add that I was in your position last year, DD's writing was barely legible and she was still writing numbers back to front, and getting muddled when counting to 20. I was a little worried.

Happy to say that she absolutely took off in Year 1, and has moved up from Table 3, to 2 to 1 going into Year 2. There is a lot more 'work' in Y1 and you'll be amazed at the progress they make quickly.
For DD, it was a case of being inspired by the topics they did- Toys through the ages, sea life, London (inc Paddington Bear), Space, Africa. She suddenly wanted to come home and write or research about all of these things they'd done in class.

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melonribena · 26/07/2016 12:36

Teachers assess table groupings constantly and will move children accordingly. It's not the case that if you are on a table you stay there all year.
Also, the new curriculum advocates children choosing their own level of challenge and seating themselves accordingly, particularly in Maths.
Absolutely, help over the holidays but don't worry that she won't ever progress through the class, children all develop at different rates

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melonribena · 26/07/2016 12:36

Teachers assess table groupings constantly and will move children accordingly. It's not the case that if you are on a table you stay there all year.
Also, the new curriculum advocates children choosing their own level of challenge and seating themselves accordingly, particularly in Maths.
Absolutely, help over the holidays but don't worry that she won't ever progress through the class, children all develop at different rates

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Luna9 · 26/07/2016 22:20

Thank you very much for all your ideas and advice; we started doing more games, a dairy and bought the numicon; we read to her daily and are trying to do 10min for her to read which I think is achievable. I will look at the websites too.

Making it fun is really the way to go and as you all say there are plenty of opportunities on the day to day activities which I have not thought about.

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TrappedNerve · 27/07/2016 05:10

Hi op I have a dd also going into year one and has had a bad year attendance wise due to ill health so bought plenty of workbooks for her from wilkos and asda ( lots of them also wipe clean ) and a "tricky words book from amazon too.
She got 16 expected and 1 exceeding and due to her poor attendance of 76% I'm pretty happy with that but obviously could have done better if full attendance so also using summer to catch up.

I second "teach your monster to read " app.
Dd is spring born and very bright but bloody lazy!
At the transition meeting last week when we met her year one teacher she said the single most important thing you can do over the summer is to keep the reading up so that's what we're concentrating on.
Keep posting, we can share ideasSmile

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jamdonut · 27/07/2016 13:07

Our tables are numbered at school, but the abilities sitting at them don't follow the order!
Sometimes children are moved up or down an ability group for a particular activity. It is not a race!

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