Learning essentials for dd 7, about to go to year 3. What does she need to know or be able to do?

[Swelteringmeltering]

Dd was massively behind her peers at the beginning of lock down. In reading and everything.
Thanks to mumsnet reminding me of Reading chest I've managed to get her up some book bands, that are more average for her age.
I've also covered grammar basics. She doesn't remember what the word homophones means but she gets it when she sees eg, no and know.
I've tried to drum in capital letters, full stops, when to use a comma in a list, compound words, nouns, proper nouns, pro nouns. Again she knows it when she sees it but doesn't necessarily remember the proper names for these things.
She has a good grasp of verbs and adjectives. Very good grasp of prefixes and suffixes.
Dh is covering maths with her, she couldn't count on or do number bonds etc.

Is there anything else that would really help her going into year 3? Is there anything we have missed?
The one thing I've not been able to do is get her to expand her writing. She doesn't like writing and won't write much. However, her handwriting has certainly gone from large unwieldy letters to regular size... Since lock down.

I'm very worried about her and feel this is quite make or break. Before lockdown she became very aware of her status, low reading level, and it was starting to affect her.
She was becoming dis engaged at school, I'm hoping with this amazing 1:1 boost she's had she will understand more of what's going on in the classroom rather than being bored and left behind .

Have you seen story cubes?
Dice with pictures you use to tell stories. She can play with them, make up stories. It probably won't help with writing but may help expand her thought process around it.

Well done to you both and your dd. It looks like you’ve all worked hard and made loads of progress.
Does she know any times tables yet? I know they learn the 2’s 5’s and 10’s in yr2.

Well done op

We have been in a similar position

We also signed up for reading chest and have found it to be great

Other things i have covered with my dd are times tables, telling the time and spellings

On Twinkl there are some work books that are titled things like "transition to year 3" etc which i might print off for my dd.

Transition to year 3, that sounds interesting!
Our free twinkle stopped but I may join temporarily to have a look at that.

Reading chest have been absolutely, amazing. We have been lucky to be able to afford it.

Yes, she knows her 2,5, 10 and 11 but only to chant.
I'm hoping dh covers division and actually using them.

She's very very good at talking about stories and inventing things, she just hates to write it down. Her grip is slightly off too.

We do 10 spellings a week. We started that late however but we've covered some.

She seems to get concepts very easily. It's remembering them that's hard.

Are you looking at the year 3/4 statutory spellings?

I'd focus on reading inc comprehension skills, SPaG and times tables.

If she's got number bonds and a good grasp on the above then she'll be ok.

We're expecting a lot of gaps when we return in September. Some parents have been great in getting their children to do stuff - others (for a variety of reasons) have done nothing. So it's going to be back to basics in many cases anyway!

As far as strategies and methods go in maths, depending on what scheme the school uses, these can be very different! Or, at least, look very different to the children. So times tables is the most useful thing to know.

It might be worth looking at the end of ks1 expectations to see what she should be able to do.

I would really start working on the multiplication facts. Knowing them by rote isnt particularly useful and they should be learnt alongside the division facts and applying and reasoning with them.

All, in terms of spelling she only got hang of it in October, so we have been going over high frequency words and medium frequency words.
With the odd harder word like special or mystery plopped in.

To be fair it's been extremely hard as I was working and our school didn't even give us weekly work sheets. I had no idea what to do. So I looked at year 2 stats papers to try and get an idea of what they should know and go from there.

It's been so hard, but it's worked out well for us now.
I'll keep going with the spag then and comprehension.
The school gave nothing out for months then shortly before summer we were inundated with endless comprehensions!
Obviously some she finds easier than others.

I'm trying to get her to a stage where she can be given a work sheet, read it and do it on her own, but she still struggles with that.

Is that something year 3 children can do or do most needs lots of help with that sort of thing.
Eg a nouns work sheet, would the teacher read it to them and explain what to do?

I have absolutely no idea what she should and shouldn't know going into year 3 as my children arnt school age yet. However, I just wanted to say if seems like you've put in loads of effort over lockdown and really concentrated on her. It sounds like you've done really well and I just wanted to give you a little pat on the back and suggest you and your dh celebrate your efforts soon. So many parents have (rightly) had to do the bare minimum with regards to aiding their children's learning while they continue to work and juggle. Its been so hard for so many but you deserve a glass of something special to celebrate your efforts having grasped the opportunity to bring your daughter on.

Sounds like the school have really dropped the ball and let you all down. Your daughter is lucky to have parents like you who have worked on things with her at home to keep her going.

We don't tend to use many worksheets but all schools are different. However, in year 3 I would expect the majority of my class to be able to get on with the work independently after some input at the beginning of the lesson.

Might be worth considering dyslexia. Reading, writing and remembering facts, remembering names and ordering sequences. i. e. days of the week / months of the year. But otherwise clever with no issues understanding bigger concepts is classic dyslexia profile. Runs in my family. Dyslexia is only diagnosed from age 7 onwards. Worth keeping in mind.

Is there anything else that would really help her going into year 3? Is there anything we have missed?

It sound great what you've done with her so far. Don't forget to let her have a break though!

You could ask her what she wants to learn about. Make a poster, draw a picture, write a story, make a model, do maths about it (e.g. if it's a horse, now many ears, hooves are in a field of horses)

One of the best things you can do to boost any child is increase their vocabulary. The best way to do this is through reading - read to her, she reads to you, she reads on her own. Not just fiction books, read menus, ingredients, road signs! Encourage her to ask you about any words she doesn’t know. ‘Collect’ new words by writing them on little cards and keeping them in a box. She could add words that she hears too.
There are resources like Mrs Wordsmith, but you can just choose a word of the day and have a competition to see who can use it the most. Not just nouns but verbs, adjectives, adverbs etc.
When you encounter a new word encourage her to notice the phonetic properties - what’s the first sound, how many syllables, what does it rhyme with etc. And the semantic properties - what does it mean, synonyms/antonyms.

UK she does do, was /saw, b /d
Who /how reversal. Teachers said that's extremely common at this age.

Elisheva, we do try but she doesn't really like being read too. I told her the teacher said I have too, so have done some!
Now she's on the slightly higher level books, it's really boosted her vocabulary. But will keep going with that.

Sounds like you have done really well. The reading and grammar things you have done are just the right level so I would concentrate on maths. Schools use a lot of concrete and pictorial representations for calculations that you probably won't be familiar with so I would leave all that and focus on building up her mental maths skills. Number bonds to ten and then seeing how the same facts can be used to make 20 and 100.

Lots of addition and subtraction of smaller numbers. Start with numbers less than 5 - she could use fingers to begin with, then see if she can make the jump to putting the starting number in her head then count forwards or backwards using her fingers. You could use a number line to show her what forwards and backwards looks like. There are lots of fun addition and subtraction games on the internet - try the Topmarks website. The better her mental fluency is, the easier she will find it to begin to calculate with larger numbers. You could also look at the relationship between addition and subtraction using objects, eg 5+3 =8, 3+5=8, 8-5=3, 8-3=5, making sure she understands that it is the same three numbers being used each time.

Count in 2s/5s/10s. You could start by counting groups of objects like pegs or counters. Help her to understand how the groups link to the x symbol for multiplication.

Money/time/shape are also things you can do at home. By the end of year 2 she should know half-past, quarter-past and quarter-to well and have been introduced to time to the nearest 5 minutes. Money, she should be able to recognise all coins and use different coins to make the same amount, eg how many different ways can she make 10p etc.

I can highly recommend Reading Eggs/Reading Eggspress and Mathseeds. Small amounts on a regular basis with a programme that is tailored to the NC.

I would really start working on the multiplication facts. Knowing them by rote isnt particularly useful and they should be learnt alongside the division facts and applying and reasoning with them.

Yes this.

I think your teacher has fobbed you off a bit there. I wouldn't say those things were fairly common by the end of year 2.

Really pink.. We do have an eye on whether any SEN maybe in play

It's a strange situation really she has done so very well at home, I'm not sure why she cannot learn in the classroom. Maybe they were so ahead she just zoned out and got lost?
I'm really hoping now she has a toe hold, she can keep up. Obviously being a far better reader will help.

It's almost like she had not learned anything at all before lock down. The only thing that made a huge impression on her from school was the space race 😂.

It's the only thing she can talk about.

Minnie mouse, thanks for that comprehensive maths list there.
We did a little of time and money at the start but everything got pushed aside for the English.

She reads pretty much one school band book, very single day. But that is all she reads.other dc was voracious reader by this age.
I'm praying for the day she picks up a book to read for fun!!

We also signed up to reading eggs, especially at the beginning of lock down when she was on a very low band, reading eggs was great and they have worksheets to match the sounds they are working on.

We also have doodle maths through the school but that fell by the wayside for English and Reading, but will get going with that again. Definitely need to work on the maths.