@Birch67
Depending on how young your child is, if they study Phonics, then they will start reading, and reading a lot at a young age.
My daughter went to place called Leaders are Readers to do that at the ages of 4 and 5. It was fantastic! I believe they have a website. She went on Saturday's.
I also bought some software, but I am not sure if it's still available. It's for 4-5 year olds. The software is called "Jump Ahead Starting School Pack". There are three discs in the box set -
Starting Reading,
Starting Maths and,
Starting School.
She loved doing those. They teach through play. It's from a company called Knowledge adventure.
She also had this Ninendo Gizmo/Gadget games console. You'll know that kids quickly get tired of one game and ask you to buy another. Sneak in a good many purchases from the BRAIN TRAINING brand. That is what it's actually called. You won't have to remind your child. They will be doing it non-stop!
If you have a shop that sells children's educational material and toys near you, Spend a lot of time there. Buy your child a portable blackboard, which has a whiteboard on the reverse side. Buy loads of chalk and white board markers with erasable ink in different colours, and a blackboard duster. You will find that they will use it a lot, and you will also use it to explain things to them. You can get a lot of this from IKEA.
Then, buy a roll of wide paper that your child can hang over the portable blackboard which they can paint on. Buy loads of paint. Buy colouring in books. Buy jigsaw puzzles, buy flash cards. Make sure your child paints in old clothes and put newspaper on the floor.
Buy a big poster with the times table on it, and stick it on the fridge. Tell them to take a glance at it every now and again, and tell you what they see. Don't force them to memorize it. Their teacher will do that at school.
Buy another big poster with ABC's and images of animals or common objects on it, and stick it on the living room door.
You can buy these strips of phonics characters and images (finding it difficult to describe them). Stick them all around your child's room. Ask any primary school teacher you may have access to where you can buy these things. Check on Amazon. Ask other Mum's
I am not sure how old your child is, but if you can, look up Kumon on line. They provide English and Maths lessons after school for primary and secondrary school children.
Hopefully your child will get into a grammar school, and most likely will not have to continue with Kumon into secondrary school.
Now, my daughter did Kumon Maths only, and she attended the after school classes once a week, where they had tutors some of whom were A-Level students/university students, etc, under a centre co-ordinatotor correcting the work they did in the last week, and explaining in great detail the work they had got wrong, and making sure they made the corrections there and then. Sometimes the centre is in a library, sometimes it's in hall. The centre my daughter attended was in a church.
They have to do a set of worksheets every single day of the year including Saturday's and Sunday's, throughout the holidays, come rain come 'shine. And, if they are ill, they have to make up for the one's they've missed when they get better.
The good thing is the worksheets they have to complete take only 15 -20 minutes per day, and their is a very, very smooth progression as they go along so that they never, ever find the whole process daunting or overwhelming. All you have got to do is -make sure they do the worksheets every single day without fail.
By the time I had to engage with my daughter with her sciences at GCSE and A-Level, one thing I noticed was she was lightening fast at mathematics! Way faster than me! She got A* in mathematics at both GCSE and A-Level, and I've put it down to Kumon Maths at an early age. I did help her with a few things in geometry, algebra, etc., but she picked that up immediately.
After my daughter's A-level results came out. I said the Kumon Maths had really helped a lot. She said she "hated doing it, you have to do it every day". Ha ha ... it was two of us against one of her. She didn't have a choice!
Now, some MNer's have mentioned that you can buy Kumon worksheets on line nowadays, which will be cheaper, but you will have to do all the marking and explanation yourself.
If you look up these places on-line and they do not have any centre's near you, not to worry. Study their web sites very well, and you may be able to find something similar within living distance. You may well be able to judge the quality of the service they provide. Also, ask people you know. Ask your local council's children's services.
The important thing is that you are not doing everything yourself, as it can/will become overwhelming. I am sure your partner will be happy to help.
"All work and no play will make Jack a very dull boy"
- Swimming lessons at the local leisure centre, diving lessons, tennis lessons, ballet lessons, tap lessons, Brownies, drama lessons, language lessons, etc,. As many as you can afford. They may have after school activities at there school. My daughter did gardening there and thoroughly enjoyed it.
However, if you can only afford just one or two, it will make a massive difference to your child's well being and attitude towards their academic work. Some children even do Judo, Karate, things like that, etc
Fantastic! Your child is learning a musical instrument, that's number 1. Make sure they do all the grade exams. Same goes for dance lessons. All that will greatly enhance their application to grammar schools, as well as their UCAS application
Check out your local council's website and see if they have a Music Services section for children. Ask at your child's school. Enrol your child there if possible, they will most likely arrange an orchestra.
When it came to the eleven plus my daughter had private tutors, and she also went to SWOT shop, which does more or less the same thing but in a group setting. Have a look at it online. If their is nothing in yiour area, you may be able to find something similar.
If you live in an area where their are many grammar schools, Kent for example, then you can be afford to be a little bit more relaxed as long as you are consistent. Very consistent. However, if you live in an area where there are only 1, 2 or 3 superselective grammar schools with no catchment area, such that they accept children from 40-50 miles away and beyond, then you have to be much more pro-active.
I am sure that by the time I publish this post, their will have been quite a lot of advice and suggestions given about what contemporary parents of young children are doing.
Do as much as you can as not to get overwhelmed. Don't overdo things though, as if you become stressed and exhausted, then that will be of no use whatsoever. I guess it's my inside knowledge of what was going on in the comprehensive schools that I worked at that drove me to the extremes.
My daughter had a great time though, apart from the Kumon Maths!