Do you teach your child at home ???

[Pinkypleasepurple]

I was a primary teacher for about 10 years- 10 years ago!

I now have a child who will start school in Sept 2026.

We have good schools around us but the ones I have deemed to be really bloody good are a long drive and I just can’t justify this and I know this will cause huge stress and for my child to be in before and after school club.

So the schools we have seen are good and fine but not the best !
So here is my question-
Do you teach your child formally at home ?
An additional hour or so a day ?
Is it possible ?

I feel bad my child won’t go to an outstanding setting but I wonder if I could try and make them thrive through my own home schooling - maths / writing and English and art and science ?

What extra learning do you do aside from general reading and numbers ?
I have a second child who will be going to school thw following year .

I don’t think my child is going to be super bright or arty ir sporty but I fear they might not reach their potential !!

One problem with teaching them things like Maths at home is if they get bored in school because they already did that topic. I had a teacher granny and got bored in the first year or two at school as she had taught me so much already.

More general education would be good though - reading to her/with her, talk about things they don’t really cover much of like history, geography and science (chances of you covering the same topics are small!) and just the way the world works generally. And of course art is limitless :) For maths, you could do number puzzles rather than the syllabus maths topics.

You may well find your child is knackered after a school day and doesn’t take well to the idea of an extra hour of learning. So I’d try to make it fun only.

I think it depends on what time they will be home. I work part time, the days I'm off and pick DS up from school we have plenty of time to do other activities. When I'm working we don't get home until 6 and it's pretty much tea, bath and 10 minutes reading before bed.

I did across three kids - but that was because they were struggling but I was around then so we could get some done in morning and after school not to late. If they are in childcare before and after school it's not really going to be as possible - tried child tired parent too much pressue going to make everyone miserable.

Maths was matshfactor - online - then we did reading and spelling and handwriting before and after school - it was a lot but they really needed it.

We also did normal stuff like musums, art gallerys and swimming lessons and bronies/guides/scoutes - lots of parks - we also did some science experimntsd and engineering kits with them and lots of craft art stuff.

TBH I'd see how they get on - then if they look like they are falling behind struggling not reaching potentail - then see what you can realistically fit in.

Being Ofsted outstanding means bugger all. The school may well not have been inspected for the best part of 10 years.
Go on ethos. You won't need to go above and beyond at home

I wouldn't do too much after school at this age, just listening to reading and reading to them really, plus any other homework they get - but as they get a little older you'll be able to do more.

At the weekends you can do more but I would try to keep it fun and with a purpose, writing Christmas cards, making books about holidays or thank you letters for example. I did a lot with DS (teacher trained) and it made a huge difference. For maths you can just be counting everything, singing counting rhymes, talking about the time, identifying different shapes. Building with blocks of different shapes, sizes and colours is great for talking about a lot of these things - more than, less than, add, subtract etc

Lots to learn beyond formal learning of course, visiting museums, going to the theatre, visiting other countries - there is so much to see, do and learn - and then there are after school clubs like swimming, football, piano, ballet etc.

Yes you can definitely extend learning at home - “formal” might be a push.

My ds goes to an excellent primary in England. Obviously Reception is mostly play-based but we focused on the basics of alphabet and counting and adding 1 as well as story-time and library visits. We did a lot of drawing, played piano, went for nature walks and baked together (ds had a kiddy knife he could cut with safely and we learned to follow instructions, weigh and estimate).

In y1 since my ds was a bit behind, we put quite a lot of effort into phonics, writing and maths. He was just ahead of average going into y2. I found that 20-30 mins a day was plenty.

Over summer holiday I bought a cheap maths and English recap book and we did a few pages every few days, so he didn’t fall back (as he does tend to forget what he has learned!)

By y2 we had good habits formed: school wants them reading at home for 20 mins five times per week, plus a few mins of spelling and TT Rockstars every day, and then school sets maths and English for the weekends. At first parents evening we were told spelling needs focus, so we are putting more effort there that since his maths is fine.

Also in y2 we have increased extra curriculars! So now we have judo, Beavers, swimming, piano, drama and art club, just to diversify and make a change from after school club.

Meanwhile I have a friend who is determined her dc will get into super selective so YES they are doing daily maths worksheets since age 3. Her dc is very advanced in maths. She isn’t bored at school yet. In my experience even a moderately bright kid will be bored in state primary school - my dd was very bored indeed and by Y6 she was “spending most of my time staring out of the window wondering what would happen if zombies broke in to the school.”

Thank you all for the responses.
Greatly appreciated.
Swimming, baking , crafts, library , museums, sports and playing an instrument sounds really important and then fun style informal bits- writing Christmas cards, working out amounts for baking etc and lots of reading and counting sounds the way to go.

I think it is just none of the 3 local schools I’ve viewed grabbed me and I thought wow!
When I looked at a few which were 7/8 miles away I thought - yes - this is it . But 8 miles in traffic in the peak times will cause stress! So fingers crossed I will pick a school and DC will be happy!

Absolutely not left that up to the professionals, the teachers. Homework etc yes.

Single parent household, local comp, now studying medicine at a RG University.

I’m a primary school teacher and have a child in year 3 and a child in reception. We do cover the academic stuff at home but I think broadening and deepening their knowledge/understanding is even more important at primary age.

We make sure we do the following:

Hear them read at least 4 times a week
Read to them every day (library books etc)
Complete all homework
Also complete any other extra tasks sent by school (optional competitions etc)
Learn spellings
Practise timetables
Eldest also practises guitar which he has lessons in school time

Then we also…

Have access to workbooks which we dip into if we have time, especially maths
Play a lot of board games (which often use reading and maths skills, plus logic and social skills)
Regular craft projects (clay, painting, homemade greeting cards)
Regular messy/sensory play (slime, playdough, kinetic sand)
Lots of days out in the holidays- museums, parks, zoo, farms, bus journeys, library, beach
Weekly sports clubs - football and cricket
Science kits to do experiments
Constantly looking-up or researching things they are interested in

I will also say…they have iPads and love kids YouTube! DS8 watches lots of horrible histories and science shows (plus Minecraft and football stuff)

We do formally and informally because DS gets very distracted at school and while he’s bright he’s falling a bit behind. We do workbooks for his year group from WH Smith (a page a night or every other night), the usual get him to read us a set reading book plus a few pages/chapter of another book at bedtime, and we’ll do maths while playing games, eg get him to tot up the Scrabble score. We also encourage him to write little stories or “comics” to improve his handwriting and drawing.

We’ve also got posters all around our play area of the solar system, times tables, alphabet, etc so he can look at things as and when. We go to the local library, museums, church, galleries and usual stuff like countryside for walls, the beach and look in the rock pools, safari parks etc. Anything to pique his curiosity. It doesn’t have to be formal or an hour a day - definitely don’t do that in reception. Totally unnecessary, you may kill a love of learning and he’ll be exhausted anyway.

Just read and do counting in reception and interesting days out, but plenty of rest time too.