'They will catch up'

[digthroughtheditches]

If I say I'm worried my 6yo will fall behind, I'm being constantly'reassured' they will all catch up. Or don't worry about it, just do a little bit or 'sack off schoolwork, all she needs is love' she's the youngest in her year.
Where I appreciate the sentiment and during the 1st lock down I agreed to some extent and did take it easy on myself, doing what I could. Reassured in the knowledge that when she got back she'd catch up.
But here we are, tears every day during maths that she doesn't know stuff she's 'supposed to know' by now. Stuff that was covered in the last school year that I clearly didn't teach very well.
The teacher on the PowerPoint telling the class 'you know this by now year two' and she doesn't.
I emailed school about it but didn't get a reply.
Homeschool is a disaster, she hates it so much. I push on trying to get through all the work but it takes hours. Yet if I don't do it she is going to fall behind isn't she? it's already the case?
Just looking for reassurance I guess, from others or teachers. Should I go easy, will she REALLY catch up? She doesn't speak up for herself in class I don't think so the fact she doesn't know this stuff has possibly gone unnoticed.

Thanks everyone. I've taken advice & got a couple of CGP maths books for year one and year two. Didn't know what they were until today. Do you really think they will have to do SATS this year?
She did the 'test' at the beginning of the year two book so I can see where she's falling down.
So we'll go back through the year one book and focus on that rather than the times tables work she's being sent at the moment. I see how the two are interlinked and if I can get her to understand additional and subtraction better, the times tables should hopefully follow.
I totally get that everyone learns a different pace and I'm honestly not expecting her to be top of the class but I remember from my own experience how lacking basic maths skills did and still does hold me back.
I hope drilling it in at a young age hopes to lessen the struggle.
I haven't been able to express this to anyone I know in RL as I said before the replies are a bit woolly and make me feel like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill.
Thanks for the measured advice and solidarity.

I agree with pp about focusing on the basics rather than trying to 'keep up' with what the class are doing. Definitely email the school/teacher and explain that she is struggling.
As a little anecdote...my dd seemed fine with maths in YR & Y1, but in Y2 started to tell me she hated it and couldn't do it. Her teacher kept reassuring me she was doing fine, but something didn't seem right. They were seated on tables based on ability for Maths at the time, and she was on the 'top' table, but getting more and more upset. Eventually (towards the end of the year) the teacher finally listened to me and paid a bit more attention to what dd could and couldn't do. It turned out that she had been 'copying' the answers from her friend, but because they were on the the higher ability table with minimal adult input no one had ever noticed. Since then, she has massively struggled to grasp Maths, has zero confidence in her ability and still now (in Y7) lacks the solid foundation she needs. Times tables just won't stick, she forgets number bonds, muddles place value etc etc - and she is 11!
I don't say this to worry you at all - but to emphasise how important it is to go at her pace and focus on building up the basic skills before trying to 'catch up' with her year group. Physical resources (Numicon is brilliant, maybe school has a set they could lend you) seem to really help dd understand more abstract concepts.

@digthroughtheditches Don't worry, I am a foreigner too, and my English is terrible, especially the pronunciation.My ds corrects me regularly.

My ds was also strong at maths but weak at English in primary school. But there are so many resources that you can use to help your ds. And asking specific question/advice on the primary board can get many suggestion from teachers and fellow parents. My ds's English ability gone from weak to strong in ks2, with a bit of work everyday, with me, who isn't native speaker.

My son has a SEN and as a result missed two years school entirely. He now goes to a school (only very part time still) where every pupil has had a period out of school generally for medical reasons like meningitis or brain tumours but also anxiety - the average time out of school is 18 months.

They do catch up - with support. The time to catch up is when things are more stable though - not in the crisis itself. Maybe get a short term tutor next year to plug some gaps if you still feel this way (start saving)

For now i think retaining skills they have already and creating a routine so they arent out the habit of doing things is important.
So get up, get dressed, go on a fake walk to school if that suits your family, hear her read every day, do the bits she can do. Park the bits she cant that cause tears and just send back a note saying it was too challenging.

@Dentistlakes

Agree but it’s hard to replicate the home learning provision. I’m working in year one at the minute, and I really doubt the ones at home are learning as much as the ones in school. It’s just not the same at home is it? Even with involved parents it’s too informal.

@pinkpip100 I think this is exactly what has happened. We asked her who she sits with in maths and she said so and so and apparently he's really good at maths, so I think she's done the same and copied. Then not said anything when the teacher asks if they understand.
I've emailed the school again, feel a bit sheepish as I know they've got a lot on but just wanted to make them aware she's struggling.
Sorry your daughter is still finding it hard

She will catch up and she is probably getting the best learning experience from having 1-1 teaching from you at present( it's harder to learn ina crowded classroom)
My daughters the same age as yours and she's finding some of the work set difficult but if I break it down and explain it in smaller detail she's getting it done .
I was thinking the same as you two weeks ago but now she's having lightbulb moments and is seeing results x

At her age, with a parent who is already looking for ways to support her she'll be fine.

It's the older ones, less able, poor, unsupported who wont catch up.

It is nice to read success stories on this thread. But no one is going to post on here to say how spectacularly wrong things went for them after missing school, how they're homeless/ stuck in the poverty trap, unqualified etc

Catch up is a tricky one because all the children will have started in different places. I'm a primary school teacher and found that almost all of the children had pretty much got back to where we would have expected them to be by Christmas after the first lockdown. I know it is easy to say but please don't worry. Schools will get them back on track if they have fallen behind. The biggest issue in our school was actually writing. Children write lots in school and this was a real area of weakness (literally muscle weakness) when they returned. If you can encourage some writing (and colouring or drawing) every day that will really help. Board games are great for year 1 and 2 maths. Snakes and ladders is brilliant for addition and subtraction, as confidence develops try to encourage adding the dice rolls mentally and suggest ways of doing this. Like others have said keep things ticking over and try not to compare with other children; they all have different strengths and weaknesses and may have started in very different places.

My son was similar in year 2 - his year 1 report said he was awesome at maths...he wasn't he was on the top maths table and his friend is awesome at maths! In year 2 I got those workbooks and we plugged away at number bonds, place value, basic multiplication etc and by the time he did his SATS he scored really highly. He is now one of the top in his class as he has a real grasp of the basics, in KS2. Just do lots of short sharp sessions, 10 minutes is all it needs but daily. We used to do it in the car waiting for swimming etc. In the end he would ask to do some maths as he was confident!

@Justthebeerlighttoguide

Sleeping, how old is he

Yeah 1, I know the answer is he has 13 years to catch up, but whilst the others are moving ahead, he'll need to do 12 months of learning plus catch up each year

@digthroughtheditches the positive thing is that you're recognising it now and can help. Also, as you are at home together, you can take a step 'out' of the usual Y2 curriculum for the next few weeks and do things at your dd's pace - I know this would have massively helped my dd at the time. Most of all, try to install confidence - if that means starting with work / maths games that your dd finds easy and can get right, then do it.
Oh, and keep in close contact with the teachers once she returns to school, even if it is just to reiterate how low her confidence is at the moment so they know to bolster her wherever possible. I wish I had 'pestered' the teachers more tbh, my dd always seemed to scrape through at or just below the 'expected' level each year, but that just 'hid' the fact that she still wasn't secure in many of the basics.

Oops, sorry my last comment was @forinborin , not OP! Sorry!

Ben 👍, short sharp sessions..

I'm shuddering when dp of small dc say they are doing hours and hours every day, they don't need it, not blaming them BTW..

Short 1:1 is the way forward... So much more interesting for the dc and the information will sinking in better
The most important thing is trying to keep the child engaged and interested... If they are... Do hours.. If not don't worry, short and sharp education HITT is just as effective.

@SleepingStandingUp thanks im going to try that instead, the teacher always sends the worksheets prior to the lesson raging from easier to harder. she is brilliant always says just do whatever your child is comfortable with. They have been doing number bonds, and using different methods, bar method, part whole models, tens frames, number lines, tbh it all confused me never mind him! Of course most of the class understood the different ways straight away, it all went completely over ds and from then on we had a blanket refusal. I dont want to seem ungrateful to the teacher though as clearly she does know better than me and I've no idea how to teach these ways, but at the same time the pace of the rest of the class is way beyond ds. Im always contacting his teacher (she must be sick of me now) she understands he struggles especially when overwhelmed

@AHippoNamedBooBooButt

I work with refugees who come over as teenagers after living through horrific circumstances, god only knows when they last stepped into a classroom. Most manage to catch up and obtain GCSEs so yes, your daughter really will be ok.

When I home schooled mine for 5 years I used to get the horror reaction from people that they'd never catch up, home schooling was much more unusual back then. I used to say the same about refugees although my knowledge was from media not personal experience. One of mine went into school ahead of their age, one went in behind as he never wanted to do any work, within a year he was on top table at school.

I totally get why you’re worried I’m a teacher so my daughter is currently in school - she’s year 1 but she was with me from March to July last year and I’m a secondary school teacher with no knowledge of phonics! And she hated learning with me. With us she loved maths but hated any reading or English. (My subject!)

In the end I decided and still do it now is get her to read. Repeated studies have shown that a child who enjoys reading for pleasure will be vastly more successful that a child who doesn’t. So my top tip would be if you can’t do anything else get her to read everyday. Read with her, get her to read to you and swap around. Listen to audiobooks from the library on apps you can download. Really focus on reading and do some maths games/watch numberblocks.

If she’s a stronger reader everything else will be easier for her and she’ll catch up.

@Justthebeerlighttoguide

Ben 👍, short sharp sessions..

I'm shuddering when dp of small dc say they are doing hours and hours every day, they don't need it, not blaming them BTW..

Short 1:1 is the way forward... So much more interesting for the dc and the information will sinking in better
The most important thing is trying to keep the child engaged and interested... If they are... Do hours.. If not don't worry, short and sharp education HITT is just as effective.

Good advice. I can remember one of mine coming downstairs after 10 pm suddenly wanting to know how to do something in maths. I'd leave husband to it and go to bed. They'd probably do weeks of work in a couple of hours.

They can also learn loads from games, counting for one. We discovered GS was brilliant at naming countries on a map and could identify flags from pretty well any country in the world, he was about 8, it was all due to his interest in football, a couple of years later he had a computer game about ancient civilisations and he learned so much that he never even knew he was learning.

OP learning times tables is a pain, we did a big number square one to ten across the top and down the side. Gave it to them and said see how quickly you can fill it in, the first time it was about 2 days, after a few months they could do it in a few minutes. The beauty was no huffing and puffing and arguing, they challenged themselves on time so who could they argue with.

Op I have a year 2, he's average (or was) in the last report and not very inclined to academic work so I worry as well. He hates home school, as do I. I've found he works better if I keep it as short as possible a d we basically have 1 session a day otherwise its hung over us. I do the maths worksheet, our school is using white rose maths and there is a video that goes with each sheet. However he finds the videos boring so the deal is he does the sheets and if he can do them we skip the video. The odd thing I have to explain but he mostly gets it done independently and much quicker.

Then his teachers does a maths meeting, a pre recorded session covering what they have done on the white rose stuff and times tables. Also numbots and tt rockstars. Hit and miss whether he will do those but we usually get a session on each in.

I've found being present but not sat with him helps. So I'll empty the dishwasher, put a wash on etc while he works, I'm available if he needs me but not sat on his shoulder.

And we do the English sheets and maybe a PowerPoint and weve done.

@3littlewords Def sounds like sacking off zoom might be an idea. Maybe find one or two ways that he can do and really concrete it in. They don't need twelve methods, they need one or two solidly in

Hi OP. I'd echo what others have said and try getting a tutor if you can afford to. Sometimes early intervention can make SO much difference to confidence - and once they are doing well they enjoy the subject so much more and are then keen to do more!

I am biassed though as I have been a maths tutor!

There are also lots of maths computer games you can get, that make things like practising times tables fun - could you maybe get one of those? Then an hour a day will feel like a treat rather than a chore! My sister struggled with maths when we were little and had an Aladdin computer game, I remember being super jealous of it!
A low-tech solution for times tables is to make cards with the sum written on one side and the answer on the other - she will probably enjoy just making the cards and a little bit will sink in.

Failing everything else - bribery! IME Stickers will motivate pretty much any child :D

My worry isn’t so much that dd won’t catch up - but she is losing all desire to learn and I hate how lethargic she’s becoming. The home environment is not conducive to learning - being present in the classroom with her peers gives a competitive edge which encourages children to do well and stick their hand up etc. Working from home it is too easy for them to just opt out, not put in the effort - dd hides from the camera on calls, doesn’t try to answer questions, runs around after the cat etc when she’s supposed to be working and just generally doesn’t take it seriously. I can’t be with her the whole time. I hate the amount of screen time too - school work and then playing games on the iPad because there’s nothing to do and nowhere to go. We have a short walk every day but it’s no comparison to playing with her friends at playtimes and doing the sports she would usually be doing.
I do think they will be ok ultimately but it depends how long it lasts for. It’s really shit. Please god let the vaccines turn this around!

Thanks again. My daughters classroom assistant called today in response to my email and said I've no need to worry, she's where they'd expect her to be especially given that she's the youngest.
Reiterated not doing too much and focusing on mental health if she's overwhelmed.
She did some work today and we went over tens and ones which she found a struggle still, but i might apply it using coins next week and try more practical tasks.
We feel better today, it's Friday lol

just a note OP - some kids learn much better with things to touch! Something like this might be helpful for your maths: www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Resources-Mathlink-Cubes-Set/dp/B000URL296/ref=asc_df_B000URL296/?hvlocphy=1007266&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=226587831116&hvpone&hvlocint&hvpos&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-312502561092&hvrand=1102185532815067236

Or coins (lots of pennies and 10ps) or beads are good too.