Tutor or not year 2?

[raven99]

Hi all. Just looking for advise please. My dd1 is in year 2 and her constant feedback from her teachers is that she is able but makes alot of silly mistakes in her school work both in English and maths. She doesn't take care, read the question properly, goes on auto pilot, doesn't check her work etc. I have seen the same at home and have spent a lot of time with her trying to improve this with no joy. Now I am getting very frustrated with her and wrongly getting cross. I am wondering if a tutor might help with this more than me as I want to preserve our relationship. Any advise especially from teachers and tutors would be gratefully appreciated. I would love for her to become good enough to consider trying for the 11 plus.

She's only 6/7 years old. I personally think that's far too young to start having tutors.

If you can afford it, and find a tutor that she enjoys working with then why not?

We took our child to a tutor in Y2 to get on the waiting list for an 11+ place, and DC enjoyed that assessment and wanted to keep going.

Is she like that with other things like getting dressed or art?

Do something else like Saturday music or drama. Find something she enjoys.
She is v young.

She is 6 or 7 years old!!!!!!. She will make mistakes!!!!!!! But if you really want her to notice now about concentrating and trying to get things right, then she needs to get encouragement when she doesn't make these 'errors'. Positive reinforcement works far better than just noticing and commenting when she hasn't done something right. But crikey, poor girl, cut her some slack please. Many GCSE students don't read questions properly. Let her learn to enjoy learning!

I don't think it is to young for a tutor.

I think a creative approach might help here though. You need to teach her why attention to detail is important.

I'd recommend knitting. She'll end up with gaps if you does not pay attention.

Cooking with a recipe will also help with this.

Cestlavie - we do piano lessons, gymnastics, Drama and dance, Rainbows and swimming. I try very hard to find activities she enjoys for us to do at weekends. She can switch off in her own world at times and has been picked up by various sources about her listening skills. She often goes wrong when she is creating something because she hasn't carefully read the instructions.

Brendans - I am fully aware and do praise her for her effort, the way she deduced an answer rather than the answer itself, when she randomly tells me answers to sums she has made up herself. I want her to enjoy learning too. I just feel she does not do herself justice when she does not take care in her work and as a result gets an expected end of year attainment of 2s when I know she is actually better than this.

I tutor at that age. I think it can make a great deal of difference when they might otherwise get further and further behind.
There is little to lose by giving it a go, do say 5 sessions and then re-assess whether you feel it's beneficial and whether she seems to be enjoying it.

If she has the ability, then surely it's a case of just teaching her listening skills and concentration skills, which you can do everyday with your normal activities. She needs to learn concentration and to read with care in all aspects of life, not just with her schoolwork. I think I reacted how I did because I equate tutoring with more intensive study for kids that are slightly older and looking to prepare directly for exams, and it was your comment about how she may not be able to cope with 11plus if you dont do something nowThen again, I am well away (thankfully) from both the London and state grammar school tutoring hell that I read about on here. I did however support my eldest with preparation for selective Indy entrance exams (he was at state primary), but didn't do schoolwork linked concentration stuff with him until he was in year 5. Before then he would read questions wrong and make the same silly mistakes. Best tactic I found then was when going through the work, making my child spot the mistake and then adopting the attitude of 'well if you've done that at home and we've now spotted it, you'll remember not to do that next time'! Oh and there's about 5 next times before they do start to remember. Because of your daughter's age, I would still say that I'm not sure what benefits doing this with a tutor would bring, especially when she does so much else.

There is something about your posts that make me feel uneasy.i can understand tutoring if your child perhaps has a specific difficulty eg tables but to be already thinking about SATS and 11+ somehow makes it sound as if you are comparing her to others.why not wait and let her develop at her own pace? It doesn't matter how she gets on in year 2 as long as she is moving forward and any specific difficulties are being identified. It seems very early to let your child know that she is not coming up to a level set by you.She also seems to do a lot out of school time so I wouldn't be thinking that she needs more structured time. Has your child's teacher made any suggestions?

I noticed that in your post you used “alot”, which I’ve had difficulty getting past the spellchecker on my phone, as well as “advise” instead of “advice”. Do your family speak English at home? Perhaps finding more opportunities to expose your dd to model language and grammar would be a boost at this stage, by reading to her and with her, or by a theatre course?

Habanero - apologies for my incorrect grammar and spelling. English is our first and only language at home. My dd1 reads to me and I then read to her most nights of the week and she already goes to a drama group.

Yikes - I don't let her know any of my thoughts. The teachers say just to carry on reinforcing to read questions carefully and checking her work. I think this is the best answer for now and not get frustrated if this takes a long time. I considered a tutor only because of my own failings of being a good, patient support for my daughter. On reflection I have realised it is more my issue than hers. I will need address this first before considering any tutoring I think.

She has 5 extra-curricula activities a week. Do you think she does get enough time to just switch off and be in her own world? Perhaps she is struggling to focus at anything because she is overstimulated and not getting enough down time. I would be cautious about adding more structured time in.

I was just about to say what lowdoorinthewal1 said. So many extracurricular at such a young age. She's probably knackered!

She has a 15 min piano lesson at school. She goes to Rainbows on a day I'm at work so it's either that or after school club. I believe swimming is compulsory. I did drama and dance and gymnastics at her insistence and she is loving both. I tried to go through clocks with her today after having done it at school before the Easter break and she just didn't seem to stop making mistakes until I pointed them out to her after which she would then get it right. I just want to find ways/get advice on how she can get it right the first time. I have looked at her school maths book which are full of wrong answers followed by right answers. I don't know how to get her to take more care and have a self interest to get her work right as she is able.