A question for those of you who use workbooks....

[becaroo]

...my son is 6.5 and we have been home edding for 6 weeks and things seem to be going well.

I am using various KS1 workbooks for; handwriting practise (which he really enjoys)
phonics
numeracy and
science.

He is going through them at a very fast rate though and I have just had to order more!!!!

I am just wondering...he may go to juniors in september...then again he may not...he hasnt decided.

My question is; if he doesnt go to juniors and we carry on as we are the ks2 workbooks state that they are for the age range 7-11....Does that mean I should wait til sept (i.e. start of year 3 term) to use them or would it be ok from when he turns 7 in June???

Am a bit confused. I dont really agree with all "this at that age" stuff and dont want to be giving him work to do that he is not capable of.

He seems to be doing really well at the moment with the workbooks (it was what he was used to in school I guess) so I would like to keep using them as long as it works for us. We only do about 1-1.5 hours structured work a day and the rest of the time is watching dvds and playing autonmous learning

Just do whatever he is able to do - no need to wait until June, september or any time in particular

Sorry for short reply my kids are pancake hyper!

I don't worry too much about being ahead of their "age" (or behind for that matter). The only slight thing I found was, the older you get, the less appealing the workbooks often seem to get. So key stage 1 workbooks (up to 7) are often more fun than key stage 2, and so on. My 10 year old (year 6, top of juniors) is doing some secondary work, but the trouble I had was not that she couldn't do it, but that the books were too old in approach - masses of text, much less or no colour etc. I think you may find this a little with using junior books for your son - but if you can find ones that appeal, no reason to wait!

I got round this problem by looking at books aimed at the private sector because they are much more stretching age for age. So she is finding the Year 6 English book from Galore Park is perfect, despite having exhausted the year 6 workbooks aimed at national curriculum/ state schools.

Galore Park and AE tuition are two you could look at - off the top of my head. We have books from both of these that are designed for her age but still extremely stretching.

ah yes, the pancake sugar rush!!!

Thanks for your replies...I will check out those workbooks x

Can I second the Galore Park books. They are textbooks rather than workbooks but they give plenty of reinforcement, especially in maths.

What I have found with using workbooks is that although they can do them, when we come back to something to build on it, they don't actually remember how to do it because they didn't do enough of it IYSWIM.

KS1 wasn't so bad as we used Schofield and Sims books (cheap and plentiful) but their KS2 books just didn't give enough practice. I like Bond No Nonsense but have the same problem.

I like cgp books
Especially as they have study books, with all the stuff you need to know AND workbooks. So for my second child I will only need to buy the workbooks again.

Im currently really enjoying finding 'stuff' on curr click
Not workbooks but loads of free or inexpensive downloads (you can change the currency to £)

I love Bond No Nonsense too - my favourite primary maths series (starts at age 5-6), but I'd second what Tinuviel says about one workbook not being enough. We did lots of parallel stuff, so, for instance, for Y5 we did Bond No Nonsense maths and CGP books 5a and 5B (now replaced by levels which I don't like so much, but still available on amazon), and WHSmith Challenge maths. Only then did she really know it well enough to move on.

Yes, the Galore Park are textbooks, but you can use them in the same way as it is broken down into small exercises- you just need your own paper!

Another vote for Galore Park, there is a bit more substance to them & they give them more to do. We had the same problem we were whizzing through the CGP books & they didn't seem to cover much, seemed more like a top up rather than actual lessons.

Hi all.

I have been using lots of different workbooks as he has been getting through them at quite a rate...W H Smiths own brand are ok and I have been using the DK maths made easy and times tables too. I have just received the CPG maths and science ones and will use them after the others....

Thanks again

oops...another question.....you know the CPG books? Do you do a page of the study book and then the relevant page of the workbook straight afterwards? Am confused

Hi becarro - some of the cgp study books are directly linked to the workbooks some arent

With the ones that are yes we read the page and together and then ds/dd does the page

We use workbooks as a supplement to a lot of other stuff - ie we use workbooks to supplement our HE not as the basis

We really like Curriculum bank books as well - reccomended by someone on MN (credit where its due but I cant remember who it was!) - you can buy them very inexpensively from Amazon marketplace.

Try not to be to linked to workbooks - they arent the most exciting of things

Thanks for that Laura.

I have looked at Galore Park website...am I right in thinking they mostly are for older children??? (ks2/3/4) There didnt seem to be much (apart from phoncs which I did need) for younger kids?

They start from year 3 (their 'Junior' books). But that doesn't mean you couldn't start now and take it a bit slower.