Helping child with numeracy and reading beyond whats being done in school?

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My dd is in reception. She's raced through all the words being brought home and is racing through the books. She's starting to get bored with the scheme books so we've been to the library and got books that are a similar level but obviously have different words in them. She's been trying to sound out the words but her phonics knowledge is lacking. School have only covered 1 letter sounds, no sounds made up with 2 letters. This is now slowing her down as she's happily blending words where you can do it with the 1 letter sounds. Do I just go ahead and teach her the other sounds before they're covered at school or should I talk to the teacher?

Also, numeracy, she started school being able to count to 100 and above. Over the holidays she's started stopping at 30 saying that she's not allowed to count above 30 because they're not doing those numbers. She's also been happily doing simple addition and subtraction in board games we play at home previously but this holiday she said that she's been told its not time to do that now so won't play the games. What do I do? Speak to the teacher?

At parents evening in November I was told she was doing very well. That was it.

I am well aware that there is a big range in reception but surely she shouldn't be held back? Thing is I can also see the teacher's problem. On one side she's got the likes of my dd who are really on the ball with literacy and numeracy and on the other side she's got my ds who still is struggling with the numbers 1 to 5 and has barely learn 10 phonic sounds in a term. But I really don't want dd held back. I'm more than happy to help her along at home but I don't want to step on the teachers toes.

I would definitely do phonics with her. ELC and amazon sell the jolly phonics books and cards. If she's ready and keen to learn then why wouldn't you teach her? The easier ones such as "ee" "oo" "sh" "ch" and "th" crop up at an early stage in the ort books and so she will need to know them or grind to a halt.

Personally I would also have a word with the teacher and say that you're keen to carry on with the numeracy and ask whether it is the case that your DD has been asked not to go above 30 or whether she's just got the wrong and of the stick (is it not likely that she's raced ahead/carried on counting and just been told "well done but lets stop here"? I talk to DS's teacher regularly though and know from other threads that its not always possible.

If a child is showing an interest in reading then of course they should be encouraged to extend their knowledge and any teacher should be delighted that a child is getting support at home.

Phonetics - start with ch, ck, ff, ll, ss,zz, qu, sh, th

progress to - ai, ee, igh, oa, oo, ar, or, ur, er, ow, oi, ear, air, ure, ie, ue, ng, etc.

don't forget that some of the keywords your dd will be aiming to know by the end of the year are ones that cannot be sounded out so you could help your dd memorise those e.g. I, we, he, she, my, the, said, they, like.

As for numeracy you could try concentrating on 1 more / less, 2 more / less, 5 more/less, 10 more / less
initially 1 more than 5 is 6 progressing to 5 more than 5 and the 5 more than 13 etc.

Also if she finds this easy you could try number bonds for 10 i.e. 1+9 =10, 9+1 = 10 etc.

DS loves doing 'workbook' type things. doing puzzles, writing, sums etc. Some of the things he does at school (also in reception) others he doesn't. I'm not going to say no just because he hasn't done it in school already.

Thank you all of you. She knows all of the keywords that have been sent home and there are what seems like 50 or 60. There was a note in her book saying that no more would be sent home as she had finished the list.

We've been doing the Jolly Phonics worksheets and others from WHSmiths but I've been keeping her on the ones being covered in school thinking that this would consolidate what she was doing and wouldn't confuse her. I'll move on then. I'll also speak to the teacher as I really don't want her to get bored and then give up on reading when she clearly loves it. If I'm totally honest I think she's got an aim. She has a book all about endangered animals and she's desperate to read it by herself but its beyond her at the moment. I think she's aiming to read this but if its keeping her interested then I'm not complaining!

virgiltracey I did wonder if she has got the wrong end of the stick and just once was told that they were stopping today at 30. But she's refusing to count higher now.

I'll try some numeracy worksheets with her considering she loves the literacy ones so much. I hadn't thought of that but we'd been doing numeracy more through board games until she refused.

Sounds like I need to talk to the teacher overall though. I'll try and get a 5 mins with her in the next week or so.

Hi OP. We are at a similar point with my DS. He's really ready to learn other sounds now and without those he is starting to learn through sight. I'd prefer he was taught the next level of phonics but understand he might not get this until year 1. I have tried to buy some more books for him to enjoy listening to as he only gets 1 or 2 books every week.

I've not done much counting with him and in his Kindy he only ever counted up to 20. Over the past 2 days we've sat down and practised writing numbers for 10 mins each day and he writes up to 30 with no problems. I'm going to keep going with it. 10 mins before bedtime books is all he does but he's ready to learn it and wants to do homework like his sister.

Keep us posted on the outcome....

Thanks for postisng

I'm not impressed with your school, OP - My DDs were both in the same boat and they were simply given the year 1 lists to do, then the Year 2 lists at the end of Reception and so on. Same with phonics - they differentiated the group so that those who were ready to move on went on to the next level and those who needed help got it. Both my DDs were fluent readers by the beginning of Yr 1, reading chapter books, and this was supported and encouraged by the school - not a private sector super school, just a normal state primary.

You definitely need to speak to the teacher, children should not be held back.

If you child likes workbooks you might like to look at some of the stuff that Schofield & Sims produce covering foundation stage and then into Key stage 1. I use these for fun for both my children - one in reception and one in Year 2. For the Year 2, i do it for confidence building, so don;t typically progress what school have done, but allow her to redo easier stuff.

For my reception child, I have the same issues as you and these are a great way of stretching her. This week we got a sheet home listing I, in, it and is as the words being focused on?! dd2 is reading / recognising words like house, happy, twins, etc. At the moment though, there is no differentation at all and it's very frustrating. I decided not to worry about last term as she was only doing half days and then my nanny would do work books and extra reading (that she wanted to do herself I must add - we're by no means pushy parents) with her in the afternoons. Now that she has started full-time, I'm going to give them a couple of weeks for things to settle down and then I might go in and ask....

Current reception teachers please enlighten us. For what reasons may it seem to a parent that children are being "held back"

When you say "count to ..." do you mean counting objects or reciting number names?

mrz She can recite up to 100 and above. I'm pretty sure she could count objects up to 100 although I have to admit the only big amount of items counted are her marbles and she did correctly (50 of them).

Just a word of caution, I taught dd some things at an early stage for similar reasons t yours. When the school came to teaching them a few months later, they did it in a different way and my dd got confused because "mummy said one thing and the school said another". Work closely with the school!

blackeyedsusan Thu 06-Jan-11 18:45:13
Current reception teachers please enlighten us. For what reasons may it seem to a parent that children are being "held back"
often it is down to semantics a parent says "my child can count to x " when really they can recite to x or "my child knows their sounds" but they aren't saying them correctly or "my child knows the words that were sent home" but they don't recognise them in different contexts. Teachers want the children to be very secure in skills and knowledge before they move onto the next step.
and of course sometimes teachers can get it wrong

I would carry on going to the library with her and let her pick the books she wants to read. DD2 picked up reading quite well like this. She enjoyed the Usborne Phonic readers and they are quite good with some of the two letter sounds.

Number wise you could try the cbeebies website for games and the BBC bitesize.

My dd2 is in reception atm. So far they have bought her new reading books as she finished their scheme by half term. She has her own set of books as they decided that the ones used by the rest of the school didn't have stories that interested her. (Although a very good reader she is still very young)
In maths she does the work that the others do and then it is extended for her.
As she is confident in reading she is bringing home words to practise writing
and when at school they are teaching the others single words they are encouraging her to write a sentence.

I have ended up doing my own thing with dd2, now in Yr1. It was great because I no longer felt continually wound up by how very little my dd was learning. But then I did feel very resentful that she spent all day at school and then I had to fit in learning at home when she was tired. Her yr 1 teacher is infinitely better than her reception teacher, who really didn't have a clue (I actually felt sorry for her - she was an NQT and not coping and with no real support from the head.)
Its definitely worth trying to talk to the teacher but I have found that teachers are either the sort that are fab and know exactly what your child needs to learn next and ensure they get the chance, or they are the sort that don't even try to find out what your child can do. At best those teachers just check your child has learnt what has just been covered, which you know your child could do already. Its never made any difference when I plucked up the courage to talk to the teachers like that I have come across. I think it made no difference because if they were the sort of teacher that was willing to genuinely move each child on, they would be doing it already.

For reading I bought lots of phonics readers for dd2 but you could use the 'reading chest'. Its like a postal lending library for reading books. My dd had already learnt all the phonic sounds when her big sister learnt them but its easy to get hold of Jolly Phonics materials to teach them from ELC.