Why do teachers feel it is not a good idea to extend children at home?

[RoadArt]

This isnt a criticism or a complaint, but I am trying to understand why some teachers feel that children shouldnt be extended at home beyond what they are learning at school.

In my case, my kids do Whizz maths and have sailed through most of the tutorials very easily and as a result are working at a higher level than they are being taught at school.

When they do do the same maths at school, they are confident, know how to do the exercises, are perhaps taught a different method or concept, are asked questions in a different format, and therefore are comfortable and knowledgeable about the topic. The teacher uses my kids to demonstrate/help/support other students in the class.

I started them at an easier level to ensure they covered all the topics from the basics and have a good solid understanding up to the level they are at. I am confident they have no (or very few) gaps in the previous levels now.

The school has assessed/tested them and have confirmed the levels so there are no discrepancies or disputes about their knowledge.

However, during a recent conversation, a particular teacher said that parents must not allow their children to learn topics they havent covered at school because it is the teachers job to do so. Now whilst I accept this in principle, if a child is exposed to something new, and understands it, then what is the harm. Why shouldnt a child work on a maths level above that in the classroom?

I can understand the issue of kids being bored in class, but if they already know a topic, it is good revision to go over it again. Kids do forget and do need repetitiveness for some things.

Would be interested to hear teachers points of view.

Thank you.

Our school actively encourages you to go over the things they are learning in school. The school website has details of what they are learning each half term.

They put on workshops so we understand how maths is taught with number lines etc and phonics workshops for when they start reception.

At the start of every school year they show us where your child should be now and where they expect them to be at the end of the year. They demonstrate this with top, middle and lower grade work, especially literacy, so we can see the story writing with regard to handwriting and vocabulary.

Our school is outstanding on Ofsted even after they tightened their criteria. I volunteer in the school to help with the lower ability children, and we also have dedicated helpers to listen to children read as they are not listened to at home [csad]

Our school sells itself as a partnership, they teach, we support that teaching. Not replace it.

If your child enjoys the extra work then go ahead and do it, but they may get bored in school later on and bored children can become disruptive.

At home we tend to cover other topics that just come up in conversation. My two sons aged 8 and 5 love "How stuff's made" on Discovery, Backyard Science and Labrats on one of the children's channels on Sky, recently we have talked about royal weddings.

There is so much stuff out there to learn about, we tend to do very little maths and literacy apart from homework.

Yes chocalatchaud, my year 1 ds tells me firmly that he does plenty of work at school thank you very much! He does like books on planets/ maps /kids encyclopedias etc which he reads in bed with a torch. He of course thinks this is just fun - which as he is interested it is. We have a draw of unfilled workbooks which a 'kind' relative gave us...

Yes Fizzylemonade re tv my ds learns a lot from things like Nina and the neurons and Bang goes the theory [err also a fan of Total wipeout and hole in the wall though!!].

why why why?

what the hell happened to differentiation? (ok it can be a pain in the bum to think of something for katie but that is part of the job)

if the teacher is any good, they shouldn't get bored at school.

And maths at home does not have to be workbooks either, there are loads of fun things to do,

weight, cooking, doubling the amount/halving the amount in recipes

capacity, measuring pouring filling collecting bottles of different shapes and sizes to play with in the bath.

sure mrz can come up with a whole list... i am currently distracted by small boy

Why do you want to 'extend' them at home? Aren't there better things for your child to be doing?

I'd have to tie mine down and bribe them with vast amounts of chocolate to get them to do extra maths Even DD in Yr 5 who was worried she was falling behind... she wasn't BTW she is just a worrier.

Ommirian at the moment I just think the 'stick just ain't worth the candle'.. or something like that. My ds not with the hot house flowers [ability group] but sparkly and doing fine at school. I don't think the teachers mind that I don't push writing etc at home.. if they did I would rethink.

I'm all for chocolate bribery in general
seriously I'm just happy if parents show an interest and talk to their children. If they do the sort of things some of us take for granted like a walk in the park and talk about what they see, or even a visit to the supermarket and point out the names of fruit and veg ...(I suppose that says a lot about where I teach)

DS2 is struggling with maths. He's in yr 3 and just about reached yr 2 levels with a lot of one to one help and extra work at home. And even so I won't force him to do more than he's ready and willing to do. It's counter productive. He generally hates it (and so do I, DH and DS1!) . I find it bizarre than anyone would voluntarily put themselves through such misery. But maybe it isn't misery for them if their DC enjoy it

mrsz - how do you feel about children who can tell you all about every type of dinosaur and the concept of space and time and the multiverse but struggle to work out 28 minus 11 ?

We celebrate what they know (showing off knowledge is good for self esteem) and work on difficulties.

Could he do the sum 11+17 =?

mrz I came across a girl who'd never encountered an onion before - that one did astound me.

The one time I've known it cause problems (not the onion) was a young chap who'd been taught letters at home - but only as Ayy Bee Ceee and not phonics. He was quite a worried serious chap anyway - and got most upset when we started phonics because it's an Ayy... not an ah (closest I can be bothered to approximate the sounds in typing). He was very indignant about it all!

I once had a child who had never eaten peas and many can't name basic veg. One was horrified because we dug up our potatoes to eat! He was adamant that we couldn't because they had been in the dirt!!

Letter names often confuse children when they first begin school try sounding out cat when you say "see - ay - tea"

I've heard about this, and it is one of the main things that worries me about school. I always vowed (after being bored stiff through school, and I'm not even very clever, just a bit above average, and with a funny brain that seems to learn in a different way to everyone else) that I would answer any question my children asked me - if school start telling me off for that, I don't know what I would do (well, I would look for a better school and hope my health was better enough to HE).

I still remember asking questions in school and being told off for asking about things that were in the next key stage :( I could only understand things if I knew all about how they worked - they just don't stay in my head as the bare facts that you need to pass the exam. I ended up getting detentions for reading ahead in the textbook and looking things up at home, as apparently it was bigheaded for a child who wrote messily. Extension work consisted of designing a new type of bus, and colouring it in nicely. In geography. In top set year 9. I wrote to the council and got them to send a copy of the transport strategy for the next five years, which I then used, along with my research on the history of public transport and various green issues, to write a report. I was a little madam though.

I have lost count of the number of people who have told me off for teaching my four year old things "ahead" of her age. I'm sorry, but if my child asks me what a feminist is, I will tell her. Same for if she wants to read me a book, or write a letter, or know how big a dinosaur was, or how a plant grows, or how the Romans spoke. 1yo DD2 can listen in as well if she likes - I can't see how it could do any harm.

DD1 can recite the letter names alphabet, but can also sound out phonics and combine them into simple words - they are not mutually exclusive! We do written sums, because she enjoys them (in fact it gets quite annoying to be pestered to write out sums for her), and we back it up with lots of playing with her various number lines and manipulatives, as well as plenty of playing with coins and baking etc. She helps us read maps on daytrips and she helps us grow and cook food. She makes collages of pictures she has taken of bugs, which we then look up in books and online. To me, these are all things that a curious child should have a go at if they are interested - we would be bad parents if we didn't encourage it.

I agree with a PP - School is just one of many resources we use to assist our children in learning. They are not empty vessels to be filled with facts. They are people.

You may get a pleasant surprise when your child starts school. Children are encouraged to ask questions and teachers plan from children's interests and build on their knowledge.

Sometimes he could. Sometimes he couldn't. It's largely down to how interesting anything else is in comparison......

I would concentrate on knowing addition facts and showing him that subtraction is just the opposite to addition so if he knows 1+7 is 8 he knows 8-7=1 and if 1+1=2 10+10=20. You might be interested in looking at the free resources for Big Maths

www.andrelleducation.co.uk/BMFreebies/BMBT%20Learn%20Its%20Tests.zip

www.andrelleducation.co.uk/BMFreebies/Big%20Maths%20CD.zip

www.andrelleducation.co.uk/BMFreebies/BMBT%20CLIC%20Tests.zip

Thanks mrz. They look good.

Since we've started using them I've seen a big improvement in children's confidence in calculation which is the main barrier for many children and adults.

From a teacher's perspective, I see the following issues with this, none of which are to do with not wanting to provide work or feeling undermined by parents:
-the parent often seems to derive more pleasure and self-esteem from this kind of accelerated progress than the child
-the child can often present as emotional, stress and tired if over-worked at home
-I would prefer learning at home to be creative and child-driven e.g. if they have an interest in something and wish to pursue it FOR FUN so be it but it shouldn't be achievement or attainment led
-the child can struggle when faced with alternative methods or techniques in school so the learning is delayed rather than aided
I am not against some home tutoring if a child has a 'block' on a particular aspect of their learning but certain programmes and centres are damaging and unhelpful, in my experience. I think they can sap all the fun out of learning...

"Extend" was probably the wrong word to use. I havent deliberately set out to extend my children, they have a natural ability and worked through a maths programme and consolidated and understood many strategies and concepts of maths. They are capable of adapting and using different ones for different topics. (as many kids are). If you used a scale to mark their progress, their ability levels have moved up at the same consistent level right from primary, they havent suddenly made a huge leap to distort the scale.

Despite how I may appear on MN, I dont just focus on maths at home, but I know this is my main topic on here and my kids have a great social and varied life.

The teacher concerned was not my childrens' teacher and doesnt know my kids. It had been during a general conversation about teaching centres, tutors, internet etc and wasnt a dig at me. It was just a comment that came up, and I know from past internet forums that a few teachers have been very negative about home tutoring but I have never really understood why.

The reason I use an online programme rather than do it myself is to ensure they are learning correct strategies, rather than the way I was taught, to make sure there is no conflict. It also brings up topics I would never dream of "teaching/showing" them how to do because I wouldnt have even thought about it. It is a fun programme and there is a lot of laughing when they use it. They dont use workbooks at all. It has also been a great eye opener to see how much stuff kids should be taught in one year.

The stories about the vegetables made me smile. At one school my kids had been to many kids had never seen cows or sheep.

mrz. thanks for posting the big maths links. This looks similar to how the Kumon programme works at the early levels (£50 per month later!). DD is slow with mental maths and it's holding her back. She still doesn't "just know" that 7+3 makes 10. Would I be right in thinking that this is something that you just do each day as it only takes 30 seconds? thanks again for all your input on this site.

We spend 5 minutes each day actually teaching the "Learn Its" then once a week complete the "test" with the idea to beat the previous weeks score. The teacher identifies 3 sums the child needs to practise (either ones they got wrong or didn't attempt) before the next "test".
I've just started using the Jingles CD with my class (each Learn It has a short memorable song) to help reinforce the learning.

Ds1 finally "got" maths this year, he is in year 3. I think having the right teacher helps.

For bonds of ten we did flash cards, home made with 7 on one side and 3 on the other etc. He won chocolate buttons for correct answers. We did it for 5 mins every day.

I volunteer in year 4 and help to do catch up maths from workbooks, there are some children who still don't know bonds of 10. It isn't about working it out every time it is just knowing the answer.

My children are mainly fine about doing a bit of work when they come home from school and I am trying to teach them that sometimes there are things in life we don't want to do but have to. I show them this with my [cangry] face when I'm ironing their uniform [cgrin]