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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Original poster

how can i help my 7yr old son with his education?

5 replies

pookiet · 22/07/2011 10:19

hi all, just recieved my sons end of year report. his capability at home seems to be so VERY different to how he performs at school. his report on a whole suggests he is below average (which to be fair doesnt bother me at the age of 6/7 and i know that he can do so much better) and i was hoping that someone could give me advice on how to encourage, support and enhance my sons education. He lacks confidence (although this has greatly improved over the past year) which i am assuming is the reason for the difference with his abilities in school and at home, and has a tendancy to loose concentration even with things i KNOW he finds easy(his report even mentioned his favour of daydreaming!!). i am aware of the aspects he struggles with the most and do try to help as much as i can with him, but it doesnt seem to stick in his memory, (however he IS capable of listening and remembering things very well that are not important!!) and i really dont know how i can be of help for him. i think that this is the main reason he struggles with his work because he performs mostly very well when he is in the right frame of mind. i also find it difficult to empathise with his lack of ability because i really enjoyed school and found lessons and learning easy. (please note that i AM NOT a pushy parent who feels the need for my son to excell at anything and everything, i am simply stating that because i was 'considered clever' at his age and loved learning, i have no concept as to how and why he find things difficult and what techniques and tips are used to help children who struggle) so back to the question in hand, if anyone could advise me on how i can help my son reach his full potential (also stated on his report - he HAS the capability to do so much better) they would be gratefully recieved. focussing on the main basics ie reading, writing, speaking & listening and maths. please can someone advise me on the best ways to support him, (other than reading, and writing practices - which we already do) and if anyone has any tips on aiding a childs concentration - that too would be muchly appreciated. thank you in advance :D

OP posts:
blackeyedsusan · 22/07/2011 10:26

I bribed dd to do good writing at school after she produced a whole line of loops in her independent writing book... she can write a few words and make an attempt at writing.. but just didn't. lo and behold, we went from squiggles to a sentence (no full stop, will bribe for full stops next term, stickers or £2 trinket works as she is younger)

I think this may get expensive.....

I found that some children really got down to work when they knew that their parent was asking how they were working everyweek. they did not need to ask every week but the threat seemed to work.

Original poster
pookiet · 22/07/2011 10:41

haha - good look with the full stops! :D and yup, you will be feeding her bread n jam, but she will be able to write you a beautiful thank you card for the new house shes bought with your dough!!!
i have thought about the bribing thing, many many times. but he gets (far too) spoiled from his paternel grandparent, so dont really want to encourage the 'doing it for stuff' attitude with him - not just yet anyhow lol.
if you mean threatening to be asking the teacher every week. then i cant believe i never thought of that before!!! he does like his praise when he gets something right, which i do as much as i can for encouragement. and HATES to not be able to do something when someone is watching - so i really think that could work. thank you so very much.
just need to make sure that everything that he has learnt doesnt leak out of his head before school starts again in 6 weeks...........

OP posts:
Itsuptome · 22/07/2011 11:25

A friend told me about a educational game her 9year old son has been using. It may be to much for your 7yr old don't know to much about it to be honest, but it apparently allows kids to do homeworks online but as they do them they win gold to go in and play Pirates!!! Had txtd her and it is www.keystagetwo.com and it has a demo. Hope it helps. Grin Saying that a lot of kids work better on their own, school is hard.

blackeyedsusan · 22/07/2011 11:29

yes, it is amazing what they will do when it is on a computer... dd will work for an hour on various programs, but of course she does not know that...she is a bit younger though.

Chandon · 22/07/2011 11:43

what is the class size? how many disruptive children in his group? That all plays a part.

My DS is the same, and it was acerbated by the class size (36) and number of seriously disruptive (ADHD, ASD etc.) children (3).

In the end I had to take him out of school.

But if your DC class situation is better, getting a tutor (or Kip or Kumon) as well as plenty of sport after school should help. As well as doing 10 minutes of work every day at home can make quite a difference (award chart system helps here).

I really wish they did more sport IN school, as sitting down for a whole day for a 7 year old just isn't natural or good really, is it?

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