Additional "work" for bright 6 year old?

[Mandy21]

I know lots of people will think I'm being pushy but would like to know if anyone can recommend any resources (work books / programmes) that I can use with my bright 6 year old daughter (Year 2) to encourage her / develop her?

Obviously want it to be fun - have used the little work books you get in M&S etc before but wondered if there are any "professional" / more academic work books we could try.

Thanks

I'm interested in this also as I have a bright dd who is also 6 but in year 1.

She came home yesterday with more top scores again and a comment from the teacher she is bored in class but they don't know what to do with her.

Shame on that teacher slalomsuki. I am surprised a teacher would say that as they do usually [in my experience] try and differentiate within class for ALL abilities.

Teachers are (so I keep reading on MN anyway!) meant to be able to differentiate 2 years above and below their class average, so slalomsuki that's pretty lame :(

Mandy21 - are you sure you really need 'resources'? If DD wants to do that sort of thing then fair enough BUT there is so much more she could be doing instead of just doing similar stuff to school (even if it's more difficult). She will get so much more out of self-directed projects, she could make her own book or anything really... sky's the limit :)

Piano lessons?

Violin lessons?
Gymnastics?
Ballet?

Tennis?
Chess?
Scrabble?
Rubik's Cube?
Write a novel?
Enter short story competitions?
Create a website?
Create a blog?

I agree it's a lame excuse of the teacher and one that will be discussed next week at parents evening.

Dd is good at maths especially and is bringing home books marked year 4 and reads them in an evening. She does loads of out of school activities on the list and yet looks for more.

I am not bragging here by any means as I have 2 other kids to compare with. It's just she picks stuff up easily. With the other two it wasn't an issue.

I am a bit lost now how to tackle it. She watches no TV or plate electronic games as she doesn't like the noise.

what is she interested in Mandy? I would try and further her interests regardless of whether or not they are directly and obviously related to school subjects. IME there is a carry-over effect.

If you want specifically to cover school subjects wtih text books, maybe you could look at Galore Park. They are not the most interesting books to be honest but they are thorough and cover the ground reasonably well. They are reading based with comprehension questions and have titles like "So you really want to learn (junior) X" for the younger age range. I like their maths books, there is nothing IMO exciting about them but through lots of repetition, they work for dd.

I think she needs to learn how to entertain herself.

I think it's ok if she's bored at home - this is how she'll learn how to entertain herself.

With ds1 who is bright but no genius we follow him interests - so kitchen top science, construction projects, growing stuff, grubbing around (thinly disguised as archaeology). Nothing that remotely resembles school work.

I agree, it shouldn't be necessary to do school work with her outside of school, and the school should be differentiating work appropriately in class. I would definitely follow her own interests, whatever they may be - I think stretching sideways is infinitely better for kids who are already strides ahead of their peers in the school curriculum.

Slalomsuki, I don't think any amount of extra work outside school will help a child who is bored in school. The teachers cannot just shrug their shoulders and say they don't know what to do. I would be having words...

Thank you for all your suggestions. She already does swimming, gymnastics and rainbows so I'm not looking at anything particularly structured (i.e. another after school activity). She loves colouring, crafty things, can spend hours with a spirograph and a pen, and dreams of marrying Msiter Maker - I meant more "work book" type recreational things - read a story and then draw a picture about the story, or here is a set of characters, can you write a story about them or put on a play about them. My H is quite good about being creative / imaginative about doing things like that - but I am hopeless and thought a book would assist / provide inspiration and be kind of academic at the same time.

Thank you for all the advice.

Try this?

Or if you go to Waterstone's or Smiths they have educational sections for children, my DS used to enjoy the Letts series.

My Dd is 7 and she loves the "Danger zone" books. I bought some in a discount bookshop but Amazon sell them as well. The bookclub magazine handed out in the schools also have them.They are great for developing imagination/literacy/knowlege of history e.t.c. You could use them as a base for getting your Dd to write stories if she is bright..example..pretend that she is a Victorian servant...they study the Victorians in Year 2.(mine did) The titles range from Chrisopher Columbus/Shakespeare/Victorian servant/Roman soldier..there are at least 10/15 in the series. They are informative and well illustrated and my Dd finds them funny as well. I have bought a lot of them but only give her one a t a time and she spends ages reading them.

MathsQuest - series of books based around adventures where the children have to work out maths questions, based on NC, progresses through roman numerals, symetry,tables, onto multiplying fractions etc.

Nature Detectives club (£7.50 joining fee for up to 4 children with Tesco Vouchers) - she can play games, learn about nature and use website to become involved in research projects - not noisy - plus worksheets, stickers and projects sent in the post.

Aquilla Magazine - (bit pricey but has no adverts) - monthly mag choc full of different topics that can be used as pure reading or can inspire dd own interests which she can follow-up on-line, or in through clubs/libary.

Also with school (and I appreciate this is controversial) might she move up a year or two for the subjects she is particularly strong in ?

Ooh, Rosemary, mathsquest books sound perfect for my dnephew! Where can I get them?

We got them from The Book People wesite (uk website, free delivery I think), ( the complete set was a lot cheaper than buying seperately).

One I've got right here is Maths Quest - The Museum of Mysteries, by David Glover, QED Publishing, ISBN 978-1-84835-740-2

Hope that helps.

Can you get her to make her own books?

This is a favourite with my son at the moment. He is only just turning 5 so I do all the writing or almost all -he tells me exactly what to write, but he draws all the pictures. All you do is get about 3/4/5 sheets of A4, fold them in half, staple them together to look like a book and off they go! He's made quite a lot and even suggested starting his own bookshop-hmmmm!

Then there is making games- DS has actually made a couple of his own- cuts up cardboard etc- often he is copying an idea from a cbeebies or similar magazine.

As others say I would follow her interests- get some books out of the library on things that interest her, even if they are really designed say for 8 or 10 year olds, she can take bits out of them to excite her.

Realize how lucky I am in one aspect then as DS is constantly frantically busy if not reading, then creating the next book in whatever series he is keen on. Just produced a capatain underpants book in comic book style and photocopied it to sell! Conducting science experiments, creating a wormery, writing invites to friends, making a shop and selling things and making board games etc etc. No computer games or work books.

If she cant think of ideas then use library books for inspiration there are some great books, we have some fab science and nature ones. I think work books for home is a great shame and could be off putting for some. I hope to inspire mine to read and write from choice as at the end of the day self motivation and a genuine interest in learning is the key as we wont be there with them at university however much they are tutored at home.