Just over a month ago we were getting concerned about our daughter who is nearly 7, in yr 2. Although very articulate she was reluctant to read, on a low maths table (according to her assessment), and struggled to get her letters and numbers the right way round. For the past 4 weeks I have been doing a little extra maths with her, at first we set the timer so she did 10 mins. I also bought some new rainbow drivel books and told her she would have to read these ones herself. She has started to want to do more and more maths, she wrote a maths book as a gift for her teacher!
Tonight she whispered that she wanted to do some maths once the younger ones were asleep. When I went in and asked her if she wanted to do some maths, she said 'yes, but once I've finished this book' - she had only started it 20 mins earlier and was already over half way through. She then read the book, finished the maths workbook, spotted a writing book so did that for a bit, learning past + present tenses. Asked if for her reward for finishing maths book, she could play some maths games on the computer another night! At first we did marbles in jar, but now the work itself seems to be the reward.
Not sure who swopped her, but so pleased she is finally enjoying doing work, think will make her more confident at school. Spoke to teacher on mon re maths, and she said that she is already planning to move her up a group.
Out of interest, do you think we will need to keep on doing extra work, or now she has had a breakthough, should we encourage her to just do her normal school homework?