How much 'formal' learning do you do at home with your Year 1/2/3 DCs?

[TheIIlusiveShadow]

I feel like the most neglectful parent on the planet!

We listen to the reading, learn the spellings and have a positive parental attitude to school. That's it.

Have just picked my jaw off the ground, turns out DS's friends have been going through workbooks, computer tutoring and even photocopying homework worksheets from the other local school.

How do the teachers feel about this - do the kids come in inspired, confused or bored?
As parents did you get more 'involved' as they get older?

DS1 in Y1: we do reading books from school plus the ridiculously easy spellings that he's set. At home we read more interesting books, and I get him to practise his writing by sending postcards and letters, and keeping holiday diaries. He learns maths through osmosis, but I do practise times tables with him every night before bed as that's what he's into.

DS2 in YR: we do reading books from school plus more interesting ones from home. He hasn't progressed with his writing since he started school, so I do handwriting practise with him at home (he's an August baby and I think this is why the school is letting him get away with not even writing his name yet). We do maths every night before bed - at the moment he likes addition and subtraction of numbers up to 20, but he will also do his 2, 5 and 10 times tables if he's in the right mood.

Hi TheIllusiveShadow:

I started off with DD1 whilst she was in KS1 doing as the school recommended only. By March Y2 DD1 couldn't take 1 from 10, could barely read out words and had appalling writing skills. The comparison was made starker by some playdates with friends from nursery who were able to add and subtract with ease and had all sorts of work with their own writing posted up in their homes.

Now my concern wasn't DD1 is falling behind her friends, my concern was that all things being equal DD1 was quite a normal child so surely she should be able to do this too? Our school had no writing homework, had 1 reading book a week and maths homework was now and then (maybe 1 or 2 times a month at most). My main concern was the reading and the maths. So I went to work on that. I found out about Mathsfactor via a woman's magazine on my commute home one night and thought why not give it a try. We've never looked back. I organised getting books so that when DD1 got bored with ORT books from school, she could read something else.

DD1 now Y4 has improved beyond all recognition. I don't do tons - but we find steadily putting in 1/2 a day or so has helped catch her up to where I would imagine a Y4 student should be.

Our real problem was with DD1 she clearly is the type to learn through doing and therefore needs practice, especially with maths and reading. So we made a real effort to ensure that happens and it has paid off. It's taken time, it hasn't solved all problems, but 18 months on from starting this 'regime' we can all see the results.

I must add that if your school is regularly providing reading materials, writing homework, spellings and maths homework weekly then, yes, you possibly don't need to go this route. In our case though - we weren't in that kind of place until the run up to an OFSTED inspection this school year. So I suppose my real question is why put in place on-line maths homeworks, plenty of book changes, writing homework then? Was it just for OFSTED's benefit? Noticeably now that OFSTED is gone - we're starting to slide back to no spellings one week, no maths homework, etc... So I fear part of why I regularly do this and supplement when we don't have homework from the school is that I want to ensure my DD1 (and DD2 now) get that opportunity at practice -so that they don't just vaguely understand what subtraction is, but can really do it and with flair. I don't believe that just happens without practice.

I have linked to this report about shadow education many times. It makes fascinating reading.

Yes, OP, many parents across the European Union (and beyond) are either doing a lot of extra work with their children and/or paying for tutors.

My DDs are in Yr 4 and 6. We do the homework that the school sets, and that's it. I read to them every night - they love it and so do I - we talk about anything and everything and look things up when none of us know the answers, we play silly word games when the mood takes us, but all that stuff is fun.

I'm with LeQueen on this - their schools are good, they are both in top sets and working 2 years above their age average so they don't need topups. I completely understand parents who feel their DCs aren't being supported to keep up and achieve their potential, but I can't be bothered to get competitive - children need to play and have fun too.

but LeQueen, you've just started a post saying you'll use a tutor...

From the excellent report that Bonsoir linked to

^In the United Kingdom, approximately 12% of primary school pupils and 8% of
secondary pupils are receiving tutoring. ^

I enjoyed this quote
^Parents send students to private lesson in order to feel that they are doing all they could to help them. It is probably the case that [at least some] local
students attend private lessons even when there is no real need. ^

Box 6 The Secret Lessons is very scary.

Am now considering moving to Northern Europe but as too mean to pay for a tutor we shall learn Danish by watching The Killing.

I don't do anything with ds (year 3) in terms of formal learning. I don't always get him to do his homework. Other than reading I'm completely against homework in primary school. The work that is sent home is utterly pointless and doesn't add to ds's knowledge or reinforces it. He spends enough time at school.

We do go loads of other fun stuff where he may learn the odd thing or two without realising.

In 1985, along with everyone in my school, I took the 11plus. It was Grammar School or Secondary Modern. One person in 60 had tutoring and he failed, his parents, the doctors were furious and got him in the next year on appeal.

Locally it was felt if you did n't pass, well it was probably just as well, you'd never keep up with the work and anyway you could earn just as much money as a gas fitter.

Evidently the intake to my old school is now heavily tutored to get in and there is a huge sense of pass/fail in the area.

LeQueen tbh the reason I do what I do with my kids is that we live in an 11+ area and it's at the back of my mind that we need to give them the best chance they've got to get a good secondary education. And I'm not confident enough to gamble on the school doing a good enough job of it on their own. So I know where you're coming from.

This is possibly something I will be doing but time will tell, ds is in YR and brings home one reading book a week home, to my disappointment he still had the same reading book he'd read 3 times in his book bag for half term. We took a trip to the library at the weekend and have plentiful books for him to read and to my amazement last night he actively searched out one of his new library books to read (something he'd done grudgingly a few weeks ago with the same school book) so if this trend continues into Y1 I will be doing all I can to do more at home, I think it does boil down to each school and individual child, I feel that ds needs continual encouragement (not in a pushy way) and a continuation from school would benefit him more, this I feel has sadly been lacking lately and I hope it improves in the new term.

LeQueen Thu 16-Feb-12 18:12:04

Do know parents who spend a good hour every night, and a part of most weekends doing lots of work books/tests/worksheets...but to be honest it doesn't seem to improve their DCs school work

Obviously depends on the child. I am in no doubt that the handwriting oractice we do every night has had a huge impact...and DD1's teacher took me aside a few weeks ago to express her astonishment that DD had improved so markedly.

I feel like what we do at home is fun and beneficial.

We get homework everynight, about 20 minutes. Mon. 10 Spellings and handwriting, Tues. Maths, Weds. Grammar Thurs. Phonics, practice spellings for test next day, Frid reading and comprehension for the weekend.

We also get a reading book at the beginning of the week, that will get replaced if we have read it.

Before dd started at this school, we got no homework and one reading book, so I did a page of maths every couple of days and some writing practice, so we were doing something two or three times a week.

I now do nothing, but we do go to museums and try and do something 'interesting' on a weekend.

I did subscribe to Maths Factor for a short time, but don't bother now she is has work at home, although we do have education city, but she doesn't see this as work!

I have a DD in year 1. I have recently started doing more maths at home with her, for a few reasons. (She is an outstanding OFSTED infant school, be the way and generally v. pleased).

My reasons are that I am not sure of her destination at Year 3 (possibly to ind.). At Parents' evening, her 'maths book' didn't have much in it- they do lots of numeracy (tally charts, bar charts etc). I do however think that they need more traditional sums to get more confident with addition and subtraction. I learnt by chance that 3 kids have a tutor on a Saturday morning. Also lastly, I have a friend who also has a DD in year 1, but who has 2 older children that she herself successfully tutored into grammar schools. She has bought the youngest lots of Bond maths books (and non verbal / verbal reasoning !!). I am keeping up with the Jones's!!

Well, I'm going to throw a spanner into the works here! I do do more at home with DD2 than the normal reading/homework/spellings because we both enjoy it. She finds learning fun, so why shouldn't we cosy up and read unabridged classics together or discuss metaphors or prime numbers. DD1 on the other hand will only do "more" if it is self-driven ie. a subject that she is particularly interested in, and I have learnt to tread very warily to avoid battles. DD3 asks to do her reading because we get her teddies involved and I pretend that it is they who are learning to read; of corse they make (frequent) mistakes which she corrects

...course...

Iamnotinterested I don't think that counts though because you aren't downloading repetitive worksheets, worrying about SATs levels and trying to out-parent other parents. I don't know about unabridged classics (though I am thinking of Black Beauty for DD1) but things like prime numbers, cultural anthropology, ritual landscapes and geology all seem to come up in normal family conversation, as do current affairs and politics. To my mind that isn't pushy parenting, that's family life - you talk about your day (at school and work) and then you have conversation and set the world to rights as a family. If it adds to what they are doing at school that's a bonus, but the main aim from where I'm standing is making sure that you all reconnect as a family at the end of the day.

I can't download repetitive worksheets anyway 'cos my printer's buggered

I certainly do not do extra to out-parent other parents as you say, I am quite a private person and would never voluntarily offer what we do at home, and only 3 trusted friends know about DD2.

I just hope, really, that learning will always be pleasurable for them.

I'm finding this an interesting thread as I don't do formal learning with the DCs but we discuss lots of things. Prime numbers being one example. I see educating all of us (I try and learn something new every day, no matter how small) is one of the things I am here to do. But not by doing repetitive work sheets. Even though my printer has just come back to life

Shocking!
Extraordinary!
Speechless!

I wonder how many of those posting on this thread saying that they do extra work with their dcs for fun would like it if their boss gave them extra work to do at home for fun ?

MollieO: If I had a job where I were learning maths and science and were told to do extra at home, that would be brilliant.
I watch documantries for fun.
Why should I not pass my enthusiasm on to my child?

I do with our reception DD and our nursery DS (nearly 4). We do maths, english and science. M&S does some good workbooks. But they ASK to do them rather than we nag them IYSWIM. They are both very keen on the learning thing.