Mrz and other primary experts: how can I get my DD to speed up? Reception work

[Greythorne]

Just got my DD's school report (Reception) and it is really good, but her one downfall ( :) ) is that she is rather slow at finishing her work. I can see this in her exercise books, there are lots of sheets where she has to match numbers or match words and then colour things and whilst the work she has done is accurate, she rarely finishes. 3/4 finished worksheets litter her exercise books and her teacher's comment was: she needs to work more quickly, make sure she finishes things in the time allocated.

How can we practise working more efficiently?

She's in grande section right? I'm in France too, and those worksheets are blooming awful, verging on mind numbingly boring (DD's opinion). DD prefered to stare into space, until I told her that if she got her backside into gear, then the teacher might give her something more interesting to do. It worked! What I also did was to use one of those holiday books (Nathan, Hachette etc), so she was clear on what she was meant to be doing. Ie technique, and talking about it at home helped. She has missed GS out, and gone into CP, so really I'm just moaning about the worksheets in MS & a week of GS. I know a couple of other kids are bored in GS (the teacher told me some kids need to be started in CP earlier and effectively are champing at the bit) - but how much boredom affects finishing things I don't know as I'm not a teacher.

It is worth helping her to crack it now though, as CP (in my opinion) is quite a fast flowing year and the pace is cranked up very rapidly, and DD's teacher (though very lovely) has no qualms about having little boys crying in frustration and gets quite exasperated with them. Please note I'm not trying to scare you as DD loves CP and the structure of it and has positively blossomed.

Oh by the way all the parents of kids who are doing okay in CP have them on the holiday books during the summer holidays, and last year's GS were sent off with instructions to do just that before they returned. We are also sent home for any holiday (eg one the one just finished) with a militant A4 revision list, plus loads of worksheets ........ so if a kid is on top of things, then they can have a proper holiday and mostly ignore the blasted list and just whip through the worksheets.

If you know anyone with older children then ask them, as I am sure each area and teacher is different.

I'm so glad I live in England! It sounds hideous. Ds1 (Y1) homework for half term was to polish shoes, tidy room and have fun!

We are also in France. And my DD is also very slow. In GS, we successfully encouraged her to speed up by letting her move a fridge magnet up a ladder of days if she finished her work that day, with a lollipop at the weekend if she got to the top. She is now in CP and... still very slow! Lollipops aren't cutting it any more so we got her to think up her own treat list (like breakfast in bed, things like that) and she's allowed to chose one if she finishes one activity each day (getting her to finish everything is too ambitious right now). But if your DD is doing accurate work, then saying she isn't finishing is really just a way of finding something to criticise because the French just work that way, and French parents would probably expect teachers to come up with someting to work on rather than just saying "she's great, just have fun!"
And really, the French system is not "hideous". It has different advantages and disadvantages, that's all.