need advice about education programmes

[rrbrigi]

Hi,

I would like to tell you that we are not an English family. My son is in Year 1.
It was not hard for me to support his learning in Reception. Adding up numbers, easy shapes, patterns, reading and spelling. Although it getting harder for me in Year1. E.g.: I easily taught the abc sounds for him, but struggling with the sounds of diagraph. For example, one day I tried to show him how to sound out the th diagraph and he thought that is the same as the d sound. So he wrote thinosaur instead of dinosaur or de instead of the (because of my English pronunciation not so good). So he totally confused now. Also I think we are in the point in reading where I am not able to support him anymore, because I do not know why English people pronounce “beautiful” in the way they do, I just know how to pronounce. He is on blue level; his comprehension is very good, so know he just needs practice. In the same with Math, e.g.: I use the word plus, they use the word add in school, etc… So I see he is getting confused in the way how I help him at home and how they learn in the school.

I decided to ask you to help me to find the best education programme for him like mathletics. He likes computer a lot so he will enjoy learning on the computer. I am looking for an education game that contains all maths, spelling, writing and reading, or I am ok with separate education games for each subject. But I would like an education game that follows a national curriculum, so I exactly know what he needs to know in Year 1 and he can practice that. That is very important for me, because we get very few communication from the school, so sometimes I have no any clue what they did in the school for that week. I do not mind if I need to pay for the education game. If the program is on IPad it is better.

I would like to know which educational program you are using or which one your school recommend.
I also would like to know what teachers can recommend or they use it in the school.
Do you think can I go into the school and ask their opinion about the best programme?

Thanks for your answers.

Hi rrbrigi:

Slightly confused because you were on about this kind of thing before:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/a1726980-Reading-books-that-follow-the-phonics

and you got a lot of great answers then for reading & diagraphs.

Oxford Owl (home version) has both maths & reading support/ ideas/ e-books/ games free of charge here: www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home

and I'm sure somewhere along the way you've seen me post that many here have praised several on-line maths tutorials including:

Komodo maths: komodomath.com/
mathletics: www.mathletics.co.uk/
maths whizz: www.whizz.com/
mathsfactor: www.themathsfactor.com/

In terms of free resources:

Woodlands Junior School Mathszone is a fantastic resource that let's you select the area you wish to work on and links you in to all sorts of games to help practice those skills: resources.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/maths/

BBC Bitesize KS1: www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks1/

BBC Learning (BETA - a website in design): www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ - you get into the teacher area & you can select KS1 or KS2 and the area of curriculum in the yellow box middle left of the screen.

HTH

Hi, yes, thanks.

From my previous thread we use Piper books, and Oxford owl.

The piper books are excellent (just about to buy the next 24 books).
But I am just looking something where he can log in select the subject, his year (year 1 at the present) and practice what is under his age group (as you can see in mathletics for math).

The matletics is good for me I think, but I have not found something like that for spelling, reading and writing.

I think education is like building a house, I cannot start with the roof I need to do the foundation first, but I am not so sure what to use for foundation. E.g.: I know that "ce" should be pronounced as "se", but when shall I explain it to him (is it in the foundation, or on the roof)? And I think a good education program, that follows the steps in the curriculum can help me about this. Also the program can pronounce the word when he spells or write.

The sites that you give me now or I got in my previous thread contain excellent resources, but do not help me with the "step by step" guide. And I think it is very hard to find a program (that I described) on the internet for reading, spelling and writing.

Hi rrbrigi:

Our school used bug club for late KS1/ early KS2: www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/Primary/Literacy/GuidedReading/BugClub/BugClubOverview.aspx

However the teacher selected & released appropriate level books and I'm not clear whether there is a home version.

Perhaps one solution may be to buy books that come with a CD so your DC can read the story along with the narrator and hear how the words are pronounced.

Hopefully someone will be along shortly with more ideas.

Our school no longer subscribes (for the entire school) but many children of foreign nationals found education city very helpful because their children could play educational games & also hear a lot of 'proper English spoken language'.

link here: www.educationcity.com/

HTH

Don't get me wrong. He is not behind in the school, doing ok.

I am just looking for a program that can support him in the next 10-11 years, so I do not need to worry that he misses out practices and I do not need to worry about subjects that I am not very good at, because he can practice in the program. I just was thinking if I struggle to help him now what will happen in 1 year, 2 years, 3years, etc... time? I need a "teacher" (tutorial program) to keep up the job for me.

Hi, I looked Educationcity and will try it. I am just wondering do you have a step by step guidance in it? For example: we choose year1, than we choose math, than we choose shapes and the program remember which level my son is in (poor, average, good, excellent). Or we choose year1, than we choose sounds, than the program knows which sound my son is excellent, which one he needs more practice and which one he does not have a clue at all. And the program does not mix the sounds they should know in Year1 or Year2.

Hi rrbrigi:

Education city is really just age appropriate games and not very structured.

It sounds like you're really after something more structured.

I haven't used this myself but am aware that the Sunday Times has started a tutorial website. This may be more what you're after:

Info here: timestutorials.co.uk/