Reception

[jellybeans001]

What educational things do you do at home with your reception 5 year old. Thanks

Not much, they do so much in school. I just talk a lot - explain things, ask questions, listen and read books.

I've had some interesting chats with teachers who say reading books is the most important thing you can do, you really shouldn't worry about trying to do any more at this age. I try to get a wide range of different books and he listens to story CD's as well.

I let her help me in the kitchen, stirring, chopping etc. she really likes helping!

erm nothing other than like Natural Baby says - talking, pointing things out, reading stories etc.

ummmm

well (a long time ago!) we did daily sounds/letters (phonics) then progressed to reading the books that came from school

other 'educational' stuff was things like weighing ingredients for baking, comparing heavy/light, pouring water into tall thin beakers/squat beakers, observing the weather/seasons, identifying bird calls/sillhouettes, growing veg from seed, visiting older folk, library, museums, parks, playgrounds, woods, etc. Map reading/ interpreting symbols (key). Just ordinary stuff really.

Lots of rest, chill out time, cuddles

DD reads to me everyday and I read to her at bedtime, we count things and DD's really into lego so we do a lot of 'how many more bricks do I need to make this tower the same height as that one' type questions. She does a lot of writing and drawing but that's because she chooses to, she also asks questions about everything so I explain things and look things up together if I don't know the answer (she's good at asking questions I've never even thought about), she helps me weigh/measure things in the kitchen, we spell out lots of words and I get her to help share out sweets.

She's also obsessed with the local museum which has lots of educational games and she has a kids laptop thing which she likes playing on.

Oh and she has homework sheets and spellings every week from school.

My son is in year two and I generally let my son lead as he is really tired and 'he just wants to play'. However, we do make sure we read with him everyday and sometimes we take turns with him reading a page then us. We don't always read the school books as he is not interested in them.

I struggle with pushing him because I did not start school until I was 6 and he started at 4 so I am letting him grow and develop as best I can at what we consider a natural developmental rate.

We hear her read every night. She has homework once a week.

Otherwise we let her potter about doing unstructured stuff. We help her with her LEGO sets if she asks for it, we play a game if she asks for it.

But we leave her alone to do her own thing - they spend most of the week doing structured things to a timetable, DD loves pottering in her free time.

Reading stories to him, letting him sound out the words if he wants to, matching up word and picture cards (a game from the Early Learning Centre). Weighing, when baking. Helping with practical activities like washing the car and digging the garden.

There is quite a lot of school homework too.