Summer-born boy moving to Y1 - what non-pushy activities can I do over the holidays to help his reading and writing?

[ProjectGainsborough]

(Please!)

He is going into split-form entry, so he will be almost two years younger than some of his classmates. This seems utterly mad to me, but it's a good school and I'm sure they will manage it - I just want to give him some confidence going into the new setup.

He's pretty happy with maths, but I have to sit on him to get him to do his homework (the writing bits) or do his school reading. I think this is down to lack of confidence. I do read fun books with him after we've got the dreaded Biff and Chipper out of the way. His friends in Reception (non split class) are already toward the upper end of the age range and I'm trying really hard not to stress about the fact that they all seem to be reading Kant and writing their theses...

So any 'fun' ideas or workbooks we could try? Are Kumon workbooks any good? I know opinion is pretty divided...

Fine motor skills activites to help with writing e.g slime, play dough type stuff or drawing in fingers with sand, chalk on the patio, drawing with water & big painbrushes outside?
Keep on trying not to stress!! Easier said than done I know, but in the long run his age won't matter at all :)

Summer reading challenge (though you may have to count stuff you jointly read)? (my DC are enthused about it after a local librarian came in to talk about it - so this might have happened at your school as well).

I came on her to say summer reading challenge. My two loved it last year. Go along to your local library to register.

Also my two play cafes at home. One is the waiter and writes down orders while the other is the chef. It's a fun way to get them to do some simple writing.

Postcards to friends or grandparents? They don't have to be very long but actually going out and posting them is good fun :)

We encourage our DD2 to research things that interest her and make up some powerpoint presentations on them.

It means we have to sit through endless presentations on snow leopards and romans but she doesn't see it as work.

I second the reading challenge, it really helped DD to get going.

DD also has a holiday diary which is a scrapbook in the end and the school always ask the children to bring it in and show it. A project about his favourite topic is also good.

I'd be quite interested to learn about snow leopards and romans, MrsP! It's a good idea - I'll give it a go.

Not heard of the summer reading challenge before. Have called the library and we're going to sign up as soon as they're ready - thanks!

I did reading chest with DD over the summer between R and yr 1.

Only signed up for 2 months. She loved getting the books in the post -lots of different schemes not just biff and chip.

Her reading came on leaps and bounds.

That library reading challenge can seem a bit joyless and books shouldn't be something to be ticked off with a mummy looming over you with an anxious face.

How about comics? Ds learnt to read with Thunderbird comics and then moved on to The Beano and then to adult Marvel/DC nerdy comics to which he is still addicted. Or Aquila magazine which you have to do mail order and is a bit pricey but is very Look & Learn-ish.

Lainiekazan - why do you see the library challenge as joyless? DD will do it the third year now and already asked about the theme. You can take any book you like, DD often takes factual books.

I see it as the idea to let them loose on a larger variety than what school offers and for us to identify books we haven't heard of before. I don't look for "educational value" books, we look for books which are fun. If DD wants she can have more than the six and often does.

Comics can be great as well but I found books are providing a greater possibility to expend vocabulary and talk about comprehension. A comic can only offer so much in my opinion. Magazines are good as well, virtually all printed media should be on offer for a child. I think my mum still has a huge stack of Mickey Mouse comics from my childhood at home.

It's not joyless at all. There are stickers to collect, fun characters, wall charts, games on the website and the children can chose whatever books they like. They books don't all have to be massive tomes. At the end they get a medal. My DCs are very keen that we should sign up tomorrow so they don't miss out. Plus there's actually about 2 months to read the six books so even if they are on longer books there is lots of time to read them. What's not to like?