Help for reception child

[JammyGeorge]

Ds1 started reception in sept.

First term was very difficult, he struggled with the other kids, his behaviour in the playground was terrible with lashing out and it was a generally stressful time for everyone.

Parents evening tonight and general message from the teacher is positive. His behaviour and social development has improved massively. She had been doing a daily home/school diary but doesn't think he needs it anymore as bad behaviour is now the exception rather than the rule, iyswim. So all good.

However, she said his phonics and maths are below the level they would expect and if it doesn't improve they will have to get someone in to work with him. She then glossed over it and said she didn't think it would come to that that as he is maturing his work is improving and she doesn't think it will happen but just to warn us incase he doesn't improve after easter.

She said he's not interested in the work and thinks he doesn't have much confidence.

So wise people of mumsnet what can I do to help my boy along? I try with homework and writing etc at home but he's just not interested, he has hardly any attention span. The only time I've ever seen him vaguely interested in anything is when we signed up to reading eggs for a free trial and he got to play on DH's tablet.

Does anyone know of any good online aids? How do I get him 'interested'? Is it just something that comes with age? I've never tried to pressure him before as I've thought he's just not ready yet but now I really think I need to help him.

Pirate phonics was great for my pirate mad boy, on the iPad. Pirate phonics 1 for learning letters, pirate phonics 2 for blending.

Learning the sounds should not be separate to learning to blend and segment

I sometimes tell parents, the challenge of learning and reading for a five yr old, could be compared to YOU having to learn to read and write Chinese!

JammyGeorge your son effectively lost a term or mire of learning due to his social difficulties. It's probable that now it has improved he will begin to make progress in other areas of his learning. Of course this needs to be monitored and he is going to require support as he is playing catch up but there is no reason why he can't.

Hi, sorry it's been a busy birthday weekend and we've been to the coast for the day.

Ive spent most of it trying to build counting and phonics in! In the car played I spy which was dismal but we stuck with it. On the beach writing in the sand but it didn't hold interest for more than 3 letters.

I'm going to keep trying though.

Reading eggs is a brilliant programme, has a maths and phonics section. You can get a free two weeks trial (if you search for voucher codes you can get up to 2 months free) they also have various other apps which are just as good concentrating on different things

Just a word of caution Reading Eggs like many widely programmes is based on US methods (also contain some American spellings) which don't match his children are taught in the UK and can confuse.

We did a reading eggs free trial a while ago and he loved it but we weren't sure about confusing him or how these things were taught but it seemed great for recognising letters as that's the stage he was at.

I know he uses jolly phonics at school