If your y1 is flying what additional work/ resources do you use!

[Notthinkingclearly]

My dd is 6 and had a great first year and was in top group for all areas. This year she seems to be really dropping behind. Having to have extra help with maths etc. I help out in classroom once a week so can't help notice that the children in the top group all have parents as teachers. I listen to my dd read every night but must admit I don't do anything else. If your 6 year is excelling do you do extra work at home? Any extra resources that anyone can recommend- books or ipad apps? I am willing to put a bit of extra work in but don't know where to start. I am guessing it can be a 10 minute routine if you know what to cover. I just feel like I have let my dd down just because I am not a teacher.

Dd is in year one now. She can't spell words such as said even! (This weeks spelling words are them, did, turn, my, this, said, her and bed. She got less than five. :( )

My ds is yr3! A lot children click in yr1, I'm sure.

This site is a little bit easier for comprehension.
www.turtlediary.com/games/comprehension.html

And this one's good too.
mrnussbaum.com/readingpassageindex/

And some people hate it, but let her watch TV with subtitles! It helps with word recognition.

www.mathplayground.com/learning_arcade.html

www.arcademics.com/

Lot's of English learning games.(Free sites)

Mad about that sounds fantastic! Our foundation phase is like that but pretty soon into yr1 its much more focused. My daughter seems to like it but I don't. Similarly the focus on extended noun phrases and writing sentences with 2 adjectives etc. I'd rather creative writing and more physical play!

What would probably really help is not adding to the work load in term time but helping your DD in the holidays. So much can be lost so quickly (as much as a term's worth of learning in the summer holidays according to my infant teacher mother). So if you want to help her you could do it by helping her to remember what she knows over the holidays.

I do this with my kids by reading with them and to them and by encouraging them to do some maths (ipad games mainly). Given their obsession with screen time they actually beg me to be allowed to do this!

Yes, I agree with mrsmortis. We carry on reading etc. during holidays unless we are away, mixed in with more time consuming projects ds wants to do.

I'm a (very old!) P1 teacher -reception equivalent in NI. When my children were at the school that I teach in we used to create topic pages either based on their class topic or on something they were interested in. They often had very little writing in the early stages but they liked finding out about all sorts of weird things....wombats, banshees (!), and slaters (woodlice if you aren't from NI) spring to mind ....I can still remember how to tell if a woodlouse is male or female! Then weebly appeared!! And they made weebly websites instead!!! Ones about our dog, about their holiday, about the extension we were having, their family tree......they loved it and it wasn't "work" in their eyes....but it was !! They were transferring knowledge and skills and i believe that is key to extending learning. As a P1 teacher that's why learning through play is so vital.... The children are transferring what they've learned with everything they do as they play. Our topic is wild animals at the minute and im hearing "the facts" eg about lions\tigers etc being built into small world play...its very cute!!

Dd2 is in year 1 and in the "top groups" for maths and English. I'm not convinced the top group in her school is the same as a lot of the top groups in some other schools on mn.

We mostly just follow her interests. She quite enjoys writing, especially in the "secret diary" she got for Christmas. We read every night, her to us (she's orange book band at school but can read harder books than that at home) and us to her. She gets one sheet of homework each week which we do when we remember (we often don't, cos we're a bit crap at looking in her bag)

I agree that the key to educational success at this age is to make it fun, trying to make dd2 do boring work would be counter productive, shed hate it and resist doing it.

I also think that the educational side is only one aspect of growing up. I know my sister looks at my dds and wishes hers could do as well academically. But I look at her dds and wish mine were as confident socially, because hers can talk to anyone in an appropriate manner while mine are so shy they can appear rude when they struggle to talk to people. Academics aren't necessarily the be all and end all, there are other equally important things that are just as difficult to help with at home.