Teaching my 5 year old after school and weekends.

[Yellowcups]

I can't decide if I want to be a pushy parent or not. My DS is in reception and probably average for most things. He is extremely imaginative with intricate drawings and has very good (but not the best) handwriting. His reading is blue level.

I'll be honest with you is general knowledge and interest in the world is what I've focused on so I haven't done the whole maths and English thing until recently.

Anyway, I don't think this is good enough. I think I need to do more reading writing and spelling. Maybe help him be more exact with his drawings, even possibly start teaching more about fractions, bonds and times tables. But my question is will it matter?

I really believe that I could help him to achieve more but of course I'm worried that I'll knock his confidence or become obsessed. I sound a tad loony but this post is genuine.

Anyone else home school their school children?

Doing school at home is more likely to be detrimental than positive. You could end up teaching things wrong or putting him off completely, especially with the drawing.

My eldest is a teenager. We've done museums, days out, watching documentaries and lots and lots of talking about all kinds of subjects. This has been a far better use of home time to support his education.

My ds2 has autism, he can read, he's one of the better readers in the class. He cannot understand what he's read very well as his understanding of the world (so far) is limited and in the present.

The ability to, for example, read books and, further up the school, understand literature, relies greatly upon depth of knowledge such as history, politics, a philosophy, religion. The thirst for knowledge is what needs to be fostered and then it can be applied to great results.

Of course that's my analysis of it, mostly we did it all for fun!

Yes, get past the idea of learning is more lessons at a desk and embrace that there is learning everywhere in both day to day routine and play.

Lego is brilliant as it is definitely play, yet there is so much they pick up like spotting how many dots (first by counting then by sight), comparing the dimensions of pieces, the beginner physics of what will stand up and fall over or why a car will roll or stop. If you play together and have him tell you how to build something, there's an excellent language development process in that. But none of that has to be a lesson- just playing and building. He doesn't need to know that he's learning something about maths or science or whatever.

Try to follow his lead whenever you can. Whatever it is he likes, find things that relate. Say a child likes cars. Start with both storybooks and fact books about cars. Go for a walk and ask him what he likes about the different cars you see. Draw cars. Build cars. Have a race pushing cars across the floor. See if you can find a little outing where he could see something different about cars - might be in a museum or at a garage or maybe someone around has a really old car he could see. But keep in mind that's all an ongoing bit of fun to just do a little something now and then, not an intense project to drill through in a week or two.

Read and take an interest. Those two things serve children so very well.

No I wouldn't. Just do things with him. And you can't "home educate" a schooled child just like you can't say that you are home educating a child by sending them to school ;) Would actually home educating him be an option?

Anti, I am not sure if exposing young child to learning to draw would be detrimental. And it's a fun activity, not work.
My ds has shown interests in art/drawing from early age, so I got him lots of books about art. Those books for children are all about experimenting different things and skills. We had lots of fun. He has won numerous art related competition in school since he started in primary. So I am quite glad I gave him those learning experiences.(But it was just fun doing messy play, with a bit of guidance.)

I've never met a parent who says "They just need so much more than the school is giving him, he's desperate to learn so I just had to teach him Mandarin after school" that a) isn't pushy, and b) has a hugely exaggerated idea of their child's ability.

I think this is a nice thread with a good question. Presumably at this age he's learning through play? Or did he start formal class teaching? I totally agree with museums, walks, nature, reading, asking questions about lego etc. That is pretty much educating him though isn't it?certainly more fun and relaxed then sitting him down for 4 hours on a Saturday but not so far away from
Pushy parenting either!

People say go to museums but only museum my ds has shown interest when he was five was natural history museum....

irvineoneohone I'm with you there, for me museums would follow a particular interest not remotely drive it.

On the general point, to me key stage 1 school seems remarkably boring, in that it's a lot of repetitive practice as the skills become automatic. I can't see the point in trying to accellerate the this process, as that is what school is going to be anyway. (If it's really even possible to accellerate it particularly, is 3 hours practice a day really better than 1 on making addition automatic, or writing speed, or punctuating when writing etc.)

There are so many other skills that need to be learnt, the academic are a minority in early schooling, and the ones that schools are currently well set up to teach.

Starting to learn about Music - having little percussion instruments, or a Keyboard (a reasonably good one, NOT a toy one), singing to TV or radio, and listening to good quality music (NOT just having it on in the background all the time) can help develop concentration.

Probably one of a teacher's major problems these days is that so many children don't know HOW TO LISTEN AND CONCENTRATE.

Music, language, sport?

Yes, music is one thing that really made a positive difference in my ds' life.
He wanted to sing French cartoon song and wanted to know the meaning. Lead to him taking online French course, which he still does everyday, after a year.

He wanted to be able to play the game music, so he started learning piano. Learning to play musical instrument is very hard, but with a joy in the end.

I wish I introduced it to him earlier, but I don't think it worked as well as it did, if I made him learn it when he was not interested.
I am merely following his interest, and I think that's the best thing you can do, imo.

Thank once again for being the voices of reason.

Very good point ferguson about learning to concentrate. We do listen to music but haven't for a while. He has also shown interest in piano which 2 outsiders on 2 separate occasions commented on and asked us if he was having lessons yet. Having spoken to a friend of mine we will get a good keyboard and let him mess about on it.

Actually, I also really encourage my dc to do puzzles! We have lots! Mainly for developing the ability to sit down and concentrate....

Definitely don't compare. Ds (6) is still working through the bands. My friend's daughter who is the same age has read all the Harry Potter books ( I've witnessed this- she's not exaggerating). That child loves to read. But ds is fine. The last things he wants to do at weekends is more schoolwork. Even museums might be pushing it!!

irvineoneohone The OP said "Maybe help him be more exact with his drawings" which is what I was referencing, not exposure, but being taught what he was doing was wrong or not good enough.

I think structured learning does pay off (depends on what is meant by structured learning as it might mean different things to different people). Consider the kids that make it to top independent schools and who get top A levels. Their parents instil a discipline for learning and extra structured learning very early. This may have implications for their mental wellbeing but in terms of educational outcomes extra structure learning more often than not improves educational outcomes.

It depends on what you want for your child. Many people would prefer rounded and well adjusted children.

But what about all those of us that didn't get the school we wanted this week? Do you all think that its better not to do anything more academic at home with your child even if you know that they're not progressing as far at school as they would be in another one? Or just that five is too early? Presumably if you'd like to help them catch up at some point then you have to start sometime!

I've always done a bit of academic structured learning with my kids but more from the age of 7.
I've used websites and workbooks. I even get them to do some work in holidays. Maybe 20 mins a few times a week. It doesn't have to be much and it all adds up.

The best thing it does is gives the kids confidence and makes them feel capable so they enjoy learning.

Stealth toast
You can't possibly say if your child would be progressing further in one school than another!
As long as you do reading for 10 minutes a day, and talk about telling the time, or counting money etc, simple every day things that are not forced, you are helping your child to progress. Not all children progress at the same rate at the same time! An outstanding school does not guarantee your child will make the same progress as another child. I see absolutely no point in pushing your child because someone else's child ''seems" to be ahead.

My nearly four year old loves books and is reading on her own quite fluently. I'm struggling to find books that are age appropriate topic wise but are more challenging to read. She is reading at an 8 / 9 year old level but doesn't have the comprehension to understand the topics and struggles to read books with a whole page of text like Horrid Henry as she keeps jumping lines. Any recommendations for books that have a format and topic suitable for younger children but have more challenging text? Something like the Dr Seuss books would be perfect. Nursery staff are great and read with her frequently but they have not been able to advise me.

Oops sorry, I meant to start a new thread not post on this one, OP.

Circle, my ds was similar, but I just took him to library and let him choose what he wanted to read. He picked easy ones, but a lot. Also there were lots of early reader books.
The nursery was great, his manager brought him books her dd used from home for him, got some books from linked school, and did 1-1 with him.
My ds loved reading to me, but only thing I did was just listen to him when he wanted me to. Didn't even think about comprehension at that stage.

Don't dismiss picture books often the text is more challenging than longer chapter books. Let her pick what she wants to read.

Start violin lessons to make his brain grow!

Thank you irvine. The library is a great idea. We used to go all the time before I went back to work full time.

mrz I usually choose her books myself online but I'll let her choose for herself from now on.

I'm just worried that she will get bored as the books I get are either read once easily and then ignored or too hard to read on her own due to dense text. She still tries but I'm worried that she will become confused if she is skipping lines. I still read a lot to her especially from the denser books and her favourites.
We've done the ORT fairy tales and she loved those. I remember a series of penguin books when I was a child which had condensed easy reader versions of classic fairy tales. There were LOTs of them. Is there anything like that still around?