How to help DD catch up a little over the holidays

[Ohidontbloodyknow]

I have a 7 year old DD and recently went to a Workshare morning at her school. I know comparison is the thief of joy- but I was really shocked about how much she is lagging behind her classmates. There were displays of beautifully handwritten stories by other children on the walls, my DD had a scribble on a piece of paper pinned up, it was completely illegible. She also seems to have minor struggles with numeracy and spelling.
The school are aware of struggles to keep up but seem fairly hopeless at helping- it is a class of 30 with one teacher and one TA, and I feel DD gets overlooked a bit. Unfortunately, changing schools is not an option due to remote location.
Anyway- to cut a long story short- I have come away from the school with a mission to help her catch up as much as possible over the holidays... However I don't know where to begin and am flailing a little.
To anybody that has tutored their own children at home- how did you do it? I mean practically. I fell well placed to offer the support but do you need to have a prescriptive schedule with a certain amount of time allocated to an area each day? do you allocate a certain amount of time per week? or do you just casually thread learning into every day activities?
You can probably tell I'm panicking a little but I really do feel that this is a prime opportunity to offer her some gentle learning time at home so that she is ready for the next academic year. I wake up in a bit of a cold sweat thinking about getting to the beginning of September and her having fallen further behind, but I just don't know how to go about helping.
Just to reassure- I also fully intend to make the holidays a time for fun, friends and being a child, but with just an hour or so of hard work each day to make September less painful for her. Any advice hugely welcome. Thanks

Thank you so much everybody, this is so helpful. I really didn't know where to begin but am starting to form a plan of action.
Also encouraging to know a lot of people have been there before/ are there now and are yielding results.

@Ohidontbloodyknow, It’s really hard. At ks1 kids are very accepting, I want to help him as much as possible because I know as they get older he’ll be singled out and I don’t want that. He’s quite compliant, I make it as fun as I can, orchard games are good for feeling like they’re learning and playing as well. And I put time aside after his snack but before tea as he’ll be too tired after and he knows he can chill out then! You’ll get some resistance but keep at it. I’ve found reading thinks like road signs, leaflets etc when we’re out is good, they don’t even realise it’s learning. And writing for me, shopping lists etc isn’t as boring as making them sit and write on their own!

Imagination Tree has some great ideas based on invitations to play. theimaginationtree.com
I often feel frustrated that the enormous benefits of play based learning in Reception fall away to desk based heavy English and maths from Year 1. It certainly does not suit all and really put my daughter off reading. My suggestions:

Seek naturally occurring reading opportunities when out and about: Road signs, menus, information boards etc.

Make a scrap book linked to the day's activities cutting and gluing in stuff like leaves, tickets, wrappers and encourage her to caption them and also use stickers and emojis to reflect the excitement (or lack of) the day. Emotional intelligence being just as important as academic.

Practice activities that require hand eye coordination (catch is proven to help with maths) and fine motor skills (to help with legibility). Make own playdoh (tonnes of recipes on imagination tree) and theme the activities to help with motor skills.

Do cooking together where she needs to read out the recipe and do weights and measures including using motor skills to mix and knead etc.

Play with dolls and, dress, undress and do hair - all good for motor skills.

Lego creations - encourage imaginative play rather than building a kit. DD at that age liked to make Lego gardens.

Document natural findings and categorise into insects, plants, animals etc. encourage her to draw findings. Do this together.

Skipping - excellent for coordination and riding bike if possible.

You reading to her and with her. Pick up on what interests her. DD loves fact based books rather than stories. Any reading is good reading and listening to reading is as good at that age.

Singing and doing the dance moves along to the song (pick songs where you have to mimic the stuff in the song rather than copy a choreography).

Hopefully that gives you some good ideas and showcases how you don't have to buy special workbooks etc.

I “tutor” my son at home. He’s Year 1 and goes to a special needs school but is bright. Only thing he struggles with is handwriting.

Every evening we do one page of copywork (have a look online there are lots of resources, but I’ve simply bought a handwriting notebook and written out short passages from his favourite books and left space underneath each line for him to copy). Plus a couple of pages of a CGP targeted study maths book. That’s on top of him reading to me and then me reading aloud to him.

Over the summer holidays we will do the same but more of it. He can ‘earn’ screen time with the writing, for example. We are also working on him writing his own book - the aim being that he will dictate to me what he wants it to say, I will write it down on one piece of paper, and he will copy it into a book.

@SophiaLarsen Fantastic post, thank you for taking the time to write this. I am going to investigate Imaginationtree as it sounds ideal.

I realise my post sounds really prescriptive and boring but it takes only about 15 minutes a day (except the reading which we do at bedtime anyway) and is in lieu of any homework as his school doesn’t set it. He also does a couple of extra curricular clubs (beavers and a youth club for autistic children) and our weekend are a mix of relaxing at home and going out on nature walks, swimming, museums etc.

For handwriting can you incorporate it into art/craft based play? I'm thinking posters, background painted paper with quotes written on, cardboard boxes panted like a boat or something with words written on. Obviously not going to be full sentences but all works to strengthen hand muscles

@Sunshinebuttercupsrainbows Its actually quite interesting that in the responses - a lot of people do quite prescriptive learning at home, and this was kind of my question- is this a working formula for some kids? and it sounds like it is. A lot of people suggest just weaving learning into the day but I think we are past that and my DD definitely needs some structure to her holiday learning as well as ad hoc fun opportunities throughout the day. I'm really encouraged by these posts.

During term time how much time does she spend reading?

My mum got us to do a holiday diary. A small page a day like A5. Sometimes I added a drawing as well.

@Whataretheodds I read with her most nights. I can't be 100% sure at school, but they only seem to update her reading diary once a week, twice tops. She is quite a reluctant reader so if she is very tired I don't push it too much as I don't want to put her off.

Ditto. I taught all my DC to read well and they knew their alphabet sounds and blends before they started school. I always spent 1 hour a day on learning when my DC were growing up, usually 25 mins Maths/tables, 20 mins handwriting/English and 15 mins reading to me aloud. Once a week we would do little projects like planting a Sunflower and learn about a plant leaves, petals, etc or pick a country a find out its capital city, flag, language, currency, if a monarch or head of state etc. We did a little project on trees once and collected lots of different leaves and did rubbings of them. I took them to a local castle and we looked at various things then went home and wrote about what they had seen. I got criticised by some but I just took no notice because my children all enjoyed learning. As they got older I did English literature with them. During lockdown I did Of Mice and Men with Foster Son. We did chapter by chapter synopsis, then looked at characters including quotes and then looked at themes. He watched the dvd too and we discussed before he saw it how we thought it might be. Then I got him thinking about their characters and making up alternative endings and he drafted a few of those too. His school had asked him to read this text but only sent a few word searches to consolidate. I was very annoyed that once he returned to school only 3 children in his class had even read the book. The teacher then spent weeks reading it in class time when they should have moved on to the next topic. They did not finish the curriculum that year.

This is what I noticed. That little bit of extra work (which dc don't even mind) makes a huge difference. They become more confident and enjoy school.

I’d see what library has on they used to do a summer reading challenge and may have fun sessions on. Read lots and write a little book reviews.
Encourage writing eg shopping lists, party invites for pretend party, thank you note etc.
Baking good for maths.

Museums often have work sheets for children or treasure trails around town. I’d check local council website or Facebook group for what’s on.

I think the most useful things you can do are

• read with her - lots, fiction, poetry, non-fiction, labels in supermarkets, captions in museums, adverts on bus shelters, anything and everything
• drawing and colouring in - uses the same muscles and fine motor skills that you need for good handwriting and is much more fun

I know you aren’t homeschooling but there is a homeschooling YouTube channel called The Waldock Way that has so many fantastic resources and suggestions especially for writing/reading/games etc. we use a lot of her game suggestions and they have been great fun and not just for the kids!

Board Games are good too mine use to like those orchard toys ones.

One favourite was pop to shops another was called party party party. Both still available from orchard toys and age appropriate.

A diary of what I did in the holidays is nice too. So write date, draw a picture, stick
in a ticket. Write a few sentences. Nice to look back on.

1 hour in a go is too much at her learning stage. Break it into 3 or 4 chunks and space throughout day.
I'd get reading Eggs app for her reading. About 15 mins a day of that will help massively. Also put the subtitles on whenever she watches anything.
For writing prioritise her letter formation. Then spelling of year 1 and 2 common exception words, plus some words from her reading Eggs level.
Think small, targeted bursts. Don't give her too many corrections, focus only on what you've taught her.

If your on instagram check out 'nikkiandthelittles' she does 5 minutes a day with her two children after school, focusing on either handwriting, maths or phonics everyday (& she means everyday even when they go away on holiday) and the level her children are at, astounds me. Especially in maths and they have beautiful handwriting.

Of course I would suggest doing more than 5 minutes a day as you are playing catch up, but it's definitely inspiring and shows how putting in consistent effort at home really does pay off and it doesn't have to a lot of time either.

Another idea for writing is a tray of some sort (cat litter trays are pretty good) with sand in it.

Then she can write in the sand which is good for motor coordination.

I agree with @SophiaLarsen 's suggestions. At 7 work books can be counter productive especially if a child has additional needs which she may have if she is struggling with motor co-ordination.

7 is very young, many primary school targets are SATS based which benefit the school more than the child.

My DS REALLY struggled with all of the things you have said in your OP at your DDs age, turned out he is dyslexic and has other SEN which was undiagnosed in primary. I home educated for high school because he really couldn't cope but today I have taken him to an Open Day at Oxford university because his year 12 mocks were so strong. The moral of the story is that children learn at different paces and the children who flourish in primary are not always the ones who are the most academically gifted in the long run. It's a marathon not a sprint and the key here is not to put DC off education by pushing them when they are not ready.

There are so many helpful ideas on this thread (I’ve just ordered all the CSG maths books for Year 2 DD) but I’m kind of staggered at the amount of extra learning people are doing at home with their kids. We are just busking it…And Nikkiandthelittles is frankly intimidating.

What you have to remember is that people who inhabit the MN education boards have a higher than average interest in education.

Some people's kids love formal learning so it is no effort to get them to keep going in the holidays.
Some people are 'Tiger parents' and it is what their children are used to.

My DC struggled at school, so we used the summers to re-enforce / catch up and it meant they hit the ground running in September, increasing their confidence against the 'summer slide' children who were more able but did no academics over the break.