how do you support your primary aged child

[bgh67t7i]

On the back of the other thread about school and textbooks - I was wondering how do other parents support their child in primary. We dont have textbooks and just get one word half termly topics such as life cycle or monarchy or something else. I dont really know what they do in science or history or English. We've got some CGP books for maths and english but I dont really know the order in which they cover the different skills/topics. If you try to support your child in primary - how do you go about it?

For us it's about supporting their knowledge generally. We buy/borrow from the library lots of non-fiction books to look at with the DC. We take them to museums/galleries etc, play educational games and so on.

If you want to support specific topics the school website/office should have a curriculum map they can share with you.

Get them to read to you every day.

Yes, we do try all of these things. it just feels like we have no idea what they do at school so ends up being a bit like having to run two parallel schools or something

We don't do specific things no a linked to school topics.
We get them to read (luckily not hard with our kids) fiction and fact books. They love a science book and horrible history. Also get them books that are fiction based in different countries/ or have characters with a different background to them to help them see that there is more to the world then the middle class white area we live in. Also they have a week jr subscription so they have an idea of what is going on in the world.

Days out to art galleries and museums (bonus as they are often free)

Oh and we get them involved with cooking - sneaky maths thrown in there with having to measure ingredients.

Am I the only one who never measures ingredients ;-) I think it's more that am used to having text books and drawing on that.

Encourage them to read
Make sure they get a lot of exercise
Feed them a very healthy diet
Set a good example of what hard work is at home
Encourage and insist on politeness

Op maybe I am misremembering but I don't think textbooks have ever really been a thing in UK primary schools? Secondary, yes

We do bond books in the morning and some science test ones and reading. We play games like chess, cards etc and have educational apps that reinforce English and maths. We watch education videos on YouTube, particularly on a subject that came up that day from a question. We read to them and hear them read. We watch documentaries and sports, play musical instruments and encourage them to make their own books/magazine/games etc rather than just consuming others.

They so also do a lot of Minecraft so it’s not all perfect!

Encourage them to read. Take them to the local library

We bought some practice books at WH Smith and Waterstone that make up for the lack of proper textbooks. Worth checking if your local library has something similar

"Op maybe I am misremembering but I don't think textbooks have ever really been a thing in UK primary schools? Secondary, yes"
Maybe the OP is from a country where textbooks were/are used also in primary schools?

I only have one in primary who had just started reception but this is what we do / aim to do:

• lots of free play, outside ideally and with mixed ages of kids when possible
• reading, us to them and vice versa
• general house and life stuff, e.g. my DH does all sorts of DIY and car fixing with them and they help me with cooking and baking
• going to the library and other educational but fun places, e.g kids science places (We the Curious in Bristol)
• insisting on manners, politeness, kindness
• feeding them a generally healthy diet and limiting screen time

I listened to Jonathan Haidts book The Anxious Generation recently and that had shaped our perception on what we should do to support their school education.

I really like this thread OP because I'd be keen to get other ideas. ☺️

You could ask the school for a termly or yearly curriculum.

In addition to other comments here, being outdoors in nature, learning names of birds, plants, trees, animals, insects, getting those bug collecting kits, binoculars for looking at birds, watching the clouds, planting seeds on the windowsill and watching the life cycle, food growing, watching nature documentaries, talking about weather and climate change, recycling, etc..

It did help having an idea of the curriculum so as to focus on a few connected themes, though. E.g. zoo trips when they studied animal life cycles. Just googling the curriculum themes for your child's key stage might help.

Also for science, as they get older, science kits like basic circuits, magnets, automatons, robots.

It's impossible to do everything. I've done a lot of reading and nature activities, but fall short on art and music. The important thing is to foster a sense of curiosity and excitement, especially as school can be very boring.

Oh also we had Alphablocks on lots, for reading.

Oh another thing we have done is introduce toys / games for programming/ coding. Learning Resources have some good stuff, we got the 'coding mouse' I think it's called.

As I said in another post...

You can pull up children's academic standards enormously in one year (so imagine what you can achieve over several years).

All you need is: dedication, patience, time and some books.
All they need is: an incentive.

Take time out of your week (about 45 minutes, twice per week) to work through some books (I'd choose CGP from Exam Ninja, Amazon, WH Smiths, Waterstones or whatever).

It's the routine of regular study that cracks it.

P.s. Avoid apps, the progress won't be anything like as comparable.

We get emails at the beginning of every term telling us what the curriculum is, so then we try and do some activities or reading around that topic

Op, I know what you mean. My dc doesn't always understand/ remember everything and instead of having the materials at home to reinforce the knowledge, it's like they are trying to catch the children out with some worksheet here and there (usually checked by peers, again not useful to actually reinforcing the learning).

If the teacher has one chance to teach the lesson, and something disruptive happens during the lesson, then that's that.
Some children are quick with good vocabulary and grasping it then and there, but some kids, very hard working kids, need to go through it again in their own time.

I have always been on the school website, checking the curriculum pages and trying to figure out what to do at home to support further. But it takes time and you can't be sure it's the same thing (even if same topic) as to what the teacher has taught.

I guess that's why tutoring is so popular and profitable.

We are not at exams stage yet, but I imagine when we get there it will be quite an uphill - it doesn't tie up with the expectation from children during their primary years.

Mine's 16 now, but I used to...

Read with him every day
Do smarty maths - if you have 10 Smarties and you eat 3, how many do you have left?
Explore the natural world
Teach him to swim & ride a bike
Go to local sites of interest - locally we have a canal, a civil war castle, a 17th century windmill, a wwIII airbase, a nature reserve etc.
Have lots of fun - it gives them confidence.

We are from a country where you don't start school until 6 and it's only about 4 hours per day but they do use textbooks. So school is both more organized but also less of a feature for a parent. In England, it feels both a much larger formal part of the day but also a lot more of an unknown to a parents. It's like you send them there without having much of a clue what they did that day. My parents just looked through my textbooks to see what we covered each day, same with my friends who love in my home country.

I'm a primary teacher. At primary, the most important things you can do to support school learning:

Have conversations. Talk. Let them talk. Ask questions. Tell stories. Explain how things work. Encourage them to express opinions and explain their thinking.

Read daily with your child.

Practise through play basic number facts (count, add/subtract, telling time, calculating how much time has passed/ will pass, using money esp coins).

Once times tables are introduced, drill those relentlessly! Including division facts. Maybe 5 or 10 minutes every day.

I'm following this with interest as my son just started reception this year. We haven't received the curriculum or had a parents' meeting yet. I grew up with textbooks and homework. Here's what we've been doing so far:

• Daily reading: he reads to us, and we also read to him.
• Every morning, we spend about 20 minutes on phonics and handwriting using Mrs. Wordsmith workbook.
• We've also started using CGP's daily math practice with my husband, suppose to be 10mins but usually take 30mins including play breaks. He’s doing well with counting but still working on recognizing and writing numbers, both in numeric and word form. For us, using workbooks helps ensure he's not missing anything. I prefer workbooks that align with the curriculum so we can follow what he should be learning each day. We are lucky that both are working from home so we can spend time with him before and after school for extra support. For next year, I plan to reduce the phonics workbook and change to targeted English workbook instead.

Do you find the Mrs Wordsmith book useful and which one have you got? I've seen ads for it but not actually bought any yet.

Yes we found it pretty good. Search YouTube - letters and sounds for school and home. We watch a video each day.

We are in England and get a homework grid of 6 pieces of work to do each half term. It's a challenge with 2 kids.

More realistically, the school ask us to do...
Numbots
Times table rockstars
Phonics play
Classroom secrets kids
Learn 10 spellings a week.
Reading 10 minutes every day.
Handwriting practice, from letterjoin.

You'll find all of these online.