Using KS1 SATs preparation material

[sitdownpleasegeorge]

Ds is almost 7 and quite bright

He is supposed to be taking part in additional sessions at school to match with his abilities and possibly keep him stimulated and interested/progressing in both Maths & Literacy.

This, however, does not appear to be happening except once in a blue moon. To compensate we have got into the habit of buying him workbooks with little Maths & Literacy exercises in and he really enjoys these. He's worked his way through lots of different ones, starting with some colourful ones that caught his eye in the supermarket so fairly widely available and not too tricky really, moving on to slightly harder ones. We have now exhausted the supply of these and our next option seem to be to move on to stuff available in bookshops/amazon that could perhaps be considered to be practice for KS1 SATS but are not actually sold as practice papers or anything that serious.

At this point it is important to make clear that dh and I are not pushing these workbooks at him, he asks for them and considers them to be a treat. He does as little or as much as he wants at any time (and after the arrival of a games console at Christmas he has hardly asked for them at all ).

I suppose I have 2 questions really.

A) What do other parents (or teachers) think about using this sort of stuff, particularly if we graduate up to workbooks that are really letting him practice SAT's technique or question styles ?

B) Should we re-establish offering him the opportunity of him doing these as it has fallen by the wayside due to his new obsession with the games console ?

My main reason for asking is my frustration that the school do not seem to find it possible to timetable the G&T sessions more than once a term. Seriously, is one session every 6 weeks going to make any difference ? Why bother, other than to comply with guidelines and tick boxes. It's like they tell you that your child has been identified as needing this additional support, making you think that it is necessary for him but then they leave you all worried because you realise that the school can't find the time to do it very often.

If he enjoys them use them but they aren't really the answer to extending his maths and literacy. I would be looking more at problem solving than answering lots of questions
Have you seen the Outside the Box materials? They come in worksheet format but I would just use the ideas and get your son to expand on them.

Oh, please don't. Most of these workbook-style things are pretty dire, and SATs-focused ones are the worst. SATS skills are very narrow and focused and don't really mean very much.

If you want to stimulate him get him a subscription to a magazine like Focus or a to the kids' newspaper First News. Take him on days out and trips, take him to the library, get him writing his own stories, making things out of old junk, or building dens in the garden.

I agree with roisin Aquila is also a good magazine. If he is G and T has probably achieved level 3 already so why bother.

How about some websites/games/puzzles for gifted children, like nrich maths, or this?

I would not recommend you go to test papers to extend his skills - sounds mind numbingly boring to me - no real challenge. Instead I'd focus on improving strategy, problem solving, puzzles etc.

Try Professor Layton if he has a Nintendo DS or something like The Amazing Mathematical Amusement Arcade

Or try completing some challenges from Nrich

The games River Crossing & Rush Hour both by ThinkFun will provide interesting strategic challenges while retaining an element of fun.

Or teach him Chess, draughts, Backgammon or get him hooked on Sudoko.
Anything but Sats papers, he'll get enough of that rubbish at school.

On off additional sessions if he is G&T are really a waste of time. He should be provided for within the classroom on a day to day basis by the use of open ended challenges and the opportunity to research and present information in different ways.

I also agree with everything else that's been said about avoiding the dire workbooks!

Thanks for all those great suggestions and links too !

God I love mumsnet !

I must admit I was puzzled by his enthusiasm for the workbooks which just seemed like extra schoolwork presented in a more colourful format but have let him have them to occupy him quietly anyway as I felt it gave me time to spend reading etc with his little brother without resorting to screen time of some sort.

Quite a few suggestions do involve screen-time which we try to limit, although we have got a nintendo ds and he enjoys the spellbound game and the brain training game (in addition to the his Ben 10, Bakugan crap ds games etc which little boys seem to love so much)

mrz I haven't come across those outside the box materials but will google it when I get a chance.

He already enjoys criss cross books, junior crosswords and wordsearches to challenge/extend vocabulary and problem solving.

I personally don't think he's "G&T" which is why we didn't trawl the internet or anywhere else for G&T resources but we know he is bright and enjoys learning new things so maybe we could access some of the lower level G&T stuff on-line.

I've seen the kids in his school who are genuinely G&T and can easily see the difference between them and ds but still obviously want his potential level of ability to be catered for even if that means sorting out the additional resources ourselves.

Thanks once again to everyone and if you can think of any extra suitable resources please come back and add them.

You could try educationcity or mathswhizz .... online interactive sites (mathswhizz has 'rewards' and is cheaper for the short term)
For £7.50 parentsintouch has lots of suff you can download to print or just do with him.