How often do you hear your child read / do work with your child in Reception?

[lovingmy2]

Title says it all. My DS is in Reception and i encourage him to do something everyday for 5 minutes Sun-Thurs (has Fri and Sat off). This might be number work i.e counting forwards, backwards, recognising shapes, calculations etc Hearing him read or writing. It is only for 5 minutes in an evening which i think is acceptable but my mum was here yesterday when i was doing it and she said i was mean after he'd been in school all day.

DS is in the top group in his class July born and doing well BUT am i doing too much with him?

I just hear their reading after school,and quickly do any sight words they have, and leave them to it after that.

If they ask a question we will go look something up, but other than that I always find they are so tired after school in the first year that I leave them to it.

During term time we dd reads to me every morning. We are early birds and always up at 6.30. So we have plenty of time in the morning for reading her school book when she is fresh and alert (She has a new book from school every day)

Dd also likes to 'tell me a story' at bedtime. She reads a book from the reading chest, then I will tell her a couple of stories before she goes to sleep.

We work on her maths during the day, for example by counting in twos walking up the stairs or counting backwards when rinsing her hair with a jug in the bath .

reading every day for a few mins is certainly a good idea.

You can really really tell the children who are heard read at home on a regular basis.

HTH

We used to read for a few minutes most days (but I wouldn't push if she was really tired, not worth it) and towards the end of Reception year the children were given weekly 'challenges' to do if they felt like it. We did that at weekends, when she was less tired.

Now in Y1, all work at home is done during the week so we have weekends off

I think what you're doing sounds fine. In reception I didn't do any number work (they didn't seem to do much in class!) but now wish I'd done a bit. And my DS always read to me every day. You as a parent know when they're too tired to cope with it and I never pushed it because I didn't want it to be counter productive. Now DS in Yr 1, a happy, confident reader and generally doing well. I found my DS also liked the special attention just for him, away from DS2.

I'm a teacher. When I hear my son read, I have the rather annoying habit of asking him questions about the text.

Got told off by him because (and I quote) "I'm distracting him from his reading".

His mum (we are separated) is great - she has put the magnetic words up on the fridge that he is learning at the moment - this is a real motivator and I am very impressed with how well he has come on.

We read with my 4 yr old son every day, normally at bedtime. He's coming along great considering when he started school in September he couldn't read or write a letter.

I haven't done anything with my 3 youngest dc whilst they were in reception. Once they were getting somewhere with learning to read then we would look at their books with them. Still get read to everynight though.

TBH I think they go to school far too young and by the end of year 1 you can't tell the difference between those who could read before school and those who didn't learn to read until year 1.

They have so many years ahead with lots of homework etc IMO

We make sure it doesn't become a chore though. In fact it is DS1 who insists on reading. If I try and get out of it he goes mad lol

I listen to DD read most days and probably do other things with her for at 5 minutes per day but not in a "we're doing number work now" way. Also helps that she has a 6 year old brother who she wants to emulate in all ways so wants to write, label drawings etc like him.

Depends on the child, DD1 did what she had to do and no more ie reading books and spellings and then she was off; DD2 whilst in reception could not get enough - literally starting on her reading book as we walked home, getting loads more from the library at levels appropriate and a little bit harder because she wanted to try, playing schools with me and her teddies ("Today class we are going to count in 3's") and always writing and making lists. She loves it. Will be interesting to see how DD3 will be.

Every day. I did so before she started school and see no reason to change now.

I don't really see reading as work, just part of life and I've tried to show her that from an early age.

You are not mean!

Just reading here- I am very worried about homework coming as I dont know when we will do it

Well what an interesting thread.

my DD1 in reception too. We used to do bits every day because she used to come home really enthusiastic, wanting to read and write, and do numbers. Then, after a change of teachers in December, things went downhill. She started really dipping and returning home she said she was too tired and didn't want to read or do anything school related. So I left it for a while, as I didn't want to push it. We did her very easy book coming home once a week for a few weeks and that was it.

well then when I started pushing it a little, I realised how much she had regressed. I am not sure what has gone on, but she is has really really regressed and it's taken a few weeks now to get her back to where she was. So I would say doing a little every day is very important. Esp if they are not doing much practicing at school, like in our case!!!

I do try to find time but I have a disabled DH, work 3 days a week (when I leave the house at 7.40am and get back at 6pm) and I have a toddler to look after too. DS is not particularly inclined to do work in the evenings and by the time DS2 is in bed DS1 can be just too tired to concentrate.

Ho hum. Better make more of an effort....

ds reads something everyday, but more often then not it is to chose the tv program or the bedtime story (title of book)
He does school reading 2 times per week, something else once a week.

He has moved on to spellings but at the moment they are words he already knows so this only gets done once a week.

He is working on time telling and money, so he has to tell me the price of stuff when we are going shopping and weights when baking. but nothing serious. it just comes up. ALthough he has raided his book collection and is teaching his aunt about dinosaurs at the mo. He does a lot of this independantly so it is more of a case of him practising then me doing stuff with me.

He has just brought me a picture of a dinosaur on which he has written the species. it is tranasuarus (sp)rex. He is currently driving me mad practising. I feel it is now bedtime.

We have a different book my DD reads to us (from the reading scheme) sent home three times a week and we read to her every night. Homework is set once a week and is based around sounds and letters.She also has some sight words we look at when we remember!

DS brings home 2 books a night and we read these, I tend to wait until he's had a snack and livened up a bit. If he is super grumpy or had an afterschool playdate I do one or no books and read them in the car outside school next morning. (We quite like doing them in the car - he is more alert.)

It takes 10 mins tops. He has spelling lists/caterpillars and used to have a spelling tin. This only takes a further 5 mins to go through. If he does these he gets 1/2 hour on Club Penguin, or an episode of Ben 10 I've saved on the Vplus box, if not then he plays quietly with no tv etc.

I have friends who don't do any work saying they don't want their kids to crash and burn after a day in school. I mentioned this to best friend who is an ex head of primary who reminded me that we made a contract with the school to learn at home too, and that 20 mins tops a day will hardly harm them.

These are also the friends that see his certificates on the fridge and then question why their kids don't have them. I'm not a pushy mum, (believe me - my son is still in his pj's with marmite all round his chops as we speak!)but it has helped my son, as they do notice other friends having books with words when they don't and get upset and grumpy about their pals working on different tables. Plus it was worth it just to throw that bloody word tin away!!!

Son has become addicted to Mathletics this week too, so will allow him 15-20mins on that in the evenings too if he wants..

I used to just do the reading but dd2 seems to be in a class with a teacher thats not coping and not teaching much, so since Easter I've started to do 5 or 10 mins of number stuff. Its amazing how shes come on and suggests not much was happening at school. I just treat it as part of the routine after tea time and only don't do it if shes really whacked. Maybe I am being tough but she enjoys the attention and I think its stimulating for her after a busy day of play at school...

I don't do anything with dd other than read stories to her and enjoy books at home - she's young in her year and to me it is far more important that we encourage her love of books rather than put any pressure on her to be reading. Her school takes an unhurried approach and doesn't set any specific reading at all in reception - I find this approach really suits her and I'm amazed by the things she does without any input from me - like writing a checklist of 'things to spot on holiday', reading stories to her little brother etc.

not feeling as guilty now thankyou. I doubt DS will ever come out of school waving his homework and reading book in the air so it will always be me saying 'come on its time to do your reading / work'...he would much rather be playing football, mario wii etc etc so 5 minutes a day really isn't the end of the world even if he has been in scool all day. Its part of his routine now so we'll stick at it. Are any of you planning on doing 'stuff' over the summer break?

Don't tell them they're doing 'number work', make it fun and they won't even notice!