Fun 11+ preparation ideas

[Indecisivelurcher]

I'm just starting to think about this for my year 4. Has anyone got any little or fun suggestions to start on the 11+ without making it a big deal at this stage?

I've just found that Alexa does an 11+ word of the day.

Are there any games for non verbal reasoning, for example?

Our two used to play Countdown (like the TV program) on our phone to help with mental arithmetic and vocabulary.

Thanks!

Since year 4, I found it was a kick up the backside and a massive gear change in prep attitude at school.
We are in year 6 and in the thick of the exams right now.
I can’t recall any part being fun!

Though mh dc enjoys Atom Learning and online maths games.

Our school don't do any prep. The teachers also don't advise on where to try. It's not a standard thing here.

Is your dc in a state school? This is what I noticed in state versus prep. My kids were in state so shielded from the stresses of 11+ My advice would be do lots of reading and be thorough with your prep. But don't overdo it and let your dc still have fun with their other activities. Offer a little treat here and there to keep them motivated if needed. Although, mine were motivated enough to get into their school of choice.

Yes state school. So we won't get the pressure but we also won't get the help... We parents are a bit scared, having seen a couple of test papers! I'm unsure I'd pass the 11+ now!! But ds is bright and has a good attitude. So our thinking is to do some gentle prep like brain games and vocab this year, without making a big deal out of it. Then to outsource to a tutor to do more proper exam preparation next year, year 5.

Will private message you.

would anyone recommend an online app/website for SPAG please?

@John25498 we have SPAG with school, but we only get tests not actual teaching and our school set one test every 2 weeks so it's not helpful at all.

I will have a look at the other, I need interactive not worksheet on paper, I need my child to answer and get the feedback immediately then move on to the next question.

many thanks,

Read to them every night. Try and choose reading books that are a bit more advanced than they would read on their own.
Encourage as much reading as possible.
Get some books of children's poetry and read poetry to them - understanding a poem is a skill in itself and the more practice they have the better.
My DS loved the Murderous Maths books (same publisher as Horrible Histories). I don't know how they managed to make maths funny, but they did! When we came to practice maths for the 11+ I took him through the Year Six curriculum on BBC Bitesize and he already knew most of it from Murderous Maths.
Make sure they're on top of spellings and tables each week too.

Thanks! He's got murderous maths but abandoned it half way through unfortunately 😆 TBF he's 8 so perhaps he'll come back to it! He's a great reader I'm confident in this.

BBC bite size is a good shout

Just focus on getting your son to read a good variety of books that are challenging for his age if possible. We never laboured any classic texts, examples of that came in time in the more formal comprehension practice.

We used the Clever Kids range of books too. Nothing too strenuous but good to practice key skills when travelling and out and about. They have Maths, Sudoku, Crossword, Logic puzzles.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Games-Clever-Buster-Brain/dp/1780555407/

Lots of reading - whatever they enjoy.
If they enjoy fiction, try to get some non-fiction in there. Mine enjoy The Week magazine.

We sorted out our tutor early on in Y4 to start lessons in Y5. If you haven't done this already, I would actively start getting recommendations from parents with older DC who have been through the process successfully.

@Indecisivelurcher I can just advice from my experience: this is a marathon, not a sprint, therefore I think the most important is to think like athlete and coach, it has to be fun, but also inspiring. What is the transformation you and your child expect to have after passing the 11+? I’d say, read inspiring stories and check the vocabulary for keywords, even they seem no brainers, like “leadership”, then think about the leaders they know, etc. this will help them getting curious about what texts really mean, this will also help you bond. I understand not many parents have the time to go through this, so this is an advice. When you get a tutor, you’ll get a list of words and homework for your child to memorise them as will be tested. unfortunately most of the work may fall on you and your child. My DD is an avid reader and read plenty of books but still failed mocked comprehension tests because the difficult words she read in the books were skipped, or wrongly inferred, the solution for that is to sit next to them while reading, or having them write down the meaning of the words they don’t know (studying the text), but this is something that will not help them. So my advice is to be ready, get your child curious and excited to learn more. I hope it helps!

Thanks! I've met with a tutor and got that lined up for next Sept. She's given me a list of things to do in year 4, including a big vocabulary sheet. Lots of recommendations to read lots. He's a reader by nature but I maybe need to nudge what he's reading. He has tended to read more non-fiction, things like Adam Kay, horrible histories. His reading age is 12 but the stories he reads are age appropriate like How to train your dragon. I don't want to push something I deem worthy and put him off, when he's often got a nose in a book by choice. Will think about this.

Reading a lot is more important than reading 'worthy' books. As an example, people often worry about their kids reading comics, but if you look at the language comics actually use, it's all things like megalomaniac, thermonuclear missile and secret government lair.
A look at the first two pages of How to Train Your Dragon on Amazon throws up words like horrendous, hooligan, preposterous, grim, gigantic, scuttly, extinct, whence, fang, heir, bleak, initiation and military. And that's just the first two pages!
Reading for fun is much more important than reading classics or memorising vocabulary lists. He's only eight!

I would take your tutor's advice.

We were also given vocab sheets from our tutor in Y4

Just remember this is a marathon not a sprint. TBH I found this last time a tedious slog

Sorry I wasn't very clear, I should have put a paragraph spacer in the middle there, the recommendations to read lots are from the good mumsnetters here. Which I appreciate!

The advice about reading and vocabulary is fine but the original question asks about non-verbal reasoning. This is not something that can be taught without recourse to worksheets as it's about pattern recognition, critical and logical thinking and tha ability to make decisions at speed. It's also heavily weighted compared to the English and Maths papers as it is an indicator of potential and compensates for children who have eg dyslexia or come from not-terribly supportive backgrounds. If you have two children with the same marks in their other papers, the NVR paper is what decides who 'wins'.

My DD is finishing Y4 and heading into Y5. We've started prepping her with some basic activities at home and random vocab words, along with Onzely as short bursts. There's a long way to go but hopefully she stays the course.

The biggest difference for us has been ditching practice papers completely for a while. DD would just shut down when she saw a whole paper, was too overwhelming. We switched to really short focused sessions, 15 minutes max on just one topic, and that really clicked with her.
She chooses which topic to do each day, the sense of control has made her far more willing to sit down and do it.
Doing it at the same time every day so it just becomes a habit rather than pressure.
We also use eztutor which is more like online topic by topic practice but not that expensive and has a fun NVR section as well.

we have found that 15 focused minutes but every day is much better and easy to maintain than an hour of reluctant practice.
hope this helps