Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
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Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
It's so easy to be influenced by those around you, though. Isn't it? I panic a bit when I hear about DC who have had Kumon since Y2. These parents up the ante and then the rest of us feel we have to do more just to keep up.
I started my DS's prep a bit late (three months before the exam) and swore I wouldn't make the same mistake with DD. I started working with her in Y4 to plug the gaps left by her friendly but academically dismal Primary School. In Y5 we started on 11+ work. Ideally I wouldn't have done anything at all until Y5 but I couldn't risk her reaching her tenth birthday still relying on her fingers to count! It sounds as though you don't have any problems with your DD's education so far. In your situation, you can afford to wait. The thing is, it is your decision and if you desperately want to crack on, you can do it without it being pressured. It could be argued that long gentle prep is a lot less pressured than shorter but more intense prep.
All the shopping and cooking stuff is great too. Lots of DC are happy to sit with a workbook for ten minutes a week - it doesn't mean that you're pushy!
I started my DS's prep a bit late (three months before the exam) and swore I wouldn't make the same mistake with DD. I started working with her in Y4 to plug the gaps left by her friendly but academically dismal Primary School. In Y5 we started on 11+ work. Ideally I wouldn't have done anything at all until Y5 but I couldn't risk her reaching her tenth birthday still relying on her fingers to count! It sounds as though you don't have any problems with your DD's education so far. In your situation, you can afford to wait. The thing is, it is your decision and if you desperately want to crack on, you can do it without it being pressured. It could be argued that long gentle prep is a lot less pressured than shorter but more intense prep.
All the shopping and cooking stuff is great too. Lots of DC are happy to sit with a workbook for ten minutes a week - it doesn't mean that you're pushy!
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
Lesson one in 11plus prep!! Ask on here but don't take anyone's advice. Do whatever you think is right for your daughter. Teaching through play is terribly difficult at year 3 level for a parent. e.g. baking - yes sure, it's a "fun" way of practising some bits of arithmetic, and reading recipe type words, but that's about it. If your kid is behind where they need to be due to lack of teaching at school it isn't going to be an effective way of getting to where you need to be - part of the plan maybe, but that's about it.
And number games - yes great. But my children aren't interested in them any more. They say it's not a game if it's got numbers in it! And even if they did enjoy them it doesn't necessarily help develop the instant recall needed to be fast in a calculator-free paper. Sometimes children have to learn number facts very systematically, a small number at a time. The number games won't do it for them no matter how many million times you play them.
I'm sorry but a lot of these answers are very useful strategies, but not the complete answer. If you feel you could help her prepare with less stress by starting early, then do that. You'll soon know whether it will work or not when you give it a go. You'll need to be really think about how to present the things that she really does need to learn (if she needs to learn anything) in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible as she is young, and you don't want to bore the pants off her so long in advance of the real event.
Let me give the "way too early" an example. In my DD2's year 2 class they are all currently doing pairs of numbers which add to 10 - yes, 5+5, 6+4, 7+3, 8+2, 9+1. They did this in reception briefly and she understood it and remembered it then. A lot of schools make sure children come out of reception making sure they understand and remember this.
My DD is clever too, but if they progress through the maths at this kind of pace for the next few years she sure isn't going to pass the 11plus paper.
And number games - yes great. But my children aren't interested in them any more. They say it's not a game if it's got numbers in it! And even if they did enjoy them it doesn't necessarily help develop the instant recall needed to be fast in a calculator-free paper. Sometimes children have to learn number facts very systematically, a small number at a time. The number games won't do it for them no matter how many million times you play them.
I'm sorry but a lot of these answers are very useful strategies, but not the complete answer. If you feel you could help her prepare with less stress by starting early, then do that. You'll soon know whether it will work or not when you give it a go. You'll need to be really think about how to present the things that she really does need to learn (if she needs to learn anything) in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible as she is young, and you don't want to bore the pants off her so long in advance of the real event.
Let me give the "way too early" an example. In my DD2's year 2 class they are all currently doing pairs of numbers which add to 10 - yes, 5+5, 6+4, 7+3, 8+2, 9+1. They did this in reception briefly and she understood it and remembered it then. A lot of schools make sure children come out of reception making sure they understand and remember this.
My DD is clever too, but if they progress through the maths at this kind of pace for the next few years she sure isn't going to pass the 11plus paper.
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
Before Y5 I'd be doing things which would be generally educationally beneficial, rather than with 11+ in mind (and even if you're thinking that way don't mention it). Think along the lines of scrabble, boggle, times tables songs on CD, suitable games (for example mine liked "Timez Attack" which is free), puzzles which just happen to take the form of VR style codes, spot the differences (useful later for NVR), kids versions of Sudoku to develop logic and elimination, etc.
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
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Last edited by Belinda on Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
Predictably, I agree with Belinda.
And I know that there is little point adding to what she says. But please, just one (rhetorical) question, which is applicable to at least 3 active threads on this forum at the moment.
Why is it so important to you (not you, OP, just,you in general) that your children are academic high achievers? Why must they be pushed, stretched, challenged etc by school? Why must they be top set, why must their reading books be difficult, their maths be harder than that of others? Why must they be gearing up for university before they are even out of the infants?
Life is life...it isn't a race. Academic success is just one tiny facet of it.
OK, stop girl.
And I know that there is little point adding to what she says. But please, just one (rhetorical) question, which is applicable to at least 3 active threads on this forum at the moment.
Why is it so important to you (not you, OP, just,you in general) that your children are academic high achievers? Why must they be pushed, stretched, challenged etc by school? Why must they be top set, why must their reading books be difficult, their maths be harder than that of others? Why must they be gearing up for university before they are even out of the infants?
Life is life...it isn't a race. Academic success is just one tiny facet of it.
OK, stop girl.
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
I have a year 3 (with 2 older siblings already at grammar school, so no pressure there!) We have yet to decide if grammar school is right for him as although "bright" he has issues writing it down however we are currently doing things from Okanagan's list, along with reading plenty and playing board games where he can be the "banker" to reinforce his mental maths, in between climbing trees and camping with cubs!
The only "workbook" I have got is the first of a set called new spellaway by schofield and sims which is very like a puzzle book - crosswords etc as in our case his writing is the problem.
With my other DC's I did nothing formal before year 5 (year 6 in DS1's case!)
We don't have NVR in our area but Pictureka is a great game and all about visual recognition - ? useful
The only "workbook" I have got is the first of a set called new spellaway by schofield and sims which is very like a puzzle book - crosswords etc as in our case his writing is the problem.
With my other DC's I did nothing formal before year 5 (year 6 in DS1's case!)
We don't have NVR in our area but Pictureka is a great game and all about visual recognition - ? useful
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
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Last edited by Belinda on Sat Nov 03, 2012 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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littledippy
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Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
Very good advice. I like it 
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
It has been said many times but one of the best and most enjoyable things to do is just read to your children. Every night if possible but regularly in any case. Not hear them read to you which is fine, but you read to them. Often you can do this with books that might be more of a challenge than books they tackle themselves but choose one you know you will enjoy too. The really hard bit is not snoozing off and snoring after a few pages!! There have been plenty of great book suggestions on here. I think you will find that you can train 11+ VR technique for many question types fairly quickly but it is having a wide vocabulary that will help enormously and this can't be crammed but years of reading to your DCs will improve this naturally. I don't mean explain every new word just enjoy the stories and explain bits if your Dcs ask. So if you are thinking of starting early just make more time to read stories.
Re: Prepping for grammar school? Is year 3 too early?
Re. Belinda and Amber's posts, It's OK, but it's very hard to live up to if you've got a busy life and the school isn't great. Yes my DD2 would happily play shop all day and frequently does, and sometimes I join in, and sometimes I don't, but she's not much bothered about whether the money is exchanged correctly, or the change worked out. It would spoil the game if we tried to twist it to a mathematical end. And after all, if you had a real shop job the till would work it all out.
No academic stuff isn't the be all and end all, and there's far much more to life than that, and play is one good way of learning. But it really can be very hard for the average (or not so average) parent to stretch play into covering what might be yawning gaps at school. Many Early Years Foundation trained teachers struggle to use the method in reception; few teachers are great at it by year 3.
I volunteer with a lot of children who have fallen miles behind (from wide range of backgrounds including multi-millionaire children to very low income families) , or who haven't been taught very much either at school or at home. It's sad I'm afraid. They are not going to have the opportunities that they could have had if they had got a bit further by the end of primary school. It's "academic" whether it would be good for the gap to be filled by play-based learning or some other method. Anything would be an improvement for them.
Clearly the OP is not in this situation. Also, I don't know many children who would do stacks of shop-bought workbooks in year 3 or any other school year. Generally it would take some thinking to progress a child, not just working blindly through a WH Smith workbook or suchlike, unless you were extremely lucky and it did just happen to hit every button with the child.
Go and prepare in whatever way you think would work well OP.
No academic stuff isn't the be all and end all, and there's far much more to life than that, and play is one good way of learning. But it really can be very hard for the average (or not so average) parent to stretch play into covering what might be yawning gaps at school. Many Early Years Foundation trained teachers struggle to use the method in reception; few teachers are great at it by year 3.
I volunteer with a lot of children who have fallen miles behind (from wide range of backgrounds including multi-millionaire children to very low income families) , or who haven't been taught very much either at school or at home. It's sad I'm afraid. They are not going to have the opportunities that they could have had if they had got a bit further by the end of primary school. It's "academic" whether it would be good for the gap to be filled by play-based learning or some other method. Anything would be an improvement for them.
Clearly the OP is not in this situation. Also, I don't know many children who would do stacks of shop-bought workbooks in year 3 or any other school year. Generally it would take some thinking to progress a child, not just working blindly through a WH Smith workbook or suchlike, unless you were extremely lucky and it did just happen to hit every button with the child.
Go and prepare in whatever way you think would work well OP.
