Ideas to help make 11+ learning fun
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Sally-Anne
- Posts: 9235
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
- Location: Buckinghamshire
Ideas to help make 11+ learning fun
Hi everyone
Patricia (stalwart regular) has posted many times that, regardless of whether we tutor our children ourselves, there is so much that we can do in other ways to help our children with the techniques needed in the 11+.
She suggests hearing them read out loud, playing Scrabble, playing counting games - lots of ideas. However, I would like to ask parents, Patricia and others to post their ideas on the things that can make 11+ practise fun.
I don't mean bribing them with a lolly if they finish today's practice paper (tried that - definite short term effect only!), but the games and clever tricks that the children enjoyed and the parents found easy to use every day.
Our son is weaker at English than other subjects at present, and failed the Bucks VR test by a few marks. Getting him to play Scrabble is like drawing teeth! By comparison, he would play chess every night if either of us were up to it. I would love some ideas on how to get him to manipulate letters as enthusiastically as he does numbers, formulas and chess pieces.
As a starting contribution, I often play the "numberplate game" with my younger son (older doesn't enjoy it). Using the three letters on the registration plate, make the longest word you can, starting with the first letter and using all the letters in the right sequence.
Please don't feel you have to stick to VR - I'm sure that NVR and Maths both lend themselves to the same techniques.
I shall look forward to some really creative posts!
Sally-Anne
Patricia (stalwart regular) has posted many times that, regardless of whether we tutor our children ourselves, there is so much that we can do in other ways to help our children with the techniques needed in the 11+.
She suggests hearing them read out loud, playing Scrabble, playing counting games - lots of ideas. However, I would like to ask parents, Patricia and others to post their ideas on the things that can make 11+ practise fun.
I don't mean bribing them with a lolly if they finish today's practice paper (tried that - definite short term effect only!), but the games and clever tricks that the children enjoyed and the parents found easy to use every day.
Our son is weaker at English than other subjects at present, and failed the Bucks VR test by a few marks. Getting him to play Scrabble is like drawing teeth! By comparison, he would play chess every night if either of us were up to it. I would love some ideas on how to get him to manipulate letters as enthusiastically as he does numbers, formulas and chess pieces.
As a starting contribution, I often play the "numberplate game" with my younger son (older doesn't enjoy it). Using the three letters on the registration plate, make the longest word you can, starting with the first letter and using all the letters in the right sequence.
Please don't feel you have to stick to VR - I'm sure that NVR and Maths both lend themselves to the same techniques.
I shall look forward to some really creative posts!
Sally-Anne
Last edited by Sally-Anne on Tue Mar 07, 2006 12:08 am, edited 1 time in total.
One of the better tips was that to help with the speed of the Maths paper a child should know their multiplication tables inside out and with near enough instant recall.
We used to try and catch each other out when in the car. It became a challenge to see who was the quickest. My son found out that if he said 8 x 7 he would always catch me out as (for some reason) I had to reverse it to 7 x 8 to get the answer.
If a child has to spend time multiplying/dividing then some questions will take twice as long.
This also means that he nearly always achieves 100% on his SATS Mental maths.
Now....... anybody with any ideas on how to get him to read....please...?
Oooops..... Do you think this should be under the 'Tips' section
We used to try and catch each other out when in the car. It became a challenge to see who was the quickest. My son found out that if he said 8 x 7 he would always catch me out as (for some reason) I had to reverse it to 7 x 8 to get the answer.
If a child has to spend time multiplying/dividing then some questions will take twice as long.
This also means that he nearly always achieves 100% on his SATS Mental maths.
Now....... anybody with any ideas on how to get him to read....please...?
Oooops..... Do you think this should be under the 'Tips' section
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Sally-Anne
- Posts: 9235
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:10 pm
- Location: Buckinghamshire
Hi Chad
I'm very glad of your tip. My older "maths wizard" seems to occasionally think that times tables are beneath him. His maths teacher and results beg to differ sometimes!
I will happily think about how to encourage your son to read! I can't think of anything immediately, but if you can tell me more about what he reads now and how often, I can try to be useful.
Sally-Anne
I'm very glad of your tip. My older "maths wizard" seems to occasionally think that times tables are beneath him. His maths teacher and results beg to differ sometimes!
I will happily think about how to encourage your son to read! I can't think of anything immediately, but if you can tell me more about what he reads now and how often, I can try to be useful.
Sally-Anne
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HP
Hi Chad,
Boys that don't read...age old problem. We had the same problem with my son, could read just about anything but wouldn't read anything
Then his school reported that her would spend 'Golden Time' poring over comics. Apparently as they are very visual with short text they are very good for shorter attention span of boys (sorry is this sexist?). After getting over the shock
that they have comics in school and the even bigger shock that my son was reading without being nagged/asked we bought a few comic books on subjects he liked, it seemed to get him into the habit of reading and he usually reads now out of choice every night at bedtime.
You have to be interested in something to want to read. It only takes one book to open that door, I know a (now adult) dyslexic who said in her teens 101 Dalmations was the book which opened the door to reading. Before that she just hadn't been interested.
My daughter wouldn't read but for a different reason for lack of interest - eyesight problems. Consider having his eyesight checked by a behavioural optometrist, not just an optician. 1 in 4 children suffer from eye problems such as convergence insufficiency (problems with muscle strength in the eyes which affects focusing) which go un-noticed as they pass on standard eye tests. Reading is this task which places high demands upon the eyes and tires the muscles, so kids with this problem simply avoid reading. My daughter now reads avidly following a program of excercised for her eyes to correct her problem.
Can post how to find a behavioural optometrist if anyone is interested.
Failing this - resort to bribery
HP
Boys that don't read...age old problem. We had the same problem with my son, could read just about anything but wouldn't read anything
Then his school reported that her would spend 'Golden Time' poring over comics. Apparently as they are very visual with short text they are very good for shorter attention span of boys (sorry is this sexist?). After getting over the shock
that they have comics in school and the even bigger shock that my son was reading without being nagged/asked we bought a few comic books on subjects he liked, it seemed to get him into the habit of reading and he usually reads now out of choice every night at bedtime. You have to be interested in something to want to read. It only takes one book to open that door, I know a (now adult) dyslexic who said in her teens 101 Dalmations was the book which opened the door to reading. Before that she just hadn't been interested.
My daughter wouldn't read but for a different reason for lack of interest - eyesight problems. Consider having his eyesight checked by a behavioural optometrist, not just an optician. 1 in 4 children suffer from eye problems such as convergence insufficiency (problems with muscle strength in the eyes which affects focusing) which go un-noticed as they pass on standard eye tests. Reading is this task which places high demands upon the eyes and tires the muscles, so kids with this problem simply avoid reading. My daughter now reads avidly following a program of excercised for her eyes to correct her problem.
Can post how to find a behavioural optometrist if anyone is interested.
Failing this - resort to bribery
HP
Dear All
Firstly agree with Chad, think this should be under the tips section
We got over the vocab problem with scrabble, not the junior version, that one seems a bit pointless to me, allowed them to use a dictionary, but time on an egg timer.
In addition the Flashcard game, all unknown vocabulary, put one word on the front of card on the reverse put meaning, plus single words meaning opposite and similar. When you have a number of cards make up games. I do this with my tutored children with a specific word list [ promise I will ask to put this list on the Free Downloads section, its made up from various papers, spelling books, Fist aid in English] I ask my children to make up their own games they have to put it into writing for me, with a name of the game plus rules, it then gets shared with my other children.
Maths [ for verbal reasoning] MUST be quick at numbers/4 basic maths operations, shout out in car/ on walks, make up games
I give my tutored children a 10x10 [ mixed up number..inc 11 and 12 ] times table square to complete every week. They start while I am marking their tests then finish as part of their homework, becomes a bit of a game, in the beginning I beat them every time, towards the end they can beat me, if they do they get a couple of smileys. Should be able to complete a 10x10 in under 4 mins, eventually
Will try to post some more tips another time.
Patricia
Firstly agree with Chad, think this should be under the tips section
We got over the vocab problem with scrabble, not the junior version, that one seems a bit pointless to me, allowed them to use a dictionary, but time on an egg timer.
In addition the Flashcard game, all unknown vocabulary, put one word on the front of card on the reverse put meaning, plus single words meaning opposite and similar. When you have a number of cards make up games. I do this with my tutored children with a specific word list [ promise I will ask to put this list on the Free Downloads section, its made up from various papers, spelling books, Fist aid in English] I ask my children to make up their own games they have to put it into writing for me, with a name of the game plus rules, it then gets shared with my other children.
Maths [ for verbal reasoning] MUST be quick at numbers/4 basic maths operations, shout out in car/ on walks, make up games
I give my tutored children a 10x10 [ mixed up number..inc 11 and 12 ] times table square to complete every week. They start while I am marking their tests then finish as part of their homework, becomes a bit of a game, in the beginning I beat them every time, towards the end they can beat me, if they do they get a couple of smileys. Should be able to complete a 10x10 in under 4 mins, eventually
Will try to post some more tips another time.
Patricia
Last edited by patricia on Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:44 am, edited 2 times in total.
Chad,
I used to have the same problem with my son and then I too discovered the joys of comics! My son is football mad, plays it, watches it, talks about it etc. We started off with football comics which he would read from cover to cover and then use the league tables to work out how many matches his favourite team had to win, and how many the others had to lose etc. We then progressed to reading fiction with football as its central story, and now he loves to read all types of children's novels. We too took the attitude that we didn't mind what he read so long as he was reading.
Dawn
I used to have the same problem with my son and then I too discovered the joys of comics! My son is football mad, plays it, watches it, talks about it etc. We started off with football comics which he would read from cover to cover and then use the league tables to work out how many matches his favourite team had to win, and how many the others had to lose etc. We then progressed to reading fiction with football as its central story, and now he loves to read all types of children's novels. We too took the attitude that we didn't mind what he read so long as he was reading.
Dawn
Thanks for the replies.....I have acted promptly and invested in the 2006 Dr Who Annual, at a very reduced price (it being March now). My son spent 45 minutes tonight reading to himself and wanted to carry on at 'lights out'.
This has never been seen in our household so again many thanks.
As for the eyesight.....my son has been diagnosed with a 'lazy eye'. He will need glasses for close work..... could be a factor.
This has never been seen in our household so again many thanks.
As for the eyesight.....my son has been diagnosed with a 'lazy eye'. He will need glasses for close work..... could be a factor.
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HP
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Bewildered
- Posts: 1806
- Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2006 2:29 pm
- Location: Berkshire
I made up the 100 point game which we play in the car. My two boys enjoy the challenge, (and reward) and ask for it all the time???
Basically I ask them questions, on anything eg name two types of triangles and thier properties, whats the mean of x,y,z? whats the collective noun for arrows? Name our planets? An alliteration sentence beginning with 'B'? If I buy a cat & dog for £x, and pay £y more for cat, how much did I pay for each? 6x9? Spell Hippopotamus? etc etc
I'll then give them points according to difficulty of question, they add up thier own points and when they each reach 100, they get an extra 1/2 hr computer time. No one loses, the only rule is that the older one is so fast that he has to count to 5 before answering, to allow the younger one a shot at the answer.
Trying to think up questions is the tricky part.
11+ still a bit off but hoping to apply the same then hopefully.
(In fact my 3yr old asks to join in, so we ask her a few simple Dora or Mulan questions!! )
Basically I ask them questions, on anything eg name two types of triangles and thier properties, whats the mean of x,y,z? whats the collective noun for arrows? Name our planets? An alliteration sentence beginning with 'B'? If I buy a cat & dog for £x, and pay £y more for cat, how much did I pay for each? 6x9? Spell Hippopotamus? etc etc
I'll then give them points according to difficulty of question, they add up thier own points and when they each reach 100, they get an extra 1/2 hr computer time. No one loses, the only rule is that the older one is so fast that he has to count to 5 before answering, to allow the younger one a shot at the answer.
Trying to think up questions is the tricky part.
11+ still a bit off but hoping to apply the same then hopefully.
(In fact my 3yr old asks to join in, so we ask her a few simple Dora or Mulan questions!! )
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KE Mum
These tips are great and encourage such a lot of family closeness, I think. We often do general knowledge quizzes in the evening before bed. My children have even made themselves buzzers. We use various general knowledge books for these, but when my younger one was doing the 11+, we used the First Aid in English too - has all the gaggles of geese, prides of lions etc, in it.
It is easy to forget that this type of playing at maths and English will build up a child's knowledge over a period of time. So start young with them and enjoy yourself.
Don't forget to play the memory game, particularly if you sit the test in Birmingham, as having a good memory is pretty crucial here.
It is easy to forget that this type of playing at maths and English will build up a child's knowledge over a period of time. So start young with them and enjoy yourself.
Don't forget to play the memory game, particularly if you sit the test in Birmingham, as having a good memory is pretty crucial here.
