Raw deal?

angelz · Post by **angelz** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 4:35 pm

Does anyone have any advice regarding helping an 8 yr old raise his attainment in writing/reading/comprehension skills?

My middle son has just moved into KS2, ie Yr3. He took his KS1 SATs at the end of last yr and achieved level 2 "a's and b's. My older son has always been at the top of his class for everything and has just sat his 11+.

I am starting to think my younger son has perhaps had a raw deal from us as parents. I know him to be a very intelligent boy with particular skill in Maths. However looking back, his SATs have shown that he is not performing as well as he could, if he had had the same amount of time spent with him as our older son.

This has in no way been intentional, I think it has happened because, as we both work full time and our older son has been approaching a critical point in his education, and we have a younger son just starting school, we have given him help as required and not (as we should have) to encourage him to work to his potential.

I know what I need to do in general terms to help him, but wondered if anyone has any experience of materials which may specifically target this area of his development?

Thank you in advance
angelz

SJ · Post by SJ » Mon Sep 25, 2006 5:29 pm

How about encouraging him to write a diary. It doesn't have to be pages long each day, but it would encourage him to use descriptive language about his day. Our a short book review. Try and find an author that he particularily likes and getting him to write a short review on the books he reads

jah · Post by **jah** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:34 pm

You don't say when your son's birthday is. A 2a for a boy who's young in the year isn't bad.

I agree with the comment about a journal. Another possibility would be to start a correspondence with a family member. This has the added bonus of getting something through the post!

Encourage reading; you keep on reading to him. Turn off the TV

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 10:38 pm

don't be too hard on yourself, we all want to be perfect parents,want the best for our children,and blame ourselves when our children don't achieve our expectations. i had three children under five, all have achieved well, but the youngest who probably missed out on the amount of time i could give to support her education is the one who is the most acedemic and the only one who passed the eleven plus. we have to accept that are children will all have different strengths and will not all achieve the same goals. just be encouraging and enjoy your child and don't put to much pressure on him our yourselves.

yoyo123 · Post by **yoyo123** » Fri Jul 13, 2007 12:39 am

Don't feel so bad. I remember commenting that it took ages for my daughter to reach 3, whereas with her brother (4 years younger) we blinked and one day realised he was 3.

On the plus side, he was far more laid back and as we weren't so neurotic he just got on and did things!!

Children are remarkably resilient and also different, my son never really wanted to discuss everything in minute detail like his older sister. He does, however, have a fantastic (if quirky) sense of humour and can have us all in stitches. He is going through a grunty bad patch at the moment, which drives me mad at times, but I am sure he will continue to surprise us (in a GOOD manner I hope)