Hi everyone,
We are new to this! My husband bought a couple of bond books for ages 11+ for our child soon to be 9. They have had about 3-4 sessions at home. I think it is wrong to start with those books since she is most def. not at that level and it will erode her confidence. However my husband thinks that it is the way forward as they can see straightaway what level they need to reach.
Could you please in kind words tell me your thoughts? I'll show my husband this post. Thank you!

Schools don't accelerate so stick to material for her age.

I've recently started running(well walk to run really), ideally this time next year I'd like to be able to run a 10k. I know how far 10k is but if someone took me out to run that far today so I knew what I was aiming for then I'd probably hang up my trainers for ever!

I've had three children go through the 11+ process, aged8/9 I'd be trying to build confidence and make sure basics such as times tables and lots of reading were covered. Also it can be a stressful process if you let it be, a calm supportive environment for all school work may be very beneficial in the long run. I say this as someone who definitely wasn't always at my best in the run up to my son's GCSEs last year.

It might be helpful for your husband to know what they're aiming for but for your daughter that might be a little overwhelming.

Yes, best to start with 8-9 Bond or CGP books. You can always move quickly up to 9-10 but they get harder with each stage, and a lot of it is learning how to do particular sorts of question. So having got the hang of the easier versions of each type it's easier to move by steps to the level you need to be for 11+, which isn't for a while yet.

We looked at a couple of age appropriate books when aged eight, just to see if 11+ was achievable, then put them away and forgot about it until year five. Although she did occasionally ask for more NVR as she found them fun! But I refused. At that age there is a real risk of burn out if you do something too often. Concentrate on general maths and literacy skills for now. Some of the online resources like Mathletics can be fun if done in the right way.

In fact, I do know kid at age 9 do better than most kids at age 11. Well, it is not my kid.

I've tried your husband's way, then I immediately quit after only one try - it dose not work for my kids.
My initial thoughts was to identify which parts are the weak points so we can work on that, then we could work "efficiently" and hope to minimise the workload. I was terribly wrong.
For example, she knows how to do perimeter but not area, she knows fraction but totally lost with percentage. These were not taught in school yet at that time. She didn't like it at all so I give up. I do not mind help her with problems she did wrong or did not know , however I do not want to teach her too much at home in advance.

We back to where we were and just try to consolidate - increasing speed and no silly mistakes etc. With her speed increased, I hope we can finish her practice book earlier than expected

You sound very sensible! If your DH wants to benchmark, I think a better test might be to see if she can do her age-level books/tests quicker than the allocated time? We are in the same boat. I got some Bond 9-10 books for our Y4 DS. They say the tests should take 45 minutes and to aim for 40 minutes to help get the speed up. DS hasn't been keen so did a couple as quickly as he possibly could. He did really well - getting high marks in only 20 minutes - but the main thing was discussing the questions that went wrong. It was a really useful learning tool. He wasn't totally keen to discuss the english paper as he perceives that to be his weaker subject, and I'm convinced that if his scores were lower he would have completely refused to do any more papers. I agree with other posters - doing work 1-2 years ahead which hasn't been covered in class yet is the best way to undermine confidence and put your child off having anything to do with the 11+.