Academic progress

[East-West Parenting]

Good morning

Can you please recommend good resources (including apps/books) to use with my son who is going into Year 1 in September?

We are keen for him to be ahead in Maths and English. We already read with him. We live in Bucks and he will eventually do the 11+.

Thank you.

[hermanmunster]

Honestly if going into year 1 then let him just see how he gets on at school - you can always make sure that life is full of games / activities in which he learns without it being so focussed.

They also need breadth - you never know where their interests might be - castles, coastlines, volcanoes, sailing, football, historical re-enactments, vintage cars, classical languages, horticulture etc etc

When our kids were little, they watched a lot of cricket, got v good at calculating run rates, balls remaining - runs required etc.
Also had things like "word for the day" - which you had to get it into sentences etc.
Played scrabble.
Visit interesting historical places - one of our trips ultimately inspired a postgrad degree
Nature trails

[yoyo123]

You are already doing the right thing by reading with him.

Let him help lay the table, pair socks. Work out how many slices of bread you need for toast in the morning. Enjoy the Summer with him, explore places, make things, cook, go for walks and talk about what you see. Make up stories about the world around you. Sing songs.

All these things will help with the maths and English.

[scary mum]

Just bear in mind that if your child gets ahead of what they are teaching in school they will be bored in lessons, so it may be counter-productive. Let him enjoy being a child & talk to him, carry on reading with him, teach him his times tables etc.
The Bucks 11 plus isn't a super-selective one, 30% of children will achieve the requeired score, so minimal tuition is required. When the time comes just make sure the basics are there (spellings, tables etc) and that they are familiar with the types of questions that appear in the papers.

[Sevenoaks mum]

Squeebles was a good spelling app. The best thing you can do though is keep reading, the larger your child's vocabulary is the better. I also played a lot of I spy at that age to help with phonics and spelling. We also played card games, uno and the such like and made the children add up the scores at the end. They are learning that way without realising it. Year one is too early but later on making sure your child knows their times tables back to front and all the division facts is essential. This will help enormously with speed when it comes to maths questions in the 11+.

[East-West Parenting]

Thank you. We already do some of these things. We are members of National Trust and we do lots of walks. My husband and I are both teachers so holidays are spent on visits to coasts, historical places etc.

I was thinking more about apps and games. I love the idea of Uno. I used to play it myself when I was a child. Word of the day sounds great too.

Good point about being bored at school - I do wish there would be more differentiation.

[hermanmunster]

Good point about being bored at school - I do wish there would be more differentiation.

I am sure good teachers will do this and give more able children further work - one of DS's teachers used to say "oh heck, here he is better get photocopying some extension sheets etc", all in good humour and all in the same classroom.

[yoyo123]

Thank you. We already do some of these things. We are members of National Trust and we do lots of walks. My husband and I are both teachers so holidays are spent on visits to coasts, historical places etc.

I was thinking more about apps and games. I love the idea of Uno. I used to play it myself when I was a child. Word of the day sounds great too.

Good point about being bored at school - I do wish there would be more differentiation.

Have you tried phonicsplay?

https://www.ictgames.com/mobilePage/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ( N.B. Not all are tablet friendly)

I’ve used mathsframe in lessons/intervention classes before for ks2 not sure how much they have for yr1 though.

[East-West Parenting]

Thank you everyone. Really helpful.

Our son’s infant school is not great at differentiation. He is doing 2, 5 and 10 timetables at home but the school is still doing counting with reception class.

[yoyo123]

Ict games has a brilliant times tables bingo.