Advice needed with preparation

[dots5]

Hello all,
My DS is going to be in year 4 this Sep. Currently I'm doing Bond books on Maths, English and VR for age 8-9, also he is on the Mental Arithmatic book 2. What other books or material I need to get for him?

He will be doing the Latymer, QE and DAO exams.

I am worried about his handwriting the moment.It's too big and messy. But his school has marked him above average nationally for handwriting. His Teacher thinks it's normal for boys his age. Have bought him the 4 ruled exercise books to practise. Any other ideas of how of improve it please?

As I'm so new to this preparation your ideas and inputs will be much appreciated. This forum is very helpful. Thank you everyone.

[lemondrop]

Personally I think you're doing plenty for now. DS is also about to go into year 4 and apart from trying to get him on top of his times-tables I'm not going to be doing anything much with him until the summer holidays next year. DD is about to start at Latymer in September and we started serious 11+ preparation in year 5.

[dots5]

Lemon drop thank you. Yes getting on top of the times tables is what we are working on at the moment.I thought doing the preparation gradually from now on was the general norm. isn't starting in year 5 too late? given some schools have brought the exam dates forward slightly? wouldn't the child be pressurised? Just interested o know how others have done it as well.


Dots5

[lemondrop]

On the contrary starting too soon is more likely to induce burnout/loss of interest when you need to increase focus nearer to the exams. If the child is bright enough to go to grammar they don't need years of tuition/preparation. The Latymer exam is only a couple of weeks earlier than it was before. QE boys is about 2 months earlier I believe. Not enough to justify preparing in Y4 IMHO, but I'm sure others will disagree. My DD started in earnest after Christmas of Y5, with DS I may start in the summer hols at the end of Y4 or the autumn term of Y5, that's more than enough time.

[Long Journey]

Lemondrop is right. Even starting in Year 5 we have found that it's very difficult to keep the momentum going for months and months on end. My DD is very enthusiastic, but the end always seems so far away, I'm really glad it's (almost) in sight now. I honestly think starting in Year 4 will be more of a disadvantage than anything useful to the child. If it's things like reading a lot, times tables and generally keeping to a good standard with schoolwork that is great of course. But targetted preparation is too early at this stage IMO.