I have four children in four different schools, all in different year groups and all working at different levels. It can be confusing to know what I can do to help them. I like to
I have four children in four different schools, all in different year groups and all working at different levels. It can be confusing to know what I can do to help them. I like to think I have a good grasp of education, after all I did pass 12 of my CGSE exams at lucky reasonable grades ranging from A – C. But now I am finding that everything has changed in the curriculum, there is so many different way to work things out, and sometimes what works for one child may not work for another. I also find it hard to engage them, I am certainly no teacher and I have full respect to anyone who has the patience to teach.
So what can I do at home, with my lack of patience?
My 14 year old has autism and ADHD, and for him it’s finding something that he actually wants to do, something that will grab his interests and it is hard as a parent to know when you are giving them too much work after school. There is some great Maths programs out there to help, but I have always wondered why there wasn’t a program to help with more than just one subject. Then it popped up in my email inbox, www.educationquizzes.com It does exactly what it says, it has a whole host of quizzes, all specially designed for different key stages and so many different subjects too. The puzzles are designed by teachers and you can join up and receive the whole host of stages. So for £9.95 a month, you can have access to every key stage, which is very very helpful in my house with my children all being in different stages.
At the moment my 12 year old is struggling in maths, after she failed her SATS last year she is playing catch up and will miss morning registration in her Secondary school until she has passed her SATS paper. Giving her access to extra Maths at home is key at the moment. Navigating the website is easy, and even the kids can do it by themselves, with colourful icons, and fun graphics, it makes it a lot less boring to use. This KS2 revision is perfect, and Brooke is currently working on the KS2 Maths pages, which not only include puzzles, but KS2 test papers too. This is a real benefit to us, as we are never in a position to have any idea at home of what she should be working on, as well as getting her ready for the exams and explaining how you should answer the questions appropriately.
For my 6 year old, now he knows the basics in maths, it’s about building upon that. This week was his parents evening, and his teacher took so much delight in telling me how when she set the whole class a really hard KS1 maths puzzle task for them to work out. My son who usually struggles in lessons, was one of only 3 children to get the challenge correct. She said she would of loved to have been able to bottle that moment, the look on his face when he realised he had ‘got it’, they both got up and danced around the room together. Being able to give children the confidence to try and work out problems, is so rewarding. It’s a real boost to their confidence when they get things right as they remember they have done something similar previously and that they can work the answer out.
I was also interested to see that there is an option for a school to join the website, allowing pupils to access the website not only at school but using their login at home too. The prices for that are even more reasonable, from £2 per pupil for access for a year, I am sure there isn’t anything as reasonable in price as this website which has such a huge range of content available for the whole curriculum. If you are signing up at home, there is no obligation to continue the subscription and you won’t be tied in for a duration, you can cancel at any point, win!
Check out the daily blog too, lots of lovely information there on Nature Matters. My son is absolutely loving the post that asks the important question every 6 year old needs to know, ‘Were Dragons Real?‘.
This post is in collaboration with Education Matters.
