HELPING YOUR CHILD

AT HOME

Parents’ Booklet

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CONTENTS

Introduction 2 Your child at home 3 Belonging 4 Hopes and dreams 5 Security 6 Individuality 7 Challenge 8 Success 9 Learning at home 10 In the kitchen 10 In the living room 11 In the dining room 11 In the bedroom 12 In the bathroom 12 In the garden 13 Out and about 14 Car journeys 14 Museums 14 Libraries 15 Cinemas and theatres 15 Cafes and restaurants 15 Helping your child with their school work 16 Reading 16 Writing 21 Spelling 25 Mathematics 26 Conclusion 29

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INTRODUCTION At our school we are committed to fostering strong links between home and school as, if we all work together for our children then, we believe that their learning will be far more successful. We know that every parent wants what is best for their child but sometimes parents are unsure as to support their child’s learning. This leaflet has been written to give some guidance to you so that you feel confident in giving your child support at home as you can make an enormous difference to your child’s future success by supporting their learning. This leaflet includes different sections outlining a variety of ways in which you could support your child and includes tips and ideas for you to use as and when appropriate. We hope that you find the information in our leaflet of use to you, however, it is not by any means exhaustive and we are sure that many parents use other equally successful methods for supporting their child. In conclusion, we hope that if we continue to work in partnership together, our children will quickly ‘learn to love to learn’.

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YOUR CHILD AT HOME You have the most important role to play in helping your child to succeed. Parents are a child’s first teacher and you can teach your child how to learn. In fact your attitude towards learning is one of the strongest influences on how successful a learner your child becomes. How a child feels about themselves affects their approach to life. We need to help them to be willing to ‘have a go’ and take risks. Mistakes are an important part of learning as often we learn more through our mistakes than our successes. If a child does not believe in themselves it is far harder for them to become a successful learner. The following pages outline several areas that are vital for any child to become a successful learner at home as well as at school.

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Belonging

Everyone needs to feel that they belong and all children need to feel valued and loved both at home and at school. There are many ways that will help your child feel that they belong and therefore become more secure. These include: Making time to be with your child and listening to them. Establishing routines for times such as meals, reading and bedtime. Having clear expectations for behaviour and being consistent and fair

with these.

Tips

Show your child what you want him/her to do (showing by example) rather than criticising him/her.

Remind him/her that he/she is loved for who he/she is and not what

he/she does. Keep a family photo album. Look at it sometimes and talk about the

people it shows.

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Hopes and Dreams

Everyone has hopes and dreams and we need to encourage our children to have positive hopes that can be achieved. We need to talk to them about our own hopes and dreams and encourage them to think about what it is that they really want for the future. If he/she wants something they will really try to get it! However they will need help to learn that to turn dreams into reality, they may have to alter or improve what they are doing.

Tips Be positive. Turn ‘can’ts’ into ‘cans’. Practise goal-setting in and around the home. Help your child set little

targets and then discuss what they will have to do to achieve them. Praise them when they succeed and support them when they fail. Share your own hopes and dreams so that they realise that everyone

has hopes for the future.

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Security

For any child to be able to learn effectively he/she must feel secure as it is important that they feel secure enough to make mistakes or even fail at a task. It is often through making mistakes that your child will learn the most but, if they feel that they might be ‘put-down’ or hurt he/she will try to avoid trying out any new ideas. It is important to reassure your child that it is all right to make mistakes in their learning.

Tips

Apply the 4 to 1 rule: four positive comments for any negative one. Avoid any sort of put-down. Be consistent in how you use rules and always explain them clearly.

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Individuality

Every child is an individual with special qualities and every child need to be encouraged to follow their own interests to discover their talent. It is very important that your child is not expected to become a carbon copy of either a sibling or a parent. As your child develops he/she will discover his/her own strengths and weaknesses as well as what is important to him/her. In this way they will develop their own sense of identity and will become both more resilient and have more confidence as a result.

Tips Encourage your child to talk about their feelings. (this is particularly

important for boys as often they tend not to express themselves so freely)

Share you own interests and enthusiasm and take an interest in your

child’s interests. Avoid comparisons with others in the family unless this can be done in a

positive way.

If there is a time where you think that your child is bottling up their feelings, help them draw a simple picture about the situation. Add speech bubbles that say what they were feeling and then use what is in the speech bubbles to help them talk it through.

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Challenge

We all need a challenge to continue to improve our skills. If you remember our brain is a muscle and that all muscles need exercise to perform to their maximum, then our brain needs exercise in the form of a challenge. Therefore it is important that your child is given work that is challenging but not so hard that it becomes a threat. By helping your child to deal with everyday challenges (and not wrapping them in cotton wool however tempting!) he/she will develop strategies to cope with difficult situations.

Tips Don’t rush to help when your child struggles with an activity but

encourage him/her to keep trying. Break down tasks into smaller chunks that can be tackled one at a time. Help your child understand that mistakes are all right as long as we

learn from them.

Use this idea when your child is struggling with something. 1. Write a brief description of the task in the middle of some

paper. 2. Draw a circle round it 3. Break the task down into a number of stages that seem more

achievable. 4. Draw lines out from the circle, and write one stage down at the

end of each line. 5. Take each stage in turn and decide how to achieve it.

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Success

Success breeds success and failure breeds failure. If children’s ‘small’ successes are over-looked they can begin to believe that they ‘are not good at anything’. Therefore, if a child makes a mistake help them to learn from it by giving feedback e.g. ‘What do you think you could have done differently?’ Whenever your child achieves something (no matter how easy it seems to you) praise them so that they begin to realise that they are capable of achieving to a greater level.

Tips Comment positively on every day successes e.g. ‘Well done for…’, ‘You did that well…’ or ‘Thank you for…’ Encourage your child to notice when he/she improves on his/her

personal best. Look on any failure as an opportunity to find out what went wrong and

work out with them what to do better next time.

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LEARNING AT HOME

The home environment can be used in many ways to support learning that takes place at school. Learning is not just about completing homework but about finding out about the world around us and being able to use and apply learning to everyday situations. For example: If your child has been learning about money, give him/her some money to buy something needed in the home asking him/her to compare prices and work out the change that he/she will be given. It is also about spending time together having fun. Different areas of the house can be used to support learning in different ways.

In the kitchen

Cookery is a great activity for learning while having fun. Shopping for the ingredients reinforces money skills. Using a recipe encourages following instructions Cooking can include counting spoonfuls, measuring in jugs, weighing,

setting the oven to the correct temperature or using the timer. Making pastry or dough can link with shape. Your larder holds opportunities to look at where food comes from (these could then be looked up in an atlas), looking at ‘sell by’ dates can encourage understanding the passage of time. Different shaped containers can be used to understand the conservation of mass i.e. that the same amount can fit in to different shapes.

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In the dining room

Eating together is an excellent time to learn together as it gives your child the opportunity to speak about areas of interest to him/her and to listen to other opinions. Often a variety of different topics are discussed during a meal and this will help your child see how different areas link to each other.

In the living room

Television can be a great source of information (as long as it is used sensibly and not just left on all day). Children can gain a greater understanding of the world about them and there can be some good opportunities to discuss other issues such as appropriate behaviour through watching soaps or ‘reality TV’, although this needs to be treated with caution as children often believe that these programmes are showing normal behaviour and are real. Using planning guides for television helps children understand

timetables and passages of time. Board games encourage co-operation with others and often support

mathematics or literacy, whilst musical instruments can encourage creativity and music appreciation.

Sound systems give children the opportunity to listen to rhythms and melodies, to see how rhymes can be used in songs or to listen to an author reading a story.

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In the bedroom

Your child’s bedroom is his/her own space and is an area that needs to feel safe and secure. Bedtime routines help to establish good learning behaviour. Either reading with or to your child before they go to sleep encourages them to enjoy reading and also to unwind from the day before sleeping. It can often be a time when your child will talk to you about things that worry them and so can be a time for you to gain a greater understanding of the concerns and anxieties he/she has and an opportunity to give him/her support and advice as to possible ways forward.

In the bathroom

Bath time can be used to learn about floating and sinking, capacity and changes to materials e.g. bath oil mixing with water, bubble bath changing from liquid to bubbles etc. The bathroom is also a good place to learn about reflection (using the mirrors), volume and capacity (e.g. comparing different sized bottles). It is also an ideal place to discuss hygiene, the human body and growth.

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In the garden

If you have a garden your child could be encouraged to have an area of their own, in which they can grow plants, vegetables etc. There will be insects to discover, the opportunity to observe the changing seasons and if they have any garden toys e.g. a climbing frame there are opportunities to use words such as forwards, backwards, on top etc encouraging spatial awareness. Ball games can encourage catching and passing skills and patio areas, ponds etc can be measured out in paces to find their lengths and areas.

Tips If your child’s concentration lapses when you are working together,

stop and move away. Forcing him/her to complete a task will only breed resentment and may result in an argument, which will undo any good being done. Instead, have a break from the task and come back to it later.

Every child will have different interests and skills. Encourage areas that

are of obvious interest to your child as these can be used to enhance other areas of learning.

Children love to copy adults and will often try to copy what you do

(remember putting on your mum’s make-up!). Therefore, if you show a positive attitude towards life and learning he/she will also begin to adopt the same attitudes as yourself.

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OUT AND ABOUT When you and your child are out there are many excellent opportunities for learning all of which can be fun and give your child the ‘hands on’ experience of daily life. Each term you will receive details about topics being covered by your child at school. This learning can be supported by trips at weekends to museums etc.

Car journeys

Car journeys can often be fraught as children get bored. However this time can be put to good advantage by playing games e.g. Number games adding up car number plate totals,

Car spotting – giving points for different cars spotted and totalling up the points

Literacy games making up words from number plate letters or creating a ‘silly sentence’ e.g. A101 DGG could become ‘A 101 daft gorillas giggle’.

I spy with my little eye

Museums

Many museums are free to enter and can be used to give your child first hand experiences of a wide variety of different things. For example the British Museum gives children the chance to see objects from many different ages, whilst the Natural History Museum contains everything from dinosaurs to what it is like before birth. Local museums are also an excellent resource as they often contain artefacts and information about the history of the local area.

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Libraries

It is important that children have the chance to join their local library as the library is an excellent resource for everything from research books and fiction to videos, CDs and the Internet and, best of all, it is totally free! Many libraries have holiday reading clubs and activities that your child can take part in, which will encourage him/her to realise that books are a vital tool for learning for life.

Cinemas and Theatres

Cinemas and theatres give your child the opportunity to experience different ways of expressing thoughts and feelings e.g. a musical will tell the story through song whilst an adventure film creates an atmosphere of suspense. This will give you opportunities to encourage your child to express their preferences and points of view about what they have seen and will also encourage them to listen to others’ view points.

Cafes and restaurants

Eating out will give your child the opportunity to try different types of food from other countries. Children can be encouraged to work out the cost of the meal and compare prices for best value.

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HELPING YOUR CHILD WITH THEIR SCHOOL WORK

Reading

Younger children The more books that are in your home the better as your child will (even at an early age) look at books and ‘pretend’ to read. There are no ‘right’ books to have in your home. ‘Reading friendly’ homes have fiction, non-fiction, recipe books, DIY guides, magazines, papers and so on. Try and make regular times to read every day. If your routine includes a bed-time story, have other times when your child is less tired and you can spend time looking at the pictures and print. You’ll find 5 -15 minutes is about right for most young children. Aim to read two simple books at each session, one chosen by your child and one by you. This way you can read a variety of books and your child will begin to develop personal preferences. If your child is not particularly enthusiastic about sitting down to read, don’t force the issue as this will only serve to make reading a chore. Instead draw something with them and ask them to tell you a sentence about the drawing. Write this sentence down and then ask your child what it says. They are still reading!

Tips for choosing books for young children Select books that look fun Books that have repeating phrases or rhymes make it easier for your

child to join in as you read Choose a variety of stories, factual books, activity books, nursery rhyme

and poetry books.

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Emergent readers At some stage your child will begin to become an ‘emergent reader’, that is someone who is beginning to understand the methods used for reading. Try the following ideas to help your child develop his/her reading

skills: Encourage him/her to point to text when he/she ‘reads’. Let him/her ‘read’ to you, allow your child to make up the

story. It is a way of experimenting with language and he/she will try to model this on the way you read to them.

Talk of ‘letters’, ‘words’ and ‘sentences’. Point out full stops, exclamation marks, speech marks and

capital letters telling your child what they mean (but not necessarily expecting them to remember – the more times your child is told the more likely that they will begin to remember)

Show your child that sentences and names always begin with a capital letter. Again he/she won’t understand this fully yet but it will speed up his/her learning later on.

Action rhymes are great for young children as actions help them to remember words, and rhythm, rhyme and repetition all encourage joining in. School Age Children We teach our children to read by firstly starting with phonic based learning. English is a very varied language with over 5000 different ways of pronouncing our alphabet and syllables. The first 16 sounds of the ERR Scheme (Early Reading Research) make up about a quarter of all the words that the children are likely to read. If a child is taught in this way they are then able to use these phonic skills to read other words by building them up using phonics.

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Children will first be taught letter-sound correspondences e.g. ‘s’, ‘a’ etc. there are actions which help the child remember these sounds. Once the children have learnt all 26 letter sounds fluently they will then progress to learning to read phonically regular words e.g. c a t or s t o p. the final stage is reading words containing letter combinations e.g. ‘ck’, ‘th’, ‘er’, ‘sh’ as in f i sh or ch ur ch. The children will also learn to synthesise and segment words.

Synthesis is the skill most closely linked to reading and is the skill of putting sounds together to make words e.g. c…a…t… cat or t…w…i…g… twig. Segmentation is the skill most closely linked to spelling and is the skill of being able to break down words into individual sounds e.g. hot h…o…t… or clap c…l…a…p…

It is crucial that the children are taught how to apply the skills they are learning to actual reading situations and your child needs to be encouraged to read a variety of high quality books.

Tips As stories are read/shared give your child the opportunities to use these skills by: Looking for common words.

Asking him/her to synthesise unknown words by pointing to the letter sounds and building the word.

Returning to a key word and encouraging him/her to segment it e.g. “Our story is about a pig. Can you tell me the sounds in the word pig?”

Making the reading process a shared exercise by modelling how to use the skills when reading and encouraging your child to try to copy this.

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The children will also be taught high frequency words which cannot always be broken down into the sounds for reading. These need to be memorised so that the children instantly recognise the word. In this way the children will begin to learn the skills needed to read fluently. If, as a parent, you would like to find out more about the phonics teaching please do not hesitate to ask your child’s class teacher for more information. At home it is vital that your child is encouraged to read a variety of different materials as if he/she just reads books by the same author then he/she will come across repeated vocabulary and phrases. Whereas by reading different material he/she will experience a far wider range of writing styles. Try the following to help your child continue to enjoy learning to

read: Read to your child, then let him/her read to you (a page each,

in turn, often works with a reluctant reader) Allow time for self-correction if he/she makes a mistake. Encourage your child to talk about what he/she has read and

to retell stories Buy games with instructions on for your child to read and

follow. Make birthday cards, invitations, lists and messages together

and encourage him/her to write letters and postcards. Let your child see you and other members of the family reading

as this will encourage them to see that reading is an enjoyable activity.

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Older readers It is still vital that older children continue to read on a daily basis as it is in this way that they will improve their own vocabulary and their ability to express themselves more fluently.

Try the following ideas for encouraging your child to continue to read: If your child has a younger relative ask them to read to them. Ask your child to read an article from the paper to you while

you prepare dinner. Take up library membership and go there regularly to change

books. Ask your child to explain what the book that they are reading is

about. Try to encourage them to try a different type of book on a

regular basis so that he/she experiences different writing styles. Before a holiday go out together and all choose a ‘holiday book’

to read. Don’t worry if all they are reading is a magazine – just

remember at least they are reading!

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Writing

Writing involves three skills: Handwriting learning to form letters correctly and join them up. Creative thinking enthusiasm for writing about something Grammar the organisation of thoughts into words, sentences and

paragraphs that make sense. Younger children To help your child begin to write it is important to give them pencils or crayons that are big enough for them to grip easily and that will make a clear mark on the paper. It is also very important to let them choose which hand to use, therefore place the pencil in front of them and let them pick it up. Children will often change hands to start with and then slowly begin to decide their preferred choice. It is important to let this process take place and it may take some children longer to decide which their preferred hand is going to be. Encourage your child to do some ‘free’ writing for example, when you write a shopping list ask your child to write one too. His/her early writing will be scribble but these will begin to turn into symbols, letters and eventually words.

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School age children Your child will be encouraged to practise patterns, which will help with letter formations and this can also be done at home with your child using different types of media to write with or on e.g. sand, paint etc. some of the patterns are given below:

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

nnnnnnnnnnnn

aaaaaaaaaaaa

ggggggggggggg

Encourage your child to write a story (it may have several squiggles that mean nothing to you!) then let him/her read it aloud to you. Listen to the story carefully and talk to your child about it, then encourage them to use any letters he/she knows such a ‘m’ for mummy. It is important to remember that children use the correct letter at the beginning of words before they use the correct final letter and they take longer again to learn the middle vowel sounds.

Tips Encourage your child to talk to him/herself as they write and then to

read it back to you. Encourage him/her to write from left to right and top to bottom of the

page. If possible have somewhere in the house where any writing or pictures

could be displayed.

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Older children If your child is writing at home it is important to allow them to let their writing flow freely and not to be interrupted by others in the home. Once they have completed a piece of writing (their first draft) encourage your child to consider the following points. Have I stopped mixing up capital and lower case letters? Am I careful with my spellings? Are my ‘tall’ letters tall and do my ‘tails’ go below the line? Do I write clearly, joining letters and making sure there are spaces

between the words? Have I written in sentences using full stops and capital letters? What could I do to improve what I have written (second draft)? Have I used interesting words and descriptions? Have I used conjunctions to make the sentences longer and more

interesting e.g. but, when, after, because? Have I used commas or brackets in some sentences? Have I used speech marks when people are talking? Have I used other punctuation where necessary e.g. question marks,

exclamation marks, apostrophes? Have I used paragraphs? Will the person who reads this understand it and enjoy it?

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As your child begins to write more fluently encourage them to build up lists of alternative words that could be used to make their writing more interesting. This could be done on a car journey for example, start with a word e.g. ‘nice’ and take turns to think of another words that means the same.

Tips Create opportunities for your child to see you writing so that they can

see the writing is also an adult activity. Praise your child’s writing by being specific e.g. ‘you’ve described the

winter really well, it actually made me shiver.’ Only make comments on neatness and accuracy after you have praised

the content. Provide your child with a junior dictionary and help them to use it when

needed. Encourage them to write for different purposes e.g. thank you letters,

poems or a holiday diary, so that they begin to write for different audiences.

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Spelling

Some children find it easier than others to spell correctly. Speaking often affects our ability to spell. Unfortunately if our speech is incorrect it is likely that we will ‘spell as we speak’ e.g. nothing may be pronounced as ‘nuffink’ and so your child will spell it like that! Speaking clearly to your child and making sure that they can hear the ends of words and the correct pronunciation and encouraging them to do the same, will enable your child to spell some words more accurately.

Tips Encourage your child to have a go. Praise him/her for a word spelt

correctly. Don’t over correct your child’s spelling (they will not remember them all

at once). It is better to correct some of the more common mistakes to start with. A good rule of thumb is to find four correctly spelt words for every incorrect one.

Be aware that he/she may write words as they sound e.g. ‘telfon’ for ‘telephone’. Gradually point out how words should actually be spelt.

Help your child check his/her spellings using the look, say, cover, write, check method. This is where your child looks at the word, covers the word, writes down how he/she thinks it is spelled, says it out loud and finally checks whether he/she has spelt it correctly.

Play word games e.g. Scrabble, Boggle or watch ‘Countdown’ with your child.

Encourage your child to use a dictionary or the spellchecker on the computer.

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Mathematics

Mathematics exists throughout life and unfortunately sometimes children can believe at an early age that they are ‘no good’ at maths. Often this is picked up by negative comments from others like ‘I hated maths at school’ etc. It is really important that we help children realise that we use maths everyday and that everyone can do it with help. Activities such as weighing ingredients for cooking, measuring wood for shelves or checking the time are all mathematical actions and if your child is encouraged at an early age to help with these things then this will certainly help them to develop a positive attitude towards maths. Younger children Aim to make counting and numbers a part of everyday life. Below are a few examples of when and where you could practise counting with your child: When you lay the table – count the plates, cups, knives, forks and

spoons Count when you walk up or downstairs (count backwards and forwards) Count out coins when waiting in a queue to pay. Count toys as you (and your child) tidy away! Count the items of shopping after a trip to the supermarket. As your child begins to understand the size (quantity) of a number encourage them to estimate how many there are before counting. If the activity is made to be a part of the ordinary day and is fun and if your child

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thinks he/she is helping you, this will have the effect of making him/her positive about learning and about maths. School age children Again by involving your child in ordinary activities at home they will see maths as a relevant part of their life and will begin to use and apply the knowledge that they have learnt at school. For example when preparing a meal ask your child to help work out how many of a particular item you will need to feed everyone. By using the correct words ‘add’, ‘total’, ‘take away’ or ‘subtract’ these will become more familiar to your child. Multiplication and division can be incorporated into a variety of activities e.g. if your child is having a birthday party let them help you work out how many sweets each child will have from a packet of sweets (division) or how many rolls are needed if every child will have three rolls (multiplication). If you are decorating a room ask your child to help you measure the room for wallpaper or to sort screws into different sizes for you. Both of these incorporate measurement and sorting, which again will reinforce your child’s learning. Help your child to tell the time using an analogue watch by asking them to let you know when (for example) half an hour has passed by saying, ‘ Can you let me know when the big hand has moved round from the 2 to the 8?’ Looking up bus times will help your child begin to understand 24 hour clocks and the passage of time. Ask your child to help you when you shop by giving you the money needed to pay the cashier, or ask him/her how much change you will be given and then let them check the change. If possible give your child pocket money as this will help them to realise the value of the coins that they have and may (if you are lucky) encourage them to save for bigger items that they want.

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Older children Occasionally your child will bring home some homework and the methods that he/she uses will be different from those that you were taught. If this is the case please do not hesitate to pop in and ask your child’s class teacher for an explanation – teachers are now so used to teaching in this way that we don’t always remember that we ourselves were taught differently! We will in some cases put an example on the homework that could be used to help you to explain the work to your child. Help your child to learn their tables by chanting them forwards and backwards and then asking them questions out of order so that they can find the answers quickly. Ask them questions such as what are six 8’s followed by what are eight 6’s so that they can see the links between the sums. Opportunities often arise to find connections between numbers. Whenever possible encourage your child to have a go at working out the connection. For example, if you are going abroad encourage them to convert pounds to euros – this is excellent practice for ratio and proportion but they won’t even realise that they are doing it!

Play number games with them for example give them 5 numbers and a total to reach using these numbers and either addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division e.g.

2 3 5 7 10 Total 47

One possible solution is:

5 + 3 (= 8) 2 (=4) x 10 (=40) +7 =47

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CONCLUSION

Hopefully this booklet will have given some insight into ways that you can support your child’s learning. Remember anything extra that you do with him/her will help him/her to get the most out of their education. If at anytime you feel that you need to ask our teachers how best to support your child we will always be willing to help you, because if learning remains positive and fun, then together we should be able to ensure that our children really do ‘learn to love to learn’.

Bibliography

Help Your Child to Succeed – Lucas & Smith

Excellence & Enjoyment – DfES Numeracy Ideas – E.F. Godfrey