I'm Busy Reading....

[clvrlad]

I've just read The Woman in the Fifth by Douglas Adams.... Enjoyed it though, in a surreal kind of a way!!

yep sounds like douglas adams good author specially doing odd

[giraffe]

Gill if he's done reception you need Year 1. Year 2 is the third year of school.

There is something (or was about 10 years ago called letterland. Books and magazines sort of all linked I think. Mine didn't do it, but I looked at it. They are quite colourful. edit:
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur ... X%26um%3D1 I think they used to be available in ELC

There are curriculum based workbooks (I think Letts and Dorling Kindersley do them ) but they tend to be less colourful although they come with stickers to encourage you.

I don't know whether you have one but round here there is a shop called the Works. They do a lot of small workbooks for about a pound each on a variety of subjects. Some are sort of "keep your child amused in the car" puzzle books and others are a bit more like light hearted schoolwork.

I think I've mentioned before that at about 5 mine started on Quizkids magazines, and I think I saw it was still available when I last went into WHSmith. http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur ... n%26um%3D1

[MBH]

anything thats not Ben 10 or Spiderman is also boring

I could be contracted to teach basic maths, basic science, and swinging through trees

[Bunnylump]

OK so I lied. I meant Douglas KENNEDY. Doh!!

[Redfraggle]

Gill, it's Letterland Magazines - they are curriculum based! Im going to have a look-see for you in the shop and if I get some I'll post them to you. Ive just e-mailed my friend to see if she knows where they're from.

[Bunnylump]

Ah, Letterland? I remember my kids had them. Robber Red and the Kicking King? I liked those.

[Looby]

They don't use Letterland here any more.

In use at present is the phonics reading programme. You need to find out what system they're using in the school as 'they' get upset if the little darlings have been taught a different method.

I bought a load of books off Amazon for my daughter to use teaching and storytelling

David McKee is very popular

[Bunnylump]

I have to say that they do teach phonics here too. But letterland is a bit of fun anyway.

[giraffe]

" They" annoy me. They try to get everyone to do everything in the same way, even if the child is perfectly capable of doing it confidently another way. Kingsley taught herself to write her own name when I had written some thank you letters for her 3rd birthday. She started putting her name on them before I got to them. Then a year later kindergarten told me she was forming her letters wrongly, just because she wasn't printing them, but putting a curve on the bottom of a i and an L . I pointed out that she would need that eventually and it was hard to differentiate between a capital I and a lower case L using their method and they saw the sense and let her carry on her way.

[Bunnylump]

Oh schools are full of useless twaddle. For example, this stupid idea of giving kids 26 different ways of doing a sum. All it does is confuses them (particularly the less able ones). And also this policy of plodding on through the scheme of work regardless (particularly in maths). What a pile of poo that is. If they don't get the basics, they CAN'T move on. Consequently, I always start MY bottom set year 7 lessons off with a quick recap of one of the basics (times tables, division, multipication, addition, subtraction). They also always have a quick fun game at the end of a lesson to reinforce whatever they've learned. I've seen far too many students leaving the school who can understand rotational symmetry but can't add up!!
When it's other subjects, however, I do think that WHATEVER they need to do to progress or understand things is fine. FAR too many teachers don't take into account, for example, kinesthetic or auditory learners' needs. If I need to get kids to march around a classroom chanting a silly song to make them understand and remember things, then I will!!

So, I think I'd say - more or less ANY input is good in some way or another. Even if it's because you're (Gill) sitting with your grandson looking at the magazines and reading with him, that can only be a good thing. Sod the so called professionals. They change their minds on what's best every five minutes anyway.

[gill216]

You need to find out what system they're using in the school as 'they' get upset if the little darlings have been taught a different method.

"They" are going to be mighty upset with Daniel when he arrives next September then

Did reception from age 3, he can write most of his letters- albeit in a fashion- but definitely his own name, and the names of those close to him. He is progressing well with reading- and he shouldn't start English school until September.

Combine that with him gabbering away in Spanish when he feels like it- or even mixing 2 languages together- he's going to be mighty unpopular

[clvrlad]

Sod the so called professionals. They change their minds on what's best every five minutes anyway.

but that's the hallmark of a good scientist changing what they think because of new information ...just cause you end up where the non scientist was a decade ago is irrelevant

[Bunnylump]

They are like sponges at that age. It's the perfect time to learn a second language.

[SparkOut]

For example, this stupid idea of giving kids 26 different ways of doing a sum.

Oh yes! And having to try to understand it as a parent when it's so totally alien to the perfectly good way we learnt - and when trying to show them a way to "get" the idea, worrying about whether it will follow what they're being taught and cause them problems. "Chunking" for long division, for example, where they have to fill three sides of paper to get the answer (with it's guaranteed introduction of elementary subtraction errors) just did my head in. And long multiplication with diagonal lines in boxes to break things up into strange slanted groups? What on earth was wrong with doing it by the 10s then by the units and adding?

(Oh, while I'm at a ranting, what about simple subtraction? Take 42 minus 36. For the borrowing to make 12, does the 3 somehow get magically incremented in "their" way these days? Surely the concept is that the 4 represents 4 x 10, so you can "change" a 10 into 10 x 1s to add to the 2? I tried to show my children with a pound coins, 10p pieces and pennies, and literally "changing" a 10p into 10 pennies to put in the pennies (units) column to get the idea of borrowing. I got into trouble.)

I've always said to my children/nieces/nephews that the most important thing they can do/have done is learn the times tables (by rote, parrot fashion is good enough) just get it to stick in their heads, so they can do 6 x 9 without thinking. The rest of it comes from that sort of solid ground.

[LAT]

Oh yes, we played times tables tapes in the car to ours until they knew them all by heart. And it paid off as at one school they often had a tables test on the first day of term and my two often won!
And they learnt to read with Janet and John just as I did. They started by learning the letter sounds one by one until they knew them all and then added words - all on pieces of paper kept in an old tobacco tin for each child. When the tin came home with COME, LOOK, JANETand JOHN in it I knew what I was dealing with.

[giraffe]

I explained bases to my ten year old yesterday. We made an abacus in various bases, and it was clearly going over her head so I explained base 6 as boxes of eggs. Six eggs in a box, six boxes in a crate, six crates in a van, six vans fill a warehouse. Within minutes she could translate any number in base 10 into base six. Then by changing how many fit in a box, crate , van etc she could do it in any base! Easy peasy!

[chazzie]

I've always said to my children/nieces/nephews that the most important thing they can do/have done is learn the times tables (by rote, parrot fashion is good enough) just get it to stick in their heads, so they can do 6 x 9 without thinking. The rest of it comes from that sort of solid ground.

Totally agree - I went to a junior school that every Monday morning had a times table quiz.... and if you didnt get the answer quick enough a text book landed on your head!!! There were 4 of us that went from that junior school to the senior school and the Maths teacher picked us out from Day 1. I ended up with a degree in Maths - and still think it goes back to those days in junior school and having a good start! (And yes - I was terrified of getting the book on my head - so I learnt those times tables!!!!!)

[Bunnylump]

We had teachers like that (my French teacher, for example, used to love to make kids scratch their fingernails down an old fashioned blackboard if they hadn't learned their verbs. I'm not convinced that's the best route!! I ALWAYS use the "hey well done, that was a really good answer." "Do you know what? You're going on my "Hall of fame" board, " Or best one "Right, did you all see that? X just got this brilliantly, so maybe he/ she could help some of you out"! Encouragement and positive praise works like a charm with every pupil. Hence if I need to get that big stick out, they are mortified. It also means that when a child isn't pulling their weight you can easily say "Now, I KNOW you can do better than that. What about that terrific.... you did last week?" The other thing is to not be afraid to show them that you don't understand things yourself. If I can't spell something, I make a point of getting a dictionary out. If I haven't understood something I'll ask the teacher to explain it again or check in the book. That way they are more likely to ask when they don't understand. And as it happens I hate maths, and don't feel confident with it. But that makes me understand what it is they can't do or understand.

And back to the book theme ANY book is a good thing for young kids. If they don't like the educational type, it doesn't matter. Let them read comics (as long as they aren't just pictures), come to that, encourage them to read the back of the cereal packet!! The only thing my son would read when he was little was any instructions for science projects. Fair enough.It's all helping!!

[Laura]

I'm currently reading Julie Walters' autobiography 'That's another story'. (I think that's what its called). Unfortunately, this is as a result, once again, of my absolute lack of willpower where books are concerned.

Every time I go to see my sister in Cambridge, I end up going to a very nice bookshop while I'm waiting to meet her, and buying loads of archaeology books. This time I decided that I was not going to go into the centre of town at all, so as to avoid the temptation of buying more books that I don't need. Unfortunately, my mum and dad were arriving back from their hols the day I was going down, so instead of passing each other on the A1, we met up for lunch. At a shopping centre.

Result - 3 harry potter books, one archaeology book, and one autobiography.

[Wulfruna]

Just finished a fascinating book: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks (who won the Pulitzer prize for her novel "March"). This is one for those who like a historical narrative founded on the factual basis of a real artistic artifact, but then allowing imagination to fill in the gaps....