LONG BUCKBY INFANT SCHOOL
Tips to help your child
Reading
Teachers say that promoting reading at home is the most important way that parents can help their child. Make sure your child has regular reading practice and check they understand what they read. Here are some more tips on helping your child with reading:
- when you read to your child, make the experience interactive - ask questions about the story, the pictures and what they think of the characters
- as their reading skills grow, gradually let them turn the tables until they're reading to you
- use dictionaries together for difficult words - a picture dictionary can make exploring language more interesting
- enrol your child at the local library so they can try new books regularly
- keep an eye out for the themes that catch your child's imagination at school - and help follow it up with more reading
- when you come across an unusual or funny-sounding word, help your child find out what it means and write it on the fridge door with magnetic letters
As your child gets older encourage them to pick up other books around the house to boost familiarity with 'grown-up' language. Suggest a reading list, and encourage your child to write down thoughts on the books they have read
Writing and spelling
It's easier to get into good handwriting habits early on than to correct poor writing later, when the pressure of schoolwork is greater. The same goes for spelling. Help your child to see writing and spelling skills not only as fun, but as something important and to be proud of:
- help younger children by writing words and sentences for them to copy
- emphasise the links between drawing and writing, and make sure your child always signs finished artwork
- encourage your child to be inspired by examples of beautiful handwriting in museums, galleries and books
Developing maths skills in everyday life
Successful learning depends on having problem solving skills and thinking logically as well as the ability to read and write.
Primary school children have a daily maths lesson, but an easy way to boost their skills and motivation is by showing them how useful number skills are in almost everything they do.
Children can have fun:
- measuring their height and working out how much they've grown
- on car journeys - playing number-plate games, adding and subtracting with road signs, thinking about speed by dividing distance by time
- at the shops - weighing fruit and vegetables, budgeting with pocket money, working out the relative value of products by comparing prices and weight
- in the kitchen - with weighing and measuring, and temperature and timings
- making models and origami shapes