What is your preppy doing at school??

Hi all,

I was just wondering if you could help me - I'm a bit stressed about keeping DS up with schoolwork. I know he is pretty ahead on alot of things but that isn't important to me. I need to make sure I am laying down proper foundations in the ABC, 123 department.

If you child is in prep (vic) or the first year of 'big school' would you mind telling me what they are doing schoolwise?

Are they writing/recognising the full alphabet? Writing words? Recognising simple words or sounding them out.

Are they doing equations, times tables in maths?

It's a long story, I'm homeschooling blind and I want to get him ready to go back next year with all the right tools for Yr1.

If you want the full explanation click my (ds's) blog link at the bottom. I can't be arsed explaining it all :rofl:

I'd really appreciate it if you could help out

TIA

ETA - I need to point out that he started school this year but didn't cope. I don't want him to repeat first year (not possible anyway), so I need to start him back in year one (the year after prep 'big school'). I'm not getting him ready to start his first year, ready to start his second.

My kindy boy (1st year of school in ACT) is reading simple readers, he's also doing simple addition and subtraction.
He can write the alphabet but it is all over the shop same with his numbers.
Working on concepts - long & short, opposites, big & small, rhymes, grouping objects according to size, shape, colour etc, the effect of shape on movement - rolling different objects down a slope and predicting whether they will roll, slide etc, patterns.
Living things.
He went on a trip to parliment to learn about democracy.

His NSW school used this site
Australian Primary School Maths Activities, FREE Maths Games, Lessons, Videos, Worksheets, Learn Maths Online.

Sweeet, thanks Onyx.

I think I better pull my finger out on the reading though. His maths is pretty good but he just loves to do more!

DD2 is doing the same as Onyx's DS. They also play a lot of interactive maths games on the computer when they have finished their other maths work. They are called Targeting Math (can get them from fishpond, boomerang books or dymocks) and they go up to year 6. The one for Kindergarten is pretty basic and DD has mastered it all, so she does the year 3 one I have only because I haven't got the year 1 and 2 ones yet. So that is an alternative if he's not keen on writing things down or using a book. Also go to a bookshop or look online for all the educational workbooks. I have gotten a few for DS1 that they are using in class to use at home to supplement what he does in class. One of them was the Targeting Maths one that compliments the CD and written by Garda Turner - it is for NSW but you can get them for the VIC curriculum. I also have the Excel and Oxford Primary Mathematics (author is Pat Lilburn) ones. Now all of those books have a teachers resource book, so I think you should get one of those just so you know what the curriculum is, how to teach it and it gives you a complete program to follow as well as lesson plans.

If he loves his maths, then nurture that as much as you can so it is not such a big deal when you want to switch over and do a bit of literacy. Also turn the maths into a literacy lesson by getting him to help read out the maths problems etc as well. Go to your library and see what they have available in simple first readers - most of what they bring home are just simple readers at this stage and your library should have loads of them. At this stage they still learn sounds using phonics, so any phonics-based stuff should be fine as well.

I have the targeting maths - he loves it and he is ready to move on from the prep one.

Will have to get some early readers. At this point I can only get him to try by reminding him he won't be RICH if he can't read. He is obessed by money...so he can buy all the Star Wars lego in the world.

LOL! Anything that works Lulu, anything that works. Reading is one of those things that can be boring as bat**** for a kid who isn't really into it. The jolly phonics program incorporates songs and actions as well as worksheets - youtube has heaps of them on there so maybe that might be more interesting for him too?

My preppy is doing what Onyx described. He brings home simple reader books every day and we read them each night. You might be able to find some good reader books at the library? They have a lot of repetitive lines in them to help them recognise words (eg. "In the garden I saw a snail", next page: "In the garden I saw a butterfly", etc).

DS1's teacher gave me some links to some good educational sites for numeracy and literacy the other day. We are going away for 6 weeks and I wanted to find some sites he could learn from while we are away. If you want me to PM them to you just let me know :)

I just remember most of reception being a fight to get DD to read.

I'm sure they did other stuff too, but reading really stood out. The school she was going to had under 20 students - 6 in her class - who were all at different levels (nothing to do with their grade level) so she was doing stuff all over the place at that school. It messed her up a bit when she moved to a bigger school.

There were other kids at that school who were into their teens and could barely read, let alone add up, I wouldn't get too fussed.