Helping Your Kids Stay One Step Ahead At School

Schools are designed to educate in masses, sticking to a rigid syllabus and a timeline to get through it. If a child can't keep up with a specific topic, they get left behind. Schools can't stop the syllabus at every point to ensure every child understands. Some children take longer to process information than others, so if your child doesn't keep up, they will begin to struggle. It's not a fault of your child; as I said, all children are different and process things differently.

It's our role as parents to help our children. If there's something we can do to help, then we must do it.

My oldest is in reception year 2, and here are some of the things I did to help her get to the top of the class.

Pay Attention to What They Are Learning

My daughter loves maths because she's good at it. When the school was teaching additions and subtractions, I helped her. She soon picked it up, so we moved on to division before the school did. I came up with fun ways to teach her, like using sweets and empty bags to show divisions. She picked this up quickly.

As the school moved to division, my daughter was already ready. So we moved onto multiplications at home, putting her one step ahead of her classmates.

The same applies to money. I knew the school would be teaching them about money, its face value, and how to work out change, so we started early.

Reading

The school gives my daughter a new book every day, provided we have read the one from the day before. Most parents read 2, maybe 3 books a week with their children from school. I read every day with my daughter without fail. We even have our own books to read on the weekend.

Phonetics

When the school started teaching phonetics, I started working on letter name association.

Encourage Critical Thinking

I often ask my daughter open-ended questions about her day and the topics she learned. This helps develop her critical thinking and understanding beyond rote memorization.

Educational Apps and Games

As a website developer, I created my daughter a maths game. It was hard work but worth it. I then started to find other educational apps with elements of fun and gamification. This kept my daughter interested, and I would often find her on her tablet playing one of these games without me.

Have you tried using educational apps or games with your children? Which ones have worked best for you?

Create Study Time

I created rough days and times where we would do homework together. For example, my kids get up super early, often 2 hours before we need to leave. This gives us time each morning to ensure I read her school book with her, and now it's part of our morning routine. On set days, she has spelling and maths tests each week; we spend the 3 days leading up to them practicing. I read out questions, and she writes down the answers. You need to make sure you time it well so they have time to play before and know that once they have finished, they will still have time to play. Your children need routine more than you; it helps them massively, so make sure you have a good one set up.

Use Real World Examples

Nothing beats learning by doing. Before your children get to the age of pocket money and earning money from chores, you should set up a points/reward system.

For example, teaching your children life lessons is part of their overall development and progression. Asking them to help with the cleaning, washing up, making lunch, baking, etc., will teach them things like following instructions, active listening, measurements, organization, and critical thinking.

What methods have you found effective in helping your child stay ahead at school? Share your strategies in the comments!