As your child gets ready to go into reception, finding good resources to help them at home can be daunting. I have made a few suggestions here for reasonably priced workbooks which are child friendly, match the National Curriculum and the National Numeracy and National Literacy Schemes.
Games with your child at this age make learning much more fun and your child will absorb knowledge without even realising they are working. Counting as they go up and down stairs builds number skills and looking out for particular-coloured cars and counting them is a very good early years game which builds colour recognition as well as sorting and number skills. Crayons and paper can really help develop pen control all of which can ensure that your child enters school feeling confident and well prepared.
MATHS
Get Set Mathematics Counting: Reception, Ages 4-5 by Schofield & Sims
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The Get Set activity books are full of fun activities that help you to reinforce at home the learning that your child is doing at school.
This activity book is about Counting. It focuses on developing your child’s understanding of counting, recognising numerals, writing numerals and sequencing forwards and backwards. The book falls within the curriculum area of Mathematics in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework and is supported by three other activity books for Mathematics: Adding and Subtracting, Shape and Pattern and Space and Measure.
It is recommended that your child starts this activity book at the beginning of the Reception year, completing one or two pages at a time over the course of the year. They should complete pages 4 to 17 in Term 1, pages 18 to 25 in Term 2 and pages 26 to 29 in Term 3. As your child works through the book, the tasks will gradually become more challenging, requiring more reading, writing and numeracy skills, helping to prepare your child for the more formal style of learning that begins in Key Stage 1.
It is worth remembering, however, that children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates, especially at this young age, and you may prefer to work through the books at your child’s own pace. The activity books may also be suitable for older or younger children, depending on ability.
Before beginning each activity, read the instructions aloud to your child. Discuss what they can see in the pictures and what they have to do to complete the activity. The fun illustrations will inspire lots of conversation and give plenty of opportunities for mark-making – an important first step when starting to write.
At the back of the book you will find Notes for parents and carers, with helpful guidance relating to each page of the activity book. For each topic, there is a Teaching tip, which explains how best to support your child as they complete the activities, Key vocabulary, for you to model and encourage your child to use themselves, and a practical Extension activity, for you to explore the topic further with your child in a real-life context.
These notes help you to get the most out of the activity books and to support and enhance your child’s learning. When working through the activities, don’t worry too much about your child ‘getting it right’. The emphasis should instead be on ‘having a go’ and taking the time to enjoy exploring new topics and ideas together.
ENGLISH
Get Set Literacy Writing Words: Reception, Ages 4-5
Buy This Book
The Get Set activity books are full of fun activities that help you to reinforce at home the learning that your child is doing at school.
This activity book is about Writing Words. It focuses on developing your child’s fine motor skills for writing and their understanding of the shapes and movements that are required to write different letters to form words, as well as their ability to encode words to begin to spell. The book falls within the curriculum area of Literacy in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework. This activity book is supported by four other activity books for Literacy: Reading and Rhyme, Letter Sounds, Phonics and Writing Letters.
It is recommended that your child starts this activity book in Term 2 of the Reception year, or when your child is already quite confident in their letter formation, completing one or two pages at a time over the remainder of the year. They should complete pages 4 to 9 in Term 2 and pages 10 to 33 in Term 3. As your child works through the book, the tasks will gradually become more challenging, requiring more reading and writing skills, helping to prepare your child for the more formal style of learning that begins in Key Stage 1.
It is worth remembering, however, that children develop and learn in different ways and at different rates, especially at this young age, and you may prefer to work through the books at your child’s own pace. The activity books may also be suitable for older or younger children, depending on ability.
Before beginning each activity, read the instructions aloud to your child. Discuss what they can see in the pictures and what they have to do to complete the activity. When supporting your child to write words, the emphasis should be on starting each letter in the correct place and remembering the movements, rather than on size or neatness. It is natural at this age for your child to experiment with and move between a variety of different pencil grips. Try to model and encourage them to hold the pencil between thumb and forefinger, resting it on the third finger, but don’t expect them to hold the pencil this way every time.
At the back of the book, you will find Notes for parents and carers, with helpful guidance relating to each page of the activity book. For each topic, there is a Teaching tip, which explains how best to support your child as they complete the activities, Key vocabulary, for you to model and encourage your child to use themselves, and a practical Extension activity, for you to explore the topic further with your child in a real-life context.
These notes help you to get the most out of the activity books and to support and enhance your child’s learning. When working through the activities, don’t worry too much about your child ‘getting it right’. The emphasis should instead be on ‘having a go’ and taking the time to enjoy exploring new topics and ideas together.
Our Tuition For Reception Children
Here at the Jacqui Robinson Education Centre, we make learning fun, interactive and exciting. Our aim is to build a love of learning right from the beginning of school. We play games based around maths and our children learn phonics, reading, writing, spelling and lots more in an engaging student focused way to improve their english. We have a teacher and a teaching assistant sat with a maximum of 4 students between them.
Unlike school, our students are allowed to progress at their own pace. The work is specially written for them each week and we can progress children to ensure they come top of their class.
If a students finds anything tricky, we have the time, patience, skills and the resources to ensure they learn successfully.
For more information on our bespoke Reception classes, please contact us and we will be happy to answers any of our questions and get your child started on the road to success.