Why reading is important?

If your child is clever enough to pass 11 plus exam, you have to make sure he reads lots. Reading cannot be left till the last minute, let's say a year before the exam, but love for reading has to be nourished from the early age.

I do not recommend encouraging comics. Start with ordinary books (any books, in any language) and introduce different genres to your child later on, once he is a proficient reader. Classics are important to know, as English exam often involves texts from classical books. If your child cannot comprehend classical Shakespeare, try simplified versions. They are fun to read and may encourage young readers to read more classic.

The truth is: if the parents read, the child will be brought up among books and he will read. Reading helps to widen vocabulary and to carry on an interesting, word rich conversation. Plus it really helps while doing Engish exam papers.

I am so proud!

Today, business as usual, some more 11-12 maths. We came across two types of difficult questions. They seemed tough, because my son did not cover this part of material yet.

So I explained to him how to subtract fractions if you have to make mixed ones to be able to perform the operation:

e.g. 3 1/7 - 1 2/7 =
(3 and one seventh minus 1 and 2 sevenths)

I know this kind of subtraction is covered in secondary school, but my child was more than happy to learn it now. Why should I stop him?

Another question went like this:

Three friends, called them: A, B, C had altogether £1.70
Once A gave 2p back to B and C gave 3p back to B, they discovered that B had twice as much money as C and A had twoice as much as B.

So how much money did they have each before and after?

My son surprised me. He thought he would not be able to solve this problem himself, but he applied ratio (I had explained it to him 4-5 months ago) and voila!  he got the right answer!

Equations

Equations are not taught or are taught in between everything else. Understanding of them is desperately needed for any child attempting 11plus exam. So far, I have not seen my son coming back home with any problem relating to equations.
Once again, I explained them to my son ages ago, but more practice is needed. As it is with any part of maths...

I will be posting some exercises on my private site: http://www.joannafoss.com/ Check it out.

Poor maths again

I posted my thoughts on the way of teaching maths (division in particular) at http://www.joannafoss.com/

I still think maths is made far too complicated than it needs to be. My son did a Bond Paper today for 11-12. He only made 4 mistakes, but some of the questions like translation he has not yet had explained. Once I went over this material with him, he carried on on his own.

Ratio came in handy for another question: picking up aces from a pack of cards. If it wasn't for the fact, that I had explained ratio ages ago, he wouldn't have a clue. Instead, he was able to solve the question.

Maths again

Bond Papers 11-12, Maths. My son solved every single question without any problems. 100% right.

Am I good as a tutor or what?

Motivation

It may seem daunting for your 9 year old child to work towards something he does not see. It was the case with my child. I was saying one thing, encouraging him to study and we had constant arguments about 11 plus preparation.
Finally, at the beginning of year 5, I took my son on touring around secondary schools. We went to see the buildings, talk to the teachers, hear the headmasters and get "the feeling" for  schools. We also collected brochures from each school. After the visit, my son finally saw, what I was trying to tell him. He understood, why he needed to study; he saw a reward at the end of his work. It was a turning point for him. Our arguments stopped. I no longer had to remind him of his studies.

Walsh-Verbal Reasoning 2

96% achieved! So what does it tell you? Read, do some more maths and practise, practise!

Vacant = empty
disc + over = discover

Words closest in meaning:
recount=relate

I highly recommend this book. It's as good as the first part.

Maths 11+-12+

My son did some papers from the Bond Papers. He is not even 10, but solved fraction multiplications without any problems. Obviously, I explained to him how to do it, but once he grasped the concept, he was more than happy to persevere.

I honestly do not think you have to wait until the secondary school to explain fractions to primary school pupils. If your child is brainy, go for it!

English Papers

Yesterday, while doing his English Papers, my son came across some new words:

• robust - of strong health or physique
• fragile - easily snapped or shattered
• flaw - crack, breach, rent, damage
• flaw - short storm, imperfection

SATs are over

SATs are over, the science test was done yesterday. According to my son it was very easy. The test involved questions about Moon and Sun. If your child paid attention at school, he should be able to answer them without any problems.

Tomorrow, my son is moving on to some more English papers. At the same time, he still reads, for pleasure.

Hint: If you see your child is into some literature, get him some more books of this kind. Any book that is being read is worth borrowing/buying. You can get some good deals at supermarkets or on Amazon.

Percentages

One of the SATs questions involved percentages. 10% is usually introduced at schools, but this time the children were asked to calculate 15% of £80. If your child does not know how to calculate 15%, make sure you go over this topic, as percentages are used during 11+ examination.

SATs are still on

SATs are still on, but I managed to persuade my son to study a bit on his own. He did some mental maths- got all the questions right.

Hint: discuss with your child, what is the area of a shape if you know the area of a whole circle and an angle in unknown shape. e.g. 72 degrees It's just a part of a circle. What fraction is this part? How can you calculate its area if you know the area of the whole circle?

Writing skills

Yesterday, Y2 at my children's school had to solve some maths and Y5 had a spelling test and a writing task. The writing was about winter park: how it looks, feels etc. As far as I know my son, he would be struggling, as he does not like any writing (typical boy?). However, he managed to squeeze some sentences and even added a nice metaphore, which I was really impressed about. Frankly speaking, I tried to practise some writing with him as a preparation for 11 plus, which came handy yesterday. He was pleased, as he was able to write something more apart from just basic, dry sentences. Practice does help, even though we go through lots of moans!

SATs' week

Today, we did not do any tests, or should I rather say, my son did not do anything. He may carry on with his preparation after school if he is not too tired after his SATs. Anyway, we talked about planning his essay, in case he needs to write a piece: the main characters, the place and action. It seems to me that children find it difficult to verbalise what they want to write about. Planning helps a great deal.

SATs

Today, my son did one science test-KS2. He scored very well, reaching the top end of level 5 (look at the answer sheet). The test consisted of two parts: A and B and involved quite a lot of thinking and drawing conclusions. The questions ranged from biology (plants) to physics (magnets, three states of water, forces, astronomy).
They were not very difficult, but they will be for a child, who does not read and does not pay attention at school. I highly recommend these tests as a practivcal preparation for other exams. They are also useful in finding out about gaps in your child's knowledge.

KS2 test B

My son finished the test B from SATs test. Altogether he got 94%.

Hints:
1. Make sure your child knows how to calculate e.g. 54.07 x 5
2. Perimeter of a traingle, rectangle
3. Percentages
4. Decimal addition
5. Telling the time
6. Using the protractor
7. Addition of negative numbers: -4+5=
8. Number patters
9. Reading the graphs
10. Volume calculation
11. Reading the coordinates
12. Reading pictograms.

KS2 Sats, Maths test A and mental mathematics

Today, my son solved the first paper from KS2 SATs maths. He did not have any problems with the questions, however, he still made a couple of mistakes.

 

My observations:

1. Children tend to make mistakes if they are over confident and don't check their answers, which was the case with mine. He lost points for one question simply because he did not read the question properly-once again, rushing to finish the test off...
2. Be sure that your child understands square roots and factors.
3. Check if your child knows  how to calculate 3/4 of a number.
4. Sums of the angles in a triangle- can your child calculate the third angle knowing the other two?
5. Calculating the mean of three numbers.
6. Temperatures - how much it changed?

The tests my chilld is doing come from: KS2 Complete SATs Practice Papers (Maths, Science & English)
£12.95. The pack contains:

• 3 sets of Maths Papers
• 3 sets of Science Papers
• 2 sets of English Papers

plus answer book to each set. I recommend this book, it's money well spent, as it allows you tpo check what your child is struggling with.

Verbal reasoning-Walsh

Good book for verbal reasoning practice: Verbal Reasoning 1 (multiple choice format) - pink book

Secondary Selection Portfolio

Another set of books worth getting:
Test Pack 6, English, Standard Version, Six Full-Length Papers

Athey Educational

Good book to practise English - especially if your child is not that good at answering questions to the text.

The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex

Some more tests for 11+ preparation can be bought from The consortium of Selective Schools in Essex.

If you buy a bundle for £24.00, you will receive 2 English papers, 2 maths and 1 verbal reasoning paper. All worth the money.

Website: The Consortium of Selective Schools in Essex

some more words

Some more new words, that my son found in his tests:

• contemporary=ultra-modern
• glen = narrow valley
• gauge=standard measure to which things must conform
• girdles (in the text referring to parallels)
• parallels
• subtle=fine