Kids forget stuff! How to help them be ahead in September.

Of course they do! They forget their PE kit, their dinner money and until firmly attached, their head.

All children (and adults) need to be doing things regularly to remember them. (How easily can you remember the PIN number on rarely used bank cards?)
 
It’s not just things that get forgotten; it’s ideas too.
 
During the summer holidays teachers expect that children will forget the things that they’ve learnt over the last few months and will plan accordingly in the first few weeks to refresh the forgotten work. 
 
However, it’s useful to give your kids the opportunity to practise things over the summer – times tables, letters to people met on holiday, reviews of places visited. Make it fun! 
 
It can also be of value to have a few hours of private tuition over the holidays, just to keep some concepts fresh in your children’s minds, especially if these are areas that you’re uncomfortable with covering yourself. Phonics and maths methodologies tend to be the ones that are most mentioned to us at Tutor My Kids and to our private tutors in Cambridge, Ely, Huntingdon and Newmarket.
 
Our private tutors in Cambridge, Ely, Huntingdon and Newmarket are all experienced, qualified teachers who can help to support children with areas that they find tricky and need extra help with. As a general rule, we’d suggest no more than an hour a week, so that they’re confident for September, whilst ensuring that they have time to chill, see friends, go places and experience new things.   
 
Kids do need a break over the holidays, so don’t over do it. If you’re doing your own thing, a few minutes each day can make a world of difference to your kids and give them a great head start for September. 
 

Why-is-my-child-finding-maths-particularly-hard-at-the-moment?

Since September 2014, a new curriculum has been taught in our primary schools which is requiring children to know more maths at an earlier age.

Maths is sequential

Because maths builds upon what children already know, kids without a thorough grasp of the earlier facts and calculation strategies are finding it hard to keep up.

For example, multiplication is being taught much earlier, with children needing to know their multiplication tables. For those children who are not yet absolutely sure on addition, moving onto repeated addition (multiplication)  is proving very tough. There are children who know their times tables but lack the understanding that multiplication is about groups or sets of objects and therefore are at a disadvantage in applying this times table knowledge.


The present year 2 and year 6 (as of writing in March 15) are being examined on the old curriculum, so it’s the year 1s and 5s that are having the biggest adjustment with the other years having more time to learn the new material.


At Tutor My Kids, our maths tutors in Ely and Cambridge are helping children to fill in these gaps and enable children to learn better at school.


For more details please visit Tutor My Kids.