Education
How to Boost Your Child’s
LITERACY & NUMERACY
By Liat Hughes Joshi
IILiteracy and numeracy are central to your child’s learning in primary school and willII IIunderpin many of the subjects they’ll cover during their secondary education. They are ofII IIcourse crucial to later life too. Here are some ideas on how to give these key skills a boost.II A little extra learning at home can work wonders… In a busy classroom, teachers understandably can struggle to provide one-on-one attention. By working on specific areas with your child, you can make a huge difference. Keep it sensible – even 10 or 15 minutes a day can have an impact yet still leaves hours for playing.
Find out about the methods their school uses Reading and numeracy are both typically taught quite differently to when most of us were children, so it’s certainly worth finding out how their school does things to avoid confusing your child.
Let tech teach There are some brilliant educational apps and websites with masses of kid appeal. Try to find ones which align with the National Curriculum or at least use British English.
Encourage reading Reading opens the door to almost endless learning and enjoyment. Some children are naturally enthused by books, others need nudging to get the reading bug. At first encourage any reading at all – comics, magazines, the cereal packet – without worrying much about what they are reading. Home in on your child’s interests and give them books relating to these.
Bedtime stories are a crucial opportunity to snuggle up discussing books together. They’re still beneficial even once children can read independently – parents of older kids could take on a more challenging classic together, taking it in turns to read a page before talking about what’s going on.
Incorporate ‘stealth learning’ into everyday activities Sneak maths and literacy into day-to-day life and you can improve skills without it feeling like schoolwork. Adding up the cost of the shopping, dividing the restaurant bill, playing snakes and ladders, or writing a postcard to the grandparents can all help.
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Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited, IMAGINATION ENCIRCLES THE WORLD!
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EINSTEIN
01943 466 230 www.thelittlegreenfrog.co.uk 11