Helping your child at home
Research has shown that the influence of parental involvement can have a major impact on school readiness and attainment levels from birth right up to sixteen years old. Therefore, we believe it is our job as a school to support our parents and carers with knowing how to support your child at home. This page is full of useful resources and tips to support your child at home.
Early years resources to use at home - BBC Bitesize
Communication and language
Communication and language is at the heart of everything we do in early years. As parents talking to your children and communicating with them effectively is vital for them to be able to access all other areas of the curriculum.
"The development of children’s spoken language underpins all seven areas of learning and development. Children’s back-and-forth interactions from an early age form the foundations for language and cognitive development. The number and quality of the conversations they have with adults and peers throughout the day in a language-rich environment is crucial. By commenting on what children are interested in or doing, and echoing back what they say with new vocabulary added, practitioners will build children’s language effectively." Development matters
"Reading frequently to children, and engaging them actively in stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems, and then providing them with extensive opportunities to use and embed new words in a range of contexts, will give children the opportunity to thrive. Through conversation, storytelling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures," Development matters
Useful links
- 15 Interactive Language Activities for Preschoolers - Empowered Parents
- EYFS Focus: 10 Communication and Language Activities | Famly
- Children's language development and parenting advice - BBC Tiny Happy People
Maths
"Developing a strong grounding in number is essential so that all children develop the necessary building blocks to excel mathematically. Children should be able to count confidently, develop a deep understanding of the numbers to 10, the relationships between them and the patterns within those numbers." Development matters.
Useful links
- Parent support - Maths - Early years Maths - BBC Bitesize
- Talking about maths with children | National Numeracy
- Early Years Maths - Topmarks Search
- Numberblocks - CBeebies - BBC
- Early Years | NCETM
- 10 Must-Have Counting Books (scholastic.com)
Literacy
Early reading with your child is a true one-on-one opportunity for children to communicate with their parents and parents to communicate with their children. It allows children to grow their vocabulary skills with exposure to new words and listening skills they develop from hearing someone read to them that become vital to their academic success. Early reading is a huge part of our Early Years at Halsnead we give children plenty of opportunities to be exposed to a large variety of books. If you continue to share this love of books at home your child will continue to develop a love of books. It is once your child has a love of reading they are then able to begin their writing journey.
"It is crucial for children to develop a life-long love of reading. Reading consists of two dimensions: language comprehension and word reading. Language comprehension (necessary for both reading and writing) starts from birth. It only develops when adults talk with children about the world around them and the books (stories and non-fiction) they read with them, and enjoy rhymes, poems and songs together. Skilled word reading, taught later, involves both the speedy working out of the pronunciation of unfamiliar printed words (decoding) and the speedy recognition of familiar printed words. Writing involves transcription (spelling and handwriting) and composition (articulating ideas and structuring them in speech, before writing)." Development matters.
For more information on how to support your child with our RWI scheme please visit the following link. /page/?title=Read+Write+Inc&pid=113
Useful links
- 10 top tips for parents to support children to read - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
- Top tips to support your child's reading at home - BBC Bitesize
- National Literacy Trust | UK Literacy Charity
- Sharing books | PACEY
- Early Years English - Topmarks Search
Thank you for your continuious support and working with us to ensure your child has the very best start in life!
