Teaching children at home

What can you do to help with their confidence whilst returning back to school?

The best time to help with learning at home is around the dinner table. Making it informal and fun will have them asking for more! In my household, we have question time at the table! We ask different types of questions from categories like; English, Maths and Science. Let them choose the category!

English examples

Kindergarten:

• What letter comes after Aa in the alphabet?
• What sound does Hh make?
• What is something that begins with Gg?

Year 1 and Year 2

• Spell cat, mat, sat……. etc
• Spell this, pool, car, beach…..etc (words can get harder as they get older)
• What is a word with…oa… in it?
• What cluster of letters makes the …..str….sound?
• What does plural mean?

Maths examples

Kindergarten:

• If I had 2 apples and Mum gave me another 1, how many altogether? (Many children need a visual to help, so if you have a chalkboard, draw the apples, so they can see and add..)
• 5 fish were in the tank, 1 jumped out, how many were left? (once again, show on the chalkboard)

Year 1 and Year 2

• What is the difference between 8 and 5? (remember, mathematical language is very important in understanding questions e.g. difference = take away/subtract)
• What is 10 more than 80? What is 10 less than 70?
• Count by tens starting at 24.

24, 34, 44, 54, 64, 74, 84……

• Count by 2’s starting from 0 up to 24. Challenge: count from another starting point. 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32……….
• Count by 10’s past 100. 10, 20, 30…….110.
• If I had a bag of lollies to share with my friend, with 10 inside the packet, how many would we get each? (remember sharing = divide)
• If I had a tray of cookies, that had 3 rows of 4, how many altogether?

(remember rows of/groups of = multiplication)

Science examples

Kindergarten:

• What do plants need to grow? (soil, sunlight, water, nutrients)
• If you dropped a feather and a tennis ball, which one will hit the ground first?

Year 1 and Year 2

• What makes plants green? (chlorophyll)
• What planet is the closest to the Sun? (Mercury)
• What is the name of our moon? (Lunar)

Questions are very easy to think up even for grades higher than Year 2, choose a topic they are interested in, research it if you have to….

If you like the idea of asking questions at the table, check out my new resource available called;

50 Questions at the Table