What Kids Can Do at Home

In the middle and senior school home learning programmes mainly focus on:

• reading mileage
• learning Essential List spelling words
• learning basic facts (quickly adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing)
• physical activities involving family
• recreational activities involving family

In the junior school and middle school, children will be issued with a home reader in a book bag, on most days. However, books will only be sent home when the book bag is returned and signed. After 3:00pm, children can benefit from a home learning programme that promotes involvement in a range of recreational and family oriented activities.

Reading at Home

This needs to be an enjoyable time for you and your child. The following points may be of help to you when hearing your child read:

• Avoid times when your child is already engaged in an activity.
• Keep sessions short and frequent.
• Sessions should be regular; for example, the same time each night or morning.
• Stop the session if the child is tired or restless.
• If your child is becoming anxious, it is okay to read to your child.

Early Readers

Reading from memory is an aspect of early reading. Encourage your child to look first at the picture, then at the words.  When they are starting out, encourage them to point at the words as they read. At the end of a short story ask your child to retell what happened in their own words.

Give praise for effort when your child:

• reads a sentence correctly.
• corrects himself/herself after a mistake.
• gets a word right after being prompted.
• attempts unknown words.

​To help your child when they have problems:

1. Wait, to let your child solve his/her own problem.
2. If the mistake does not make sense, prompt with clues about the meaning of the story.
3. If the mistake does make sense, prompt with clues about the way the word looks.
4. If the word is not correct after two prompts, tell them word.