to ask for help with 5 yrolds grandsons home work(Venn diagrams) etc

Hi, biker! And they say kids don't learn anything useful in school, eh?

Here is a reasonably good web page about Venn diagrams that should help you and your GS: http://www.purplemath.com/modules/venndiag.htm

Have fun!

Hi Biker.The BBC web site has a lot of resources at every level. This is the Maths one
www.bbc.co.uk/learning/subjects/maths.shtml
And, in case you think your GS is outstripping you, they have basic Maths courses for adults.

it would help if I made it blue!!!

www.purplemath.com/modules/venndiag.htm

By the way, what's on that page is quite enough for a five year old and I expect many of them would struggle with the concepts anyway, so if he doesn't understand, don't worry. There's plenty of time. In my day (same as yours!) kids weren't introduced to Venn diagrams until sixth form.

Keep calm biker. You can do this!

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/starship/printanddo/
If you look at that fish "get set" worksheet. All the fish in the spotty circle have spots, all the fish in the stripy circle have stripes. The fish with spots AND stripes should be put in the overlapping area. That's it. I don't suppose it gets any more complicated than that in KS1 x

Still, it's good that these mathematical ways of thinking are being introduced. Looks like an improvement in maths teaching to me . I love it when I find yet another reason not to listen to all the bullshit about falling standards.

The only thing I would add to JessM very clear explanation is ...you draw a rectangle around your overlapping circles (it doesn't touch the circles) into the rectangle you would put any fish that didn't fit into the sets/groups of fish that were with spots/with stripes/with both ...in other words the fish that don't fit into the groups.

He would probably have tried this at school with two hoops that over lap, physically putting real objects into the sets

bikergran this is another great web-site ...and not just for maths! have fun

www.bbc.co.uk/schools/websites/4_11/site/numeracy.shtml

Bags, there is loads of stuff in the numeracy strategy that is great; I have seen some brilliant lessons, with the children really enjoying Maths. In one survey our eleven-year-olds had gone up to seventh in the world for numeracy. Strangely enough that one didn't get reported...

oh thankyou you all.lol..I shall note the websites down and put them in my favourites, as would like to encourage him etc..(but need to know what Im talking about first)! lol

dreading Fridays homework!! lol lol lol think I may get detention!

......and they say things are getting easier & standards are dropping! My DD when in the care of my mum started talking about tessalations. My poor mum did not know what she was on about and so said, 'Sorry darling, I was away from school they day they taught that'!!

I think people (especially politicians) tend to focus on what they did at school and criticise the children if they can't do it in exactly the same way, forgetting there are lots of things the children can do that they don't know about. So maybe the children can't multiply yards, feet and inches (nor could I, it used to make me cry), but they can model with a spreadsheet. Which is more useful?

Hells Bells, my GD is almost six and I have never heard of it. Now I am concerned her school really is crap. Have all the nans on here had their GC bring home such homework I would love to know to tell my DD.

nanaej ha ha ha lol..
POGS yes Imafraid my grandson wa bringing little bits of home work home when in reception class..(he is now in year 1 and doing key stage 1) dont ask me what that means I havnt looked into it yet!

he was also talking about some other stuff a few weeks ago!! I hadnt a clue not a clue what to do with it or what he was on about..so going to have to pull my socks up if I am to help! him (or hinder him as the case maybe)!

Key stage 1 is what we used to call "infants" and Key stage 2 is what we used to call "junior"

Why is such a young child expected to do homework? I think we have been here before.

They get homework- because this is what parents ask for- like school uniforms. They believe (not me btw) that it is a sign of a good school.

All children at my school get homework of some sort. FS1 and FS2 get 'talking' homework when parents are asked to talk about certain things the children have been learning about. KS1 and KS2 get written homework in Literacy and Numeracy every week plus the older KS2 children get occassional extra homework in other subjects. Then of course there is the extra homework the poor Y6 children get for the SATS.

Rebellious parents (like me) just tell the school their kids aren't doing homework. It's good to challenge "The System" sometimes. The HT said it was "school policy". I replied that policies can be changed and, besides, it was my policy that my kids didn't do set homework at primary school.

Bravo Bags I would do the same!

Well done Bags. I wish more parents would rebel. I think reading practise is important but the rest....well they're children...let them play.

We did not push homework at my school but 50% parents wanted it 505 did not! Difficult for schools.. we tried to devise activities that ware play based or 'find out about' type of things that all children could do without any special equipment or over zealous parental intervention!

I wonder when schools will start asking the kids if they want homework.

That's not as silly as it sounds. Kids who are 'engaged' at school do homework without being asked, as mine all have. That is they consolidate what they do at school at home by talking about it, asking questions about what they didn't understand, grousing about stuff that annoyed them, practising their reading, writing, drawing, and playing with numbers. All this voluntarily. Result: they do well at school.

What they don't need (and mine never did it) is set tasks, i.e. school work to do at home.

In homes where all the above doesn't happen naturally, I have yet to be convinced that set homework does any good at all. Parents/familes who have a good attitude to education do "voluntary homework" with their kids all the time without any of the harassment and stress of set school tasks.

Setting homework for primary school kids is just an "aren't we good?" box-ticking exercise for schools.