Recommended Reading
Maths and Spelling for Juniors
Learning times tables is probably the hardest thing your child will ever need to do....and it must be done. I recommend that the table to be learnt is put onto a Post-it note in the bathroom. Link the daily routine of teeth-cleaning to the new task of learning a times table. As your child cleans their teeth, they must mentally recite the table... lots of times. Hopefully after a week the child has learnt the table and has cleaner teeth.
Learning spelling for juniors is another task that must be done. I recommend that the spelling list be put inside the jumper of a soft toy. Put the toy on the child's bed and run through the spellings when you put the child to sleep. Few children ever steal the list from their toy and so it never gets lost.
Never, never, never forget that it is not important that your child learn these skills today. You are preparing your child for life. In life you can try and fail. This is not important; your child will learn to persevere and will learn. Your role as a parent is to teach courage, perseverance and to show that you are there through the good times and the bad, to help. You create the right ethos for homework later on.
