Working on a child's "core skills" will benefit them in all areas of their academic career. Having a strong foundation in arithmetic, reasoning, vocabulary and general knowledge will give them confidence, as well as a greater ability to tackle work which may be unfamiliar to them. Of course, these things are also incredibly useful for tests such as the 11+, SATs or Common Entrance but, in my view, these skills should be seen as essential for every child rather than something to focus on purely for the purpose of passing an exam.
This list was originally compiled in order to help people who were thinking of preparing their children for 11+ or Common Entrance exams, but the content is relevant and useful for any parent.
Below are some ideas of things you can do with younger children to start strengthening the core skills, and may also highlight areas which may need more attention as time goes on. Everyone has natural strengths and weaknesses, and it can be incredibly useful to understand in advance where your child excels and where they may need more support. Don’t panic though! These are all meant to be fun, family activities, and it’s vital that you don’t present them as work or any kind of exam preparation. Just think of these as games which are starting to build the muscles they’ll need later on.
Spatial and Non-Verbal Reasoning - Exposure and practice makes a huge difference
Part of the reason these topics are daunting when children first see them is that there is little ‘real life’ experience which will prepare them for the way the questions are presented. These topics come up in all sorts of tests - not just at school, but also in job interviews and aptitude tests. Some people find that they are naturally very comfortable with this way of thinking but, for the rest, it's comforting to know that practice will help them to improve. In order to start building these skills, you may find it easier to turn to games such as the ones below. These will work the right part of the brain, and will help your child to become familiar with the type of logic required.
Ibbleobble Clever Clogs app bundle - The patterns app (or that section of bundle app) is great for NVR
Vocabulary and General Knowledge
These skills are vital for many areas of the curriculum, but are especially important for Verbal Reasoning, reading and comprehension. These subjects are vast - neverending in fact! - and so should really be thought of as part of your daily routine. Try to fill your child with as much general knowledge and vocabulary as you possibly can - they can never have too much!
Take the time to teach your children the names of fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, animals (male, female, baby, group name, habitat etc), countries, cities, flowers, sports… ANYTHING you can think of! Schools don’t have time to teach this stuff any more and you’d be AMAZED at the gaps I’ve seen in children’s knowledge.
Try to work these things into everyday life as much as you can - make sure your child knows what’s in the food they’re eating and, even with small children, try not to over-simplify (… they can cope with the word ‘risotto’; it doesn’t have to be ‘cheesy rice’!). Get them looking at maps if you’re on holiday and, if you’re abroad, try to teach them a few basic facts about the country (e.g. what continent is it a part of; is it an island or does it have land borders; what is the currency and language; what does the flag look like…)
Car games are great for general knowledge. Go round the car trying to name as many things in a certain category as you can until someone gets stuck and is out. Or play 20 questions, where you get to ask 20 ‘yes or no’ questions in order to try to guess what the other player is thinking of.
This is such a huge section that it’s best to have it as part of your daily routine rather than something which gets worked on here and there. Don’t be afraid to use the internet, dictionaries and reference books in front of your child either. They don’t expect you to know everything, and showing them how to find information is just as important as imparting it to them. By helping them to find the answers to questions, you are empowering them and encouraging their natural curiosity.
Working under pressure
Many exams and tests require children to work at high speed, and with incredible accuracy. Often, students will know the answers but will be unable to complete a paper in the time given without lots of practice. Others will make silly mistakes because of the time pressure so, although they may finish easily, they are unlikely to get a score which reflects their true ability. Anything you can do to help your child keep cool under pressure will help them succeed in all areas of life, and this can start at quite an early age.
Any game or app which involves a countdown timer will help your child to practise this skill, so you can find anything which takes their fancy. We particularly like this Time Shock game which is included in our Midwinter Box. The ticking on this little blighter is enough to send anyone into a panic, and it’s also great for spatial reasoning.
Mental Maths
As with vocabulary and general knowledge, this is something best worked into everyday life. Get very young children counting and doing basic adding and subtraction as often as you can. Even if it’s just counting how many red cars you see on the way to school; or getting them to count how many eggs are in the fridge before and after breakfast… anything at all to work that mathematical muscle. As they get older, take the time to ensure that their times tables, number bonds** and mental arithmetic are used as often as possible and really up to scratch. Those basic skills are so important and will be of huge benefit to them going forward.
Cooking is a really valuable tool when looking at maths skills. Exposing your child to things like simple weights and measures, time, and basic fractions (cutting cakes into pieces etc) will be an enormous help to them. These things are much easier to learn in a practical way, and they’ll really enjoy doing it. (Plus, you’ll get some cakes out of it!)
There are some apps which can help with maths skills, but they’re usually aimed at slightly older children. Anything will be useful though, so see what grabs your child’s attention. We particularly like:
Ibbleobble Clever Clogs apps - the maths apps are good for the four main mathematical operations, and there is also a great sequences app which is perfect for the 11+. These are only really appropriate for older children in this age bracket though (Years 1 and 2). Take a look at http://www.ibbleobble.com/ to see all the apps they make.
**The number bonds are pairs of numbers which add to make round numbers like 10, 100 etc. So, for 10, the number bonds are: 1+9, 2+8, 3+7, 4+6 and 5+5
Using that as a starting point, you can move on to basic pairs for 100: 10+90, 20+80, 30+70 etc
From there, eventually, you want your child to be able to notice the number bonds within more complex sums. So, for example, if they see 57+23, they’ll immediately know that the answer will end in 0 as the units (7 and 3) add to make 10.
Comprehension
Again, at this age, there is little point doing anything ‘formal’ towards comprehension practice, but there are lots of things you can do to stimulate the right parts of the brain. Reading is key, of course, but it’s useful to start turning your child into an active reader (or listener) as early as possible. Once you start, you’ll find that this is very easy to do. When reading with your child, just get used to asking them questions at the end of some pages.
Simple things like, “What flavour jelly do you think that is?”, will encourage them to make logical deductions (if the jelly is red, they should assume it’s something like strawberry or raspberry, but not orange or lime). Questions such as, “How do you think he’s feeling at the moment?” or, “Why do you think she did that?”, will get them engaged with the emotions of the characters and will help them to infer greater meaning from the story. If there is a joke, or something out of place, get your child to try to explain why it’s funny or not as it should be.
The opportunities are endless and you’ll find plenty of questions once you get in the habit of it. Starting this kind of work early will really pay dividends and, usually, children really enjoy it (in moderation - remember, they shouldn’t feel bombarded by questions every time they pick up a book!).
You can also ask similar questions about TV shows and films, and it’s a useful exercise to get your child to summarise what’s happened in something they’ve watched. At this age, they aren’t usually competent enough readers to be able to summarise a book plot, but telling you the ins and outs of an episode of Fireman Sam is an excellent way to build comprehension skills.
These are just some suggestions - the possibilities are endless but, hopefully, these ideas will give a good foundation if you want to start doing some informal bits which you know will be useful later on. It is REALLY important that this all stays FUN though! Children learn much more effectively if they’re enjoying themselves and these games should just be seen as another way to spend time with them. The aim is not to prepare them for an exam, but rather to harness their natural curiosity and have fun. If you also manage to teach them a few skills which will be valuable throughout their life, that’s a really wonderful bonus.