When Does 11 Plus Work Become a Hobby?

How to Revise for the 11 Plus Without Sitting at a Desk

At Secondary Entrance, we truly believe in the term ‘work hard play hard’.

Why should your child sit and revise sometimes abstract concepts like non-verbal reasoning? Sometimes it is not completely clear to a child why they may be working so hard on 11+ test papers and revising, and sometimes it is in their benefit that they do not, to avoid unnecessary stress nearer to an exam.

As an 11+ parent, being engaged within the learning process as much as your child is fundamental to their learning.

Foster a Love for Learning

Doing 11 plus practice papers can be boring. We know because we ourselves remember all those years ago revising for our very own 11+ exams, and wanted to play outside or watch TV, not sit at a desk and do past papers. However, learning is at its best when you or your child is not aware of it. Or better yet, enjoys it.  

By providing a learning environment that is ever changing and engaging, learning can move outside of answering questions to going outside and for example counting flowers, or being challenged to replace a tire on their bicycles.

A Structured and Varied 11 Plus Learning Environment

1) Have something to look forward to, every time.

When your child is about to start a paper, give them something to look forward to once they complete it, such as a snack, or time playing their favourite game. Having this ensures work is not associated with unhappy thoughts, and instead is a journey, with a prize at the end of it.

2) Spread out the 11 Plus learning process in small, bite-sized chunks.

A child’s’ brain is amazing! It is able to absorb vast amount of information, more so than adults, and can learn at a very rapid rate. However, this rapid level of learning also requires adequate breaks, and nourishment. It is unrealistic to expect your child to work for more than an hour at a time. Create full days of breaks in between tests, to allow their brains to subconsciously reinforce their learning.

3) Take learning outside of the study room!

Try going to the local park or museum! Challenge your child in new ways, such as creating maths problems using sticks or stones in the park. By making learning an engaging activity, children are more likely to retain information, and not to avoid wanting to work. Topics like non-verbal reasoning simply require spotting patterns, therefore spotting patterns on around their environment is still learning, but it a novel way. By being active within the learning process as a parent gives a child further reason to want to work, as part of a team, and leading by example is an effective means of teaching healthy learning habits.

4) Physical exercise is just as important as mental exercise!

It is vital that whilst you exercise your mind, you also exercise your body. Ensuring your child engages in activity every day is so important to their well-being, and also ensures they feel fresh and energised when they do work. Whether this is swimming, running, playing in the park or football, exercise of any sorts is as important as working on past papers!

5) Sleep!

Whilst your child works during the day, it is also important to avoid working too late at night, and they have at least 8hrs sleep a night. Sleep is such a valuable part of the revision process, helping the brain to filter through the information of the day, build new connections and organise it for quick retrieval at a later date. A child that is well rested will get out a lot from a revision session than one that is sleep deprived, and thus this should not be overlooked.

How can I improve my child's learning outside of school?

Here are only a few creative and fun ways to help supplement your child’s learning. It is in no way a complete list, and we encourage you to come up with your own ideas, suited to your child’s personality.

1) Museums.

Museums are a brilliant way of bringing science, history and the arts to life. They have a lot of fun interactive exhibits to keep children entertained, but also educate them on the fundamentals of science and arts.

2) Shopping with your child!

Whilst this may simply be grocery shopping, getting them to calculate the price of the items in your basket is great for mental maths, and can make any shopping trip exciting! You could also ask them to work out the price of a product after a discount, or how much you could save on a 2 for 1 deal.

3) Travelling!

Perhaps your child could assist you in planning a route, or finding the fastest way of getting around town. Giving them real world problems with an incentive is fun and engaging, and helps develop problem solving! If in London they could plan a tube route, or if in a car work out how long it will take to get to your destination if you give them the distance and speed you are travelling it.

4) 11 Plus Spelling games whilst reading the newspaper.

It is vital that whilst you exercise your mind, you also exercise your body. Ensuring your child engages in activity every day is so important to their well-being, and also ensures they feel fresh and energised when they do work. Whether this is swimming, running, playing in the park or football, exercise of any sorts is as important as working on past papers!

5) Playing board games such as Pictionary or Scrabble!

Scrabble is such an effective means of improving a child’s vocabulary in a relaxed and fun environment! It challenges them to sift through all their current vocabulary, but also to run to the dictionary to find new words! They will continually question whether an option is a word or not, and thus is truly verbal reasoning in action! Pictionary improves their visual and perceptive skills, as well as square counting, and so may indirectly help them with maths and non-verbal reasoning.

But ultimately, learning should be fun!

Whilst at Secondary Entrance we want your child to achieve the best they possibly can, it must be remembered that they are still developing, socially, physically and mentally. Giving them the widest possible number of experiences and exposure to different activities is at the core of fostering life-long learning, and for them to develop their own reasoning of situations is the basis of all of our papers. Our goal is to design our resources in a way that provides long-term as well as short-term benefits to your child. We welcome any feedback about your own personal thoughts on education, as we too are also learning, and want to offer the best possible products to our clients!

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