Child learning to read & write

Violetta_2

I'd appreciate some advice as it's not something I know about, been a long while since I learnt to read.
My daughter is 4 & won't start school until next year, she is frustrated by not being able to read & wants to try writing, especially with all the cards that need doing at the moment & list to Santa. So we are doing our best to try & help her with the basics i.e. starting at letters , she does recognise quite a bit & likes to copy them out if we write them 1st.
A friend (who's son started school in the summer) saw my dd trying to copy a word she had asked me to write the other day and was quite vocal about how the teacher is going to hate us because they are going to have to unlearn her all that she pick's up before she starts school so that they can teach her from scratch the right way!! I was quite surprised how she came across I wouldn't call it nasty but there was def an undertone that I didn't like & she repeated this about 3 times. & that they have to do it all by jolly phonics.
I have to emphasize we are not pushing my daughter at all it is her that wants to read & write, There is no way anyone can discourage a child from learning so I'd like some advice on the best way to do this. Are there certain books we can use or online resources so we can support her to learn something that she is really wanting to get her teeth into.
Blimey so sorry for such a long post, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

angelicmary85

My neice is 4 and started school this year...she's extremely bright and loves to learn. My sister was buying her the books (similar in size to magazines) that have letters/numbers/basic words printed in dots (I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about!) so she had to join them up.

I can't see any harm in learing the basics before she starts school.

mrcow

Teach her to read.
Teach her her phonics.
Teach her how to love books.
Teach her to write.
Teach her how to add and subtract.
Teach her how to tell the time.
Teach her how to understand coins and money.
teach her how to measure things and what cm are.

Teach her all of it and ignore anyone who tells you otherwise. People aften have agendas of their own when giving advice and opinons. My advice is to ignore it all. Both my children could read, write and do addition etc before they started school - it's only ever been a positive thing for them.

Hang on a second and I'll post a couple of really good sites to help.

mrcow

Here is a good site to take you through each letter:

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/index/load.htm?f

And here are the associated sheets (my kids still love doing these):

http://www.starfall.com/n/N-info/abcprint.htm?n=abc

Here is a site which helos with handwriting (have an explore of it, I've found it really helpful):

http://www.writingwizard.longcountdown.com/handwriting_practice_worksheet_maker.html

You can print off the alphabet for them the overwrite or even whole workbooks depending on how keen (persistent!) they are. The tabs to use are across the top - plus there is a link to the maths worksheets - which creates random maths worksheet wizard whch are really good if you are trying to gothrough a particular topic.

mrcow

Sorry - i forgot - when you advance a bit, this is the site that helped me teach my 4 year old to read:

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-a/learn-to-read/load.htm?f

She loved it (more than books in the beginning) as the characters move and the stories are quite funny.

msb5262

Hello Violetta,
First of all, don't get worried about all this - your daughter sounds lovely and is obviously keen to learn.
I'm a primary school teacher and I'd say that the important things are these:
1. Read to your daughter as much as she likes.
2. Encourage her to learn to write her name correctly by herself.
3. Little hands need big fat pencils/crayons/felt pens as they are easier to manipulate. You can get triangular shaped pencils which encourage the correct grip.
4. Remember that little kids can only produce big writing! She will need to write over your faint pencilled lines or dots first, then may be able to copy below your writing.
5. Any writing should be in lower case letters, not capitals, apart from capital letters to start names or after full stops. Letters shouldn't be joined.
6. You can buy lovely sets of magnetic words to stick on the fridge/washing machine/whiteboard - she'll need the Foundation/Reception set first. Choose just one or two words which have meaning for her, maybe "mum" and "dad", and practise reading these with her. Put out both words, ask her to point to "mum"; put out four or five words and do the same again...and so on. When she can "read" these words, she may well want to write them too. Take time helping her to form the letters correctly.

Main thing to remember is, don't push her. Only start when she wants, and stop as soon as she is losing interest. All the games and activities she does to develop her fine motor skills - jigsaws, cutting, threading beads - will feed into her writing skills in due course. And of course, make sure you're both enjoying it.
Have fun!
MsB

fernliebee

I think it is the reading more than the writing that people debate whether it is best to teach pre-school or leave to teachers to teach the 'right' way.

Personally I think it's a load of old tosh, and if a child is interested and willing to learn then of course you will teach them. You are doing the best thing in looking into 'modern methods' though as it will be easier for your DD to slot into school if she has already been learning the same method at home. The links MrCow posted are great too!

I'm not at the reading/ writing stage with my DD yet, she is only 17 months but she loves her books and so we read all day long!

skintbutsolvent

My parents said I never learnt to read, I just read! I just sort of did it from cereal boxes, takeaway leaflets, and we had lots of books around. I was reading Enid Blyton while my schoolmates were on Peter and Jane, and had read almost every novel my parents owned before I left junior school. I still remember my joy in reception class when I realised that numbers go on forever and don't stop at 100, and now I love andything that makes me think.

If you child is ready to read and write then encourage her!

Buttonmoons

My DD is the same, she is 3, and has went through half my Xmas cards writing them to people, it is a mixture of squiggles, smiley faces and numbers though! She keeps insisting I show her how to write a word, I do, and she gets frustrated she can't do it.

She's also left handed (we think, seems to prefer to use that hand) so finds it difficult copying me with some of the letters (she writes 3 from the bottom rather than the top etc)

She is in nursery, and will be until 2011, and during parents evening the primary school teacher who was sitting, did tell me that sometimes they find it frustrating to teach a child to write if they have started it "wrong" I don't see how writing your name can be wrong, unless you teach them in capital letters?

We sing the alphabet to her in the A B C way, but also the aaah beeeh cccc (it's hard to write jolly phonically lol) and when spelling out words with her we use phonics.

Nothing wrong with helping them, especially if they are keen to learn! My DD has memorised her favourite book (Ben and Bella on the big blue train) so she knows all the words on each page, and has a big cheesy grin after we finish reading it, "I CAN READ MUM!" Bless.

skintbutsolvent

As far as I remembr the only 'problem' was my parents wanted the teachers to correct my spellings and it wasn't the 'done thing'. I still find spelling difficult which tends to restrict my written vocabulary as I opt for words I can spell rather than those I am unsure of.

Violetta_2

Thankyou so much everyone. So relieved I wasn't doing something wrong, it would be cruel not to let her try to learn surely. Those resources look great will get those worksheets printed off tomorrow, they will be here if she want's to try,but I would never push her. She loves books, we live down the road from a library so go there regularly & books can be so cheap now, we could open up our own childrens library. The routine at bedtime is I read a story to her, then she tells me 1 back so she tries to do it from the pictures.but now she is getting narky about not being able to read the words herself.
I'm not sure what my friends agenda is but think there is something going on, she is making an issue of me being concerned as to which school to pick for next year, keeps asking me if I'm still panicking about primary schools which I'm not but I am trying to find out which one is best & worried that we make the right decision.