Child learning to read & write

Gingham_Ribbon

The Phonics Handbook

If she doesnt' know all her letters yet, these are FANTASTIC books.

Sunnyday

Mr Cow are your sure that you arn`t one of my parents

My experience is one of many years ago but it seems that my parents had the same ideas, before i started school both myself and my sister were taught to do many things.

I always remember after breakfast when Mum used to get out the ironing board, this meant that the breakfast table was cleared and out came all the drawing and colouring in books and later all the books to learn from - we used to love it and it was a regular thing for at least an hour if not longer every weekday morning. Mum got the ironing done whilst we had lots of fun learning.

Before starting school we could both read and write, write our own names etc and also tell the time, basic maths were learnt and we could count.
We even knew up to the five times table as well as spending time in the kitchen with Mum and learning how to bake etc.

The only thing that i do remember is wondering why some of the other kids didn`t know things occasionally.

I love books and spend happy times reading and i think that my parents got me off to a fantastic start, it also made me feel proud that my parents had taken the time to teach us instead of leaving everything to someone else.

I still have fond memories of those times at home which will stay with me forever, we had great fun learning all kinds of things.

I say go for it, as long as your child has a willingness to learn it can only be a positive thing, it will be something that your child remembers in later years and your bond will be ever closer.

HTH
SD

dizziblonde

OK from an ex-reception teacher's viewpoint here:
If she genuinely wants to do it and it's not being forced - stuff it - do it.... BUT...

Teach her the letter sounds, not Ay Bee Cee - otherwise it causes some problems when they start school and you can't word build using letter names.
Check how she's forming the letters - you get so many kids further up the school who still do things like stick and circle for letter a and by then the habit is so deeply ingrained we've got naff all chance of getting it un-learnt. There's tonnes of stuff on the internet to reinforce letter formation - but as well as with pen and pencil - what about writing letters with a brush and water on the garden path, or in chalk, or with her finger or a feather in sand - lots and lots of different ways to reinforce the pattern of (correct) movements - because all too often kids end up forming letters incorrectly as they think the only thing that matters is that it looks the same as what they're copying - and then later on when they're taught joined up writing and trying to speed up - it's all a mess that has to be unlearned.
If she's learning to write her name - please please please don't teach it all in capital letters - had that one a few times and the random capitalitis is another nightmare to get un-learnt.]
Numbers and colours in many ways are easier to work on - just the order of numbers and then recognizing them - much more important than recording.

Someone posted the link to Jolly Phonics - while I wouldn't necessarily go the whole hog and buy the handbook (very very expensive), the little books and the like are really good and I think places like the ELC stock them... it's the phonics scheme I always used because it really does work.

HRV

WOW you've had some great advice

Loads of Jolly phonics stuff is available at early learning centre- but be aware, if you havent decided definately on the school, they may not use this scheme, so dont panic.

I just wish some of the parents in my Nursery class did all this. Keep reading, keep talking, let her 'play' write, draw, copy, trace etc. in lots of different ways, use dough (it will strengthen her fingers, hands and wrists ready for writing), play matching games with words, teacher her letter sounds (not names-like the previous poster said). Again try to do letter formation correctly- habits are hard to break- and please dont teach her in capitals ( sounds obvious but you'd be suprised how often this happens). Draw pictures, use glue spreaders and PVA and scissors.

Your probably doing this already but maybe if she wants to feel its more grown up- refer to how it will help with reading and writing "lets do some dough to help get your hands ready for writing when you start school" "why don't we match the words on you cards to ones in the book"

If shes confident in letter sounds maybe encourage her to hear and say the first sound in a word and build up to sounding out simple words eg. p-a-t and then once she can sound this- move on to writing this. (but this is pretty advanced for her age so dont worry if she cant)

Hope that helps:j

jackomdj

Here is a link to a fantastic site: http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/ (did not notice it above but sorry if I missed it).

I used it a lot, printed things out & had a folder that DD had her "work" in.

The above link has lots of different "forms" of words. If you already know which school you are hoping to get LO into it may be worth asking at the reception if they could let you have a copy of the letter formation & even number formation.

This time of year it is a good idea to let them write their own cards. I used to write the words on a seperate bit of paper & DD would copy. To whoever love their name. Then they have the thankyou cards, you write the body & let them do the "to xxxx from xxxx" bit. My DD (just 5) only needs you to now write someones name on a seperate bit of paper as she knows how cards are written.

DD loves the workbooks you can get & used to spend a lot of time going through them.

We have a word wall with their first "key" words. They can do a matching game with a second cut out set of the words: a, an, as, at, if, in, is, it, of, off, on & can.

I think anything you can do to help them is good. The only downside is I get a bit disappointed that she does not do more at school. I know her teacher hands are tied but it would be great if they could do more "learning" & less of the playing side (sorry to moan!)

HTH
Nicky

Gingham_Ribbon

I thought of another site my eldest loved and I can't drag my youngest away from now. www.poissonrouge.com There's loads of learning in there among all the fun activities.

milliebear00001

msb5262 wrote: »

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

Sorry, I haven't read through all the posts but wanted to reiterate this advice, which is excellent. If your daughter is interested and wants to learn, then go for it - just make sure you know the best methods to use and what to do to encourage her - as described above.

In addition, if you're encouraging her reading development, then rhyming games, I Spy etc are great. Make sure you learn how to pronounce letter sounds, and encourage these (not the letter names which don't matter for reading and come later).

Violetta_2

Thank you everyone, so much info to go over and take in.
Read that other thread, got a bit heated for a bit, glad that's not happened here, but again a lot of information to take in.
Like I said I would never push her & I don't give a flying etc!! wether little Johnny reads before wee Mary or if my dd is way behind or way ahead, as she has shown me many times already she will do it when she is ready.

teacher2mum

hi I am a qualified Primary teacher and have a son who was born in Late august so was just 3 when he started school. I used to get so worked up because he wasn't performing as well as his peers ( he just happened to be in a very bright class too!) Eventually, I decided not to listen to the other parents and just be patient with him....I finally decided that in other countries they don't start school til 7. When he was ready and I mean he really was ready to learn (6) I started with Ruth Miskin's synthetic phonics scheme and built up individual letter sounds then simple Consonant, vowel , consonant words like C/a/t...We then moved onto chunking and long and short vowels. He reads better then most of his peers now. My daughter is 4 and she is complete opposite she has picked everything up so quickly...Ask the school which phonics scheme they are using...Letterland, Jolly phonics, Synthetic phonics etc...Wordshark and Numbershark are fantastic computer programs but cost about £80 each but I promise your daughter will love the games. I teach privately now and the majority of my work is helping older children to go back to basics and learn to read and write from scratch...some are particularly naughty at school and once they can read they really change their behaviour at school. It's all about confidence building and raising self esteem...ignore what other parents are telling you I did and we have thoroughly enjoyed the whole process ever since!! Good look and enjoy!!

Violetta_2

I knew the name of this website rang a bell when I saw this on the news!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8462650.stm it did seem a good resource too.
To update still doing bits & bobs when my dd asks & picked up a few books re writing & reading in the works today, she has been distracted with Xmas toy's & books but does occassionally get grumpy that she can't read, sure that will all come in time.