Primary School Phonics

mishkanorman

Whilst its good to get yourself used to the phonics the children will learn, I would personally not teach them to your child before they start school. (speaking from experience at our school) They teach the first initial sounds as a class rather than individually so if you 'teach' your child at home all that will generally happen is they have to sit through it all again whilst the rest of the class learn them. (they progress through them as one)

Ive found the cbeebies website has some good games to play on the Alphablocks section, might be a good way to familiarize yourself with the 'correct' sounds

msb5262

mishkanorman wrote: »

Whilst its good to get yourself used to the phonics the children will learn, I would personally not teach them to your child before they start school. (speaking from experience at our school) They teach the first initial sounds as a class rather than individually so if you 'teach' your child at home all that will generally happen is they have to sit through it all again whilst the rest of the class learn them. (they progress through them as one)

I've got to say, I agree with this.

"Letters and Sounds" is a brilliant scheme but it is intended to be taught over a long period of time.

Your child's teacher will be able to do this and it will be great for your child to be "at one" with the rest of the class or group.

Your child's teacher can't do endless cuddles, sharing books one to one, talking about things your child knows and sees every day, regular practice (with one to one support) at random times of things like threading beads, using scissors, colouring, rolling dough....etc etc. I'm a teacher and I've never "taught" my children the things they were going to do at school, just focused on the skills they can polish up at home to get them ready.

Use this special time with your child to develop listening skills, talk endlessly and just enjoy his or her company. That way your child will be properly ready to learn when it's time for school.

(You could also get your child ready in things like learning to eat with a knife and fork, get dressed and undressed (PE in foundation stage can take HOURS!), manage coat/shoes/wellies on and off, hang up coat by the loop etc etc. but mainly read stories, tell stories, talk, identify colours and count)

Hope that helps. Have a lovely time with your little one!

MsB

bylromarha

MX5huggy wrote: »

Why does my heart sink when I read that my 18mth old will in 3 years time know to describe the word take as a split digraph? when at 30 plus I have never heard of a split digraph? now magic e that rings a bell no idea what, did I use it at uni?

Oh, don't let it sink your heart. It should warm your heart.

The look of delight and joy I have seen on several little faces when they come in to class in the morning, and recall the story of how they had to explain what a split digraph was to their parent.

The sense of power and knowledge using adult terms like this gives a 5 year old really spurs them on. The kids love it!

I won't tell you what a split digraph means in order that your 18 month old can experience that power learning can bring when they explain it to you!

flora48

Look at some Letterland stuff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterland

Buy a chart with the Letterland characters, read some of the Letterland books and maybe try a jigsaw puzzle. You won't be far off the mark.

lindsaygalaxy

I am a KS1 teacher and would say don't worry just yet! A lot of time in foundation is spent on phonics. Some schools use Jolly phonics, some Letters and Sounds, some use other phonic programmes. There are basically 2 types of words - those that you can sound out and those that are HFW/ tricky words - the ones you just have to know as they are not decodable. The 2 types are learnt at the same time in phases (there are 6). The first step is learning sounds (the first step) then CVC words (constanant vowel constanant) e.g. sat, cat, map, mop, dog etc. Words like 'take' and it's rule come much later on (year 1/2).
One piece of advice - try not to add any 'uh' sounds on the end of letters or children then spell words with an 'u' it in when it shouldn't be there.

purplepardalis

I really hope that teaching phonics has gone out of fashion by the time my kids go to school!

Running_Horse

Thanks for your replies.

I started early, teaching her the alphabet song at about two. Then at four, someone (pre-school or childminder) taught her to sound out words. So she can work with both systems, and is at the stage of picking out odd words in books, and writing simple words like cat and dog.

Apparently reception teach through play, so now we do written price tags when playing shops, and weighing stuff on the kitchen scales.

I suspect the person who said relax and just have fun had a point, but she is so keen to learn.

milliebear00001

purplepardalis wrote: »

I really hope that teaching phonics has gone out of fashion by the time my kids go to school!

Only if you aren't keen for them to learn to read...it's impossible to do if you don't know any letter sounds!

daveyjp

Don't bother second guessing before school. Wait until they get there - you'll soon pick it up. We knew all the letters and actions within 3 months.

trufflebuggy

Take a look at Debbie Hepplewhite's website. http://www.syntheticphonics.com/

Lots of information, about phonics and some video clips so you can hear the sounds of the different letters.

Also for any parents of dyslexic children this following website has a wealth of information. There's alot of pages to get through but the information you can draw from it is great. http://www.dyslexics.org.uk/index.htm especially if you've not come across dyslexia before.

hth