Foundation stage report

pinkshoes

Do you sit and read to him each night instead?

My son hated reading when he started reception class in September. Instead of school books, i read to him, or wrote something funny for him to try and read, usually involving poo or our dog doing something stupid. So long as it was fun for him. We also used foam letters in the bath to spell silly words and sentences.

He is now reading at stage 13, so has done really well.

Louk

I agree with the majority of the other replies you've had. I also wanted to suggest perhaps setting time to read in the mornings. I know it's not always possible but I find I get better results with my Son than after school.

building_with_lego

If he's exceeding in Being Imaginative it sounds as though he's still a little boy who likes pretending to be Spiderman or Batman and saving the world, rather than quietly holding a book or puzzle. I'm an NQT teaching Reception and Year 1 children and I wouldn't be at all surprised by a summer baby with his results. In fact, going on children in my class, I wouldn't be surprised if it all falls into place for him in terms of reading and writing and he suddenly makes huge progress in a short period of time.

Pleas read what Barbiedoll says about other forms of print, be it comics, bus stop posters, games and subtitles (I know a 4-year old who taught himself to read that way), and what Pinkshoes says about bedtime stories. Make reading at home a regular part of your routine and the benefits really will show at school, when he's ready.

Detroit

I wouldn't worry, he'll read in time.The important thing is not to make too big a deal of it as if it seems like a chore he could be put off altogether.
At that age I'd say little and often for reading practice, no more than 5-10 mins at a time, and try to make it fun.
It doesn't have to be the school book, point out words whenever the opportunity presents, in the supermarket in magazines etc, and get him to tell you what the word is.
Make reading part of day to day life rather than the dreaded reading book session.
It could be that he never becomes a book lover, and prefers to learn in other ways, so if the school aren't overly concerned and he's bright, alert, talking well etc I'd relax and let him develop at his own pace.

rach_k

I wouldn't worry at all. My oldest is a September baby and my youngest is an August baby - I see lots of differences in where they are at points in the school year, so I wouldn't let yourself try to compare your August baby to others. Particularly at this stage, I would be happy as long as *some* progress is being made, no matter how small/slow and the child is enjoying it. I feel that making loads of progress but hating it does not set a child up as well for the rest of their education as a child who is making a tiny bit of progress but enjoying their learning.

I don't think it's necessary to go over what they've done in school at home, unless the child wants to show you. In Reception, they probably do things like phonics and numeracy every day anyway, and they repeat it lots. Maybe try bringing numbers and writing into other things you do (write a note to Grandma, make a shopping list together, count how many biscuits you have etc) but I wouldn't try to repeat school stuff as you risk making it boring (or not knowing the methods they use in school, which can be confusing).

With my kids, I have seen a difference between the child who wants to read every day and the one who isn't bothered, so I think it's worth trying to read *something* together every day, just for 5-10 minutes, if you can. We read in the morning before school. After school, they're just too tired and we run out of time before bed-time, which we do fairly early. We get up at 7am, get ready and breakfasted and usually by 8am we've done everything so we read. They have plenty of energy then!

Spendless

My son left reception unable to read his key words. They put him in a special class in yr1 so he could catch up and he did. Once he could read, we managed to establish that he preferred non-fiction books to stories, which we went along with for a while, before hitting on the fiction books he enjoyed. Now 16, even though English has never been a huge strength with him (he got a C in GCSE Lit last year, awaiting results for Lang), he still amazes me at times that he has read more than I'm aware of. The subject usually comes up when we watch something, so last year I discovered he's read Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None' and only last night did I discover he'd read Hans Christian Anderson's Little Mermaid, at what age I don't know, it only came about because we went to watch his sister in a show based on it! I really wouldn't worry at this stage, he will catch up.

georgie262

Aw thank you, you lovely people. I do feel much better having read all your replies. Although my head and the sensible side of me was saying 'don't panic or worry he'll get there' the more emotional side was saying I should be doing more. Also, there are things that he is doing so well, he is polite, he is kind and he is excellent at drawing. We do read stories every night. I'm going to start looking for perhaps some slightly longer, more interesting stories. I woke up to a 'memory' status from last year on my facebook page this morning that said "I have been informed today that I no longer have a son I have a rainbow dragon called Starwars whose father was killed by scallywags and whose mother has been kidnapped by the evil Dr Slug" and how could you be worried at a 3 YO (as he was then) who comes out with that?

custardy

my son was behind in his reading too. Wasnt until he was 6/7 it seemed to click with him.
Up to that point he was very strong on numbers,now they are balanced and he is an avid reader now.

susancs

OP, I have taught children in foundation and they all all very individual and develop at different rates in different areas. The primary areas for development in the foundation stage are personal social and emotional, physical and communication and language and the other areas are secondary areas. The ages and stages in the foundation stage are only a rough guide and if there were real concerns about his development you would have been called in for a meeting before now.
Here is the Govt guidance on ages and stages and if you scroll down to the 40-60 months you will see the expectations.
http://www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2012/03/Early_Years_Outcomes.pdf

Reading at the upper end of the foundation stage can be about hearing and saying the initial sounds in words, plus joining them together to form words and this can be done via fun daily activities. For example my 2 year old nephew loves the leapfrog A-Z fridge magnets and this helped him know all the letter sounds already. He loves to give me an S for my name, M to his mummy, D to his Daddy. Then when out his mum plays the letters game e.g. can you point to an C on something (if he points to a letter that is not C she just shows him the C on some packaging so he learns). They discuss the initial sounds of of things that go into the trolley.

For writing give him lots of opportunities to develop his fine motor mark making skills by using chalk boards, scribble and wipe boards, marking making in sand or soil etc. Some children love you using a highlighter pen to write words and trace over it with a pencil. Again it needs to ber made fun and what he is interested in e.g. if he likes dragons you could sound out the dragons name and write it down if he can't do it and see if he wants to copy it or do a map to get to the dragons and label it.

Maths, again their are lots of opportunities in the environment, discussing door numbers on houses, numbers on clocks. You can , count the number of cutlery, plates, glasses needed on the table for family meals, number of stairs. Building duplo or lego towers can be used to compare different lengths, ruler to measure differnet items. using a bowl of water and jugs to compare amount of water in each. Simple sand timers are great to help get an idea of time e.g. you have 5 minutes until it is time for bed and that is when all the sand is in the bottom of the glass. Cooking is a good way to also learn about measurement. Lots of ideas here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/360537/ELG12___Shape__space_and_measures.pdf

Faith177

As above my kid brother was a July baby and was normally having his birthday on the last day of school. He was exactly the same as your son and was for many years. It didn't help that I was quite academic and read stacks but he was more hands on and could build things with no instructions at all.

We found he developed a love for reading once he was allowed to read what he wanted. So would definately try that also maybe play to his drawing strengths and get him to draw a picture and you write what it is so he can practise reading on something he has had input on

After reading your last post about having a rainbow dragon called Starwars instead of a son I too don't think you have anything to worry about he sounds a little cracker and again reminds me of my brother at that age. He could spend 5 hours playing with a stick and have all kinds of adventures lol