Phonics - Preschool Teacher annoyed me

[CookingDinner]

I feel annoyed today about I conversation one of the Pre-school teacher's had with me informally as I was on my way out of the door having picked up my DD.

She said that my DD knew all of her letter sounds but was pronouncing ALL of them wrong - saying an 'ugh' sound at the end of her letters, etc. She advised buying the Jolly Phonics CD to learn the letter sounds properly because it's changed since we were at school.

I haven't been teaching loads to my DD in prep for school, but we do bits and bobs informally.

I told her I knew Jolly Phonics because I was a Primary School Teacher, and had taught them to my DD, but had also noticed that she was not pronouncing her sounds properly anymore.

This seemed to get her back up, she said "I'm an Early Years Practitioner and these days at University they are teaching the sounds this specific way or they won't be able to read and blend sounds as well when they start reading".

(as it happens my DD was the first to be able to read a book in her pre-school - she justs finds it quite easy, so it hasn't really held her back).

I was thinking - it's not a competition of qualifications. I explained that it was probably because my husband does the bedtime routine - I'm teaching letter sounds one way and him another way, so her ability on this has slipped.

Jesus - shouldn't they just be pleased that the kids are learning something at home? I know she was only trying to help, but she seemed dismissive and patronising. I'm going to go over them again with my DD and ask my DH to learn the correct sounds, but surely not all parents are stringently teaching Jolly Phonics? I feel that teachers should be praising what kids DO know at such a young age, not expecting parents to be hot-housing them at 4 years.

[nothingtodotoday]

I think she was trying to be helpful tbh. It is tricky to lend of they go
lugh e tugh rather than l e t?

[FineAsWeAre]

I'm sure she didn't mean to be patronising and was just trying to help. We're always told by primary teachers to only do phonics if children are genuinely ready (I.e. Ahead of where they should be) as it's hard to unlearn if they learn incorrect letter sounds ('muh' rather than 'mmm' etc). Saying that though, my son learned a lot of words by sight rather than decoding so I'm sure it won't be too detrimental!

[CookingDinner]

When I got home I went through the letter sounds with her and she came up with the right sounds for most of them - so not sure why she got ALL of them wrong at pre-school. She also quickly picked up the correct sounds, so I don't think it's going to be an issue.

We haven't had any advice about not teaching letter sounds at home until they are ready, or how to do it - until I was told this today. Luckily I know Jolly Phonics (not that that's made much difference as DH not been following it), but I'm sure most parents must do it the 'old' way.

[HSMMaCM]

I think she was probably just trying to be helpful in a slightly clumsy way.

I did sounds with dd but dh always did letter names. She still learned to read.