letters and sounds- letterland

[Jojohaha]

My DS's nursery (he;s 3.5) has been doing letterland for the past 30 weeks as it stands DS still does not get that the letters they have been teaching him have a connection to words! He has managed to get through the whole alphabet and still cannot tell you a word that begins with a particular letter. Am i expecting too much? Any ideas how i can get him to make the connection. (ill probably get told off if i try phonics, but is that worth a go?)

[kateGB]

Wow.

Are nursery expecting him to learn his time tables and grammer by the time he starts school as well?

Am not a teacher but would have thought it is about learning their shapes, making a connection that they actually mean something will come eventually.

For most schools I would have thought that writing their first name is a target when they initially start. Then they learn sounds.

Before they start school they shoudl be making the connection that the squiggles on the page can be translated into sounds.

I would start with the basic jolly phonics. Thats a good scheme as it has actions for the sounds which little ones seem to find cool.

Some kids can recite the alphabet at 3 but it doesn't mean anything, it's just a rhyme.

As long as your ds is happy and it's made into a game then OK. But don't worry. Think about what they will learn at school (hopefully!) Anything they learn at pre-school is a bonus !

[mamaolivia]

I agree that thinking of words starting with a sound is a lot for a 3.5 year old. I personally do not like Letterland though. I am a teacher and in a former school, we had to use Letterland. I found that the children coming into my clas (year 2) also found sounding out very hard as there is too much emphasis on the characters - Annie Apple, Kissing cousins etc, rather than the sounds the letters make.
Agree that jolly phonics is a much better way to go as it concentrates on sounds, and as the sounds are introduced in order of the frequency of use in English, they can pick up reading very quickly.

[purepurple]

At this age, an awareness of letter sounds is enough.
Start by the sound that begins his name, and build up from that.
Letterland, IMHO, is pants.

[dilemma456]

Message withdrawn

[MrsBadger]

the kissing cousins are for X not K
In English x normally makes a 'kss' sound (fox, box etc), not an 'ecks' sound

[dilemma456]

Message withdrawn

[Jojohaha]

Thank you i'll ditch the letterland stuff and get the jolly phonics. lol and your right kateGB he can sing the abc but has no idea what it really means i'm sure. DS's nursery is using k=kicking king, and x=fix-it-max.

[Jojohaha]

Thank you i'll ditch the letterland stuff and get the jolly phonics. lol and your right kateGB he can sing the abc but has no idea what it really means i'm sure. DS's nursery is using k=kicking king, and x=fix-it-max.

[clemette]

DD's nursery do letterland, and although I know it is not popular in the primary schools I thought it would confuse her if I started jolly phonics with all the extra rhymes and characters. So I bought the Letterland CD. Then when were out and about I used to ask her what letters she could see (as well as asking what shapes and numbers she could see).

[thecloudhopper]

I would like to say 2 things:
1 I hate letter land as the children do not learn the letter sounds just teh caractor names in my experence.
23.5 is a bit young to sart all that for me giving life experence and life skills and showing them different things is more important than learning letters, do things like go on a sound walk and have a clip board with pictures of say 3/4 things that you are are bound to hear ie car bird ect and make a note when you hear them as you have to train the ear to hear things like taht before they can listen and differntiate sounds.

[LIZS]

Letterland is very old hat, are all their resources outmoded or is there a variety ? Why would you be told off for using phonics , he obviously isn't responding to the system he has been exposed to thus far and that is what is now used in schools. Maybe the whole system the nursery use doesn't suit him. Having said that there should be no pressure for him to make the connection he's still very young and it will be covered again in Reception.