Our new Learning section: need your feedback, please

I've just had a quick look and it looks like it will be pretty useful!
My ds1 (3.8yrs) has been asking me how to read and after a very slow start he is starting to enjoy writing and making letter sounds, so no doubt I'll be there reading up and printing stuff off for him.
Although I have no intention of pushing my children to do anything at all, if they are interested I'd like to encourage it.
Plus, ds1 gets homework from nursery twice a week so is good to know I can pop on here and read up on how to do it in a manner that will be similar to his teachers.
Thank you MNHQ

I think you should start encompassing fodder that interests parents of older children too, too baby and toddler based ......you do Grans now so what about the bit in the middle?

I found it pretty useful, especially the audio of the phonics sounds. DS (4) starts school in Sept and is really eager atm. DD (7) is a fairly confident reader and he has learnt some of the sounds from her.
We sat and looked at the images, he made the sound that he thought it was and I clicked the audio link, great reinforcement tool especially when you can't remember what ou is

Actually... not sure I have strong enough feelings on this subject

And worksheets for phonics learning? Do they not get enough of this in school?

Talk, talk, talk to your child, don't make a 5yo sit down every night and do worksheets.

My DC1 could read fluently at 4- we have never done a worksheet with her. We read to her from birth, showed her the pictures, took her to the library from 5mo, generally had a lot of books around our home, let her see us reading etc etc. Both my children love books, I'm very smug pleased that they do. But I am surprised and saddened that people (other parents at DC's school, who have perhaps 3 books in their home) think they can catch up on 5 years' pre-reading familiarisation and experience by buying a reading scheme and making their children do worksheets every night.

Also- I know MN need sponsors, but I am really unhappy about the slant an educational publishing company put on home based learning. Especially as the links to buy their materials are so prominent.

Parents nowadays seem completely brainwashed into thinking they have to buy all the complementary reading scheme books, workbooks etc, otherwise their child will fall behind
The number of threads in Primary Education where worried parents are asking questions about book bands, reading levels, so anxious that their child will struggle if they don't read these schemes every day.

Surely the best way to strenghten their reading skills, and to embed what they've learned in school is to read non-reading scheme books, books that are not phonics based, that are published for their merit as good stories- that is the way to foster a love of reading, not turgid reading scheme books with stilted rhymes, and odd word choices (because they need to practice phonemes of 'oo' this week).

Getting story books from the library is the best thing for children- they're exercising choice over the material they're reading, they're out in their community interacting with other children and adults in responsible positions, they're supporting their ocal library use, and building a habit for a lifetime of library use, meaning we wouldn't have the situation we see today where lots of local libraries are closing down, and nothing is being done to stop it.

I took a look when it was launched last week... but as soon as I saw the words Pearson, I closed the window tbh.

the words education, marking, and fiasco come to mind...