To have made up my own way to teach DD her letters/sounds?

[NeoMaxiZoomDweebie]

She's just turned 5 in reception and is struggling with recognising letters. She knows some...but the images in the phonics methods and the movements don't help her recognise the sounds.

So you say "A a a" and she says "A a a ants on your arm" and she rememebers the movement but show her an a...nothing. Blank.

So last week I began to look at the letters she was struggling to retain...some of them included t m n and v.

I then said t looks like a tree...and I drew a tree beside a t....in the same shape but added a few leaves...she now always gets that one right. i did the same with n and m....and v....they're not as "neat" as t...v for instance...I made a v out of playdoh and Vroomed it around saying it was a Van...she never forgets that one. I did others too and she has improved massively....

Am I doing a "bad" thing though? Her teacher wants her to move on...and I guess she's worried about this phonics test they all get later on?

I don't know what else to do though. DD seems to not connect the phonics pics and actions with the sound and the image somehow...

Ask the teacher to give to give you copies of the pics they use. Try not Grrr too far off piste and good luck.
Just remember to use letter sounds, not names

Grrr? I meant veer

She did give them to me nosleeps....DD just can't seem to get along with them,...I know the sounds need to be used.

Agree with asking the teacher, depending what scheme they are using they probably have some books/flash cards with the pictures they use for each letter. Just might make it easier for her if you're all doing the same thing as there will be more repetition.

Every child learns differently and I see no issue at all with giving her her own personal strategies to learn. Sounds like you're doing well! The phonics screening isn't until towards the end of year 1 anyway.

Have a look at this: www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DFES-00281-2007
I think it should be fine if you reinforce the letters covered each week. I meant don't veer away too far from what's being covered. She'll need to apply it won't she, so a a ant, a a apple, or a a avocado - all fine.

Well some parents teach their dcs letters before they even start school so dont use te phonics system and their kids seem to manage fine. Whatever helps her learn them imo.

Fgs don't worry about the phonics test. It may/may not be there in 2014.

Have you seen any of the letterland stuff? They have eg dippy duck who is a duck with a 'd' superimposed on it. Each letter has a character which is pictured with a lower case version of the letter forming part of their shape, iyswim? linky here

I am a bad mother, and I did abandon ds in front of the tv when he was around two or three and I did put on the letterland dvds and he did know all his letters long before he got to school. He did letterland stuff at nursery and then switched to jolly phonics when he got to school. He has a jolly phonics story book where you are encouraged to trace the letters with your fingers as well as doing the actions, do you think that would help as well?

Check out Mr Thornes phonics on YouTube. And mrthorne.com for lots of ideas and games for phonics. He does great little videos of how to say the sounds correctly as they are being taught in school.

It sounds like your daughter is being taught through the jolly phonics program. There's no harm in you reinforcing at home with a more physical approach like making the letter shapes from play dough. Focus on the accurate pronounciation of the sound and enjoy playing with the sounds in games.

Thank you everyone. The teacher has stressed me out as she feels DD needs to be further ahead than she is....she mentioned an IEP if DD doesn't know all her sounds by the end of reception. For year 1 I mean.

It's a high performing school though. I suppose I ought to be glad they're helpful.

Neo you are doing brilliantly.

You are to be congratulated.

My DGS is dyspraxic and had the same problems. He's just turned 8 and is a brilliant reader.

He was diagnosed as needing a different way of learning and it has really paid off.

Most DC (when they have problems) have difficulty with blending sounds when they ae learning how to read and spell.

If you google phonics and blending you will get heaps of advice and help.

My DGD has just started algebra and DD explained that x and y etc. are unknown quantities.
DD just turned 10 still didn't understand so DD gave her visual concepts using red balloons. They went out to the garden with helium balloons, counted how many they started with, then "accidently" let a random amount go. DD then had to ascertain what x was by counting how many balloons were left.

She "got it" straight away.

Hope this helps.

What you are doing sounds excellent. You are appealing to what your daughter is interested in.

I suggest you practice blending simple 3 letter words. If your little girl struggles then model the blending and point at each letter. Get your little girl to point at each letter with a pencil as she says the sound.

I think that learning to recongise letter sounds requires a lot of practice. I don't think that pictures are necessary and sometimes can be a distraction. With my son I used games to try and make it fun. for example I wrote a couple of letter sounds on pieces of A4 and we played musical letters. I played some music and when the music stopped I called out a letter and my husband and son had to try and jump on the letter first.

dd's letter have had a letter walk around the school where they look for a particular letter on signs.

Your daughter does not need to know all her letter sounds to start practicing blending. If she knows 6 leter sounds ie. s,a,t,i,p,n then there are lots of small words she can decode.

You are teaching your DD the way she naturally learns. That's the best way to teach and impossible to do in the classroom (not dissing the curriculum, it's served my children well) because every individual has their own natural learning style, the curriculum is a good all rounder in terms of education, but it doesn't mean it's the best way for each child, and some children just don't get phonics! I learn in colours and by doing, other people learn best when moving, others reading instructions etc., etc.,

In conjunction with her formal education you're giving her a great start.

My youngest struggled with the Flash Cards so we made our own too, with pictures he LIKES, the difference is astounding. YANBU.

Also, don't be too worried by it.
She's really young still.

Helping is great but it does take longer for some children than for others.
My god-daughter struggled with this exact same problem until she was half-way through Year 1. She was desperate to learn, she knew that those shapes were letters, but she could not for the life of her get it fixed in her head which shape represented which letter (or number). My friend got quite worried and asked my Mum (who is a Primary head teacher, no longer working in a school but for the county going in to help and support schools in special measures so she knows a thing or two!). My mum's reaction was "She'll be fine. It will all suddenly click into place. It's not a cause for worry just yet - read with her, stopping sometimes to pick out some letters, show her letters when they appear (eg car number plates - invent games round them) but stop if she shows signs of being upset by it. If she gets worried it'll make it even harder for her so try not to put any pressure on. It's normal - some kids get it quickly, some don't." And interestingly, my friend did the playdough thing - they spent an afterrnoon making playdough numbers, putting them round the house and garden and taking photographs, and the pics were then stuck up (3 sounds like tree, so was put next to a tree, and the idea was to try and think back to the shape near the tree when my god-daughter needed to write a 3, or check the relevant picture). My mum thought this was an excellent idea, providing an extra strategy to help dgd remember.

I'd have a chat with the teacher and just make sure they know what you are doing (so if your dd says anything they know what she's talking about!) - they may also be able to add some bits into the mix to help you.

But it does sound identical to my dgd -she's now 7 and it all fell into place just over a year ago, and she hasn't looked back since.

Sounds like you are doing a great job we taught our now reception DD her sounds and letters before dshe started school with the help of an enthusiastic nursery nurse in along the same lines.

Thank you Coralynne...it's nice to hear I'm not alone!

Really Tired thank you too....the teacher says she's begun to blend and she keeps doing it at home naturally anyway...so she was writing Mum and rhymes it with Tum...which she changes to Tummy...and then asks me to write that down for her to see...

aldi I think the teacher was saying that to me in a roundabout way...like telling me DD needed more input from me as they obviously can't do it in school unless she gets an IEP.,...I'd far rather she was helped at home and brought up to speed before that happened really. I know she;ll get more aware soon and realise she's behind others.

You're all helping me enormously as I felt really guilty.

Baby thank you I will tell the teacher tomorrow. I will also steal the photographing the letters idea...fab! I am planning to make salt dough letters tomorrow with her.

God. I used to have time for painting my nails and things!

my dd had trouble spelling her surname in reception ( 10 letters long with repeated letters in the middle)

so i wrote her a song, that was especially for her, with all her favourite things in it.

then i put a picture next to each letter so that she could remember the letter and the picture together. there are two 'e' one after t and one after k. the k stood for kanagroo, so the next e stood for 'egg-a-roo' and the picture was a kanagaroo's head coming out of an easter egg. that was so that she didnt get lost along the way.

She learned to spell her surname in one weekend!

do what works for your child. My dd wont be singing the surname song at her wedding, so i wouldnt worry about it.

Don't worry about tests etc too much. She's 5, as long as she's learning then it's fine. If she doesn't pass a specific test on letters, it really won't affect her education in the long run!

Good luck!
Another tip (from my Dad, also a teacher!). If she consistently gets the letters b and d (lower case) muddled (where the stick is on each one) write the word 'bed' down.
It looks like a bed (which 'deb' doesn't) with a headboard and footboard.
And you know it starts with a 'b' from the sound, and finishes with a 'd'. Hey presto, you know which one is which.
He did teach years 3 and 4 so a bit older, but one year he had two or three kids who continually muddled those two letters up so he spent a year with 'bed' written in big letters on a cupboard door. It caused much hilarity when taken out of context...

sounds ok to me. she is learning them.

Sounds fine but I'd try to relate your way to the schools way so she knows that the two memory aids are the same sound.

i.e.

t for tree is the same as the schools t for....

thanks shewho....i will do that does anybody know which sounds come after satpin? i want to tackle them in order...i know sheknowsmore than satpin but think id better go through consecutively

aldi thank you so much for your input I really appreciate it... it's an epiphany for me to realise that school just don't have the time to teach individual styles of learning.