to ditch the school reading scheme and do our own thing?

[Leilaniiii]

My DD is in Year 1. She has been writing her name since she was in nursery and showed signs of being quite bright. We're not pushy parents at all, so have never asked her to do any work at home, we've just left her to develop at her own pace through nursery and school.

However... the school have a reading scheme where they give the children words on little cards and ask them to memorise them. They send them home and we are expected to help the children to practice until they can recognise them. These are mainly non-phonetic words.

My DD, unfortunately, just isn't getting it at all. I show her the cards over and over again and she just doesn't remember them.

She is also bringing home books where she doesn't know any of the words at all. Again, the expectation is that she will memorise them. Well, it's not working.

I think DD would be more suited to a phonetic-based scheme and am thinking of doing this with her at home.

What are everyone's thoughts, please? Would it be rude to ignore the school's scheme to do our own? I don't want to hurt their feelings. Thanks.

So she is being taught to read with a system that was changed in the UK a number of years ago.

Get her a phonics scheme. She needs to learn to decode and then alongside, common sight words (look them up online)

Bear in mind some countries don't teach reading till children are seven, so she'll be fine!

Thanks for the support ladies. I think we will do our own thing, whilst ticking the boxes for school as well.

Does anybody remember the New Way Reading Scheme? I might try this with her. It was great for our son. Does anybody know where I can buy it from? I have seen the odd book online, but not much.

Thanks.

I'm management but ex-primary teacher.

Phonics is incredibly useful but words can basically be broken down into decodable and nondecodable words.

Teaching a child phonics will enable them to read enourmous amounts of words and the many books specially written to work with Phonics taught in the classroom but there as still some 'tricky' words which need to be wrote-learnt. 'Is', 'the' 'two', for example.

Our children are given key rings of these tricky words to learn with new words added as they learn what they have. Along with these non-decodable, we also use sight words which are the extremely common words which children can learn to improve fluency when reading without needed to use any strategies to read them.

Without knowing what words your daughter's being given, I can't really comment more. It does sound like she's being given books above her reading level (despite signs of being bright!) which is rarely beneficial and more likely to cause problems than anything else.

How are you helping her memorise these words? Look, cover, say, write, check?

Have you tried word shapes? We've found them beneficial in most circumstances from learning tricky words up through Primary where we have weekly spelling tests and lists to learn alongside phonics.

tools.atozteacherstuff.com/printable-word-shapes-worksheets/

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Speak to the school. I think you need to ask what and how they are teaching. You don't seem sure. Children bringing home non-decodable words is common and good.

I can send you masses of resources if you'd like. Jolly Phonics and Read Write are my two favourites.

You say you are in Asia so I am guessing that either this is an international school or a local school which teaches English alongside another language.

I am also in Asia, and phonics is seldom taught well at schools for a number of reasons (other than at the occasional IS which is actually good and follows British guidelines. Most ISs use dire American programs or a hodgepodge of resources).

I recommend doing Jolly Phonics followed by Read Write Inc. However, any systematic synthetic phonics program should be OK. Try the Spelfabet site for a list of good options (it's Australian, but SSP only and very good--lots of UK resources on there). And you have had some good advice on here. But yeah, don't rely on the school to teach reading or phonics properly.

Please don't just rely on phonics as not all words are phonetic. Also some children can't 'hear' the different sounds and a simple phonics based system miss them completely. A mixture of phonics and sight words, as suggested by others is best to support word aquasition.

@Kokeshi123

As someone who has worked closely with CIS and FOBISSIA for a good long time, I can say you're talking out of your arse when you think "phonics is seldom taught well at [International] schools"

I was wondering how you do the cards?

My own belief is that exposure is helpful. Can you write the words in big letters on index cards - one word per card, obvs - and stick them up somewhere she can see them regularly, like opposite where she sits in the kitchen, for instance? Then you can ask her to read each word, or read them to her (then she doesn't get them wrong!) twice or thrice a day.

Maybe you could combine it a little with the phonics you will be doing with her? "Look! What sound is that letter? Yes, this word begins with the sound ...." and so on.

Just basing this on what I have seen in the (Asian) country where I live.

I have seen some good schools and loads of really really bad phonics programs as well.