To wonder where your kids are with reading at Reception?

[Putupafuss]

DD started Reception in Sept and is one of the oldest in her class, turned 5 last month. She is going to a local state school which is quite academically focused. Started phonics on the second week of school and introduced the kids to quite a lot of 'tricky' words, as they call them (his, her, pull, put, the, as, and...and so on).

DD has done phonics since the age of 3, but as soon as we finished the stage 1 I stopped that and let her enjoy her time before starting school. Ever since she started school she's revised all the graphemes and digraphs and is very good at writing the tricky words.

Now she comes home with books to read and yesterday the kids got their school diaries updated with how the kids did at reading. One girl came out with a well done sticker and her mum shared that she read a book to the teacher confidently so obviously she is quite ahead of everyone. DD's message said she segmented and blended well (so no mention of actual reading). I thought DD was quite advanced as we do this at home, but clearly the school seems to expect more.

I know we should probably be doing more at home but DD is not interested. We go through the school book and half way through she gets frustrated and bored. Plus the way she 'reads' is just by segmenting at the moment, apart from the tricky words which she usually recognises.

I grew up in a different acountry and we started school at 6 and 7 yo. I find that this is quite a lot for little ones at this age and DD is even the oldest, some kids have just turned 4 in the summer.

AIBU to ask how are your DCs doing with their reading at Reception? And how much reading do you do at home?

My first son couldn’t read much when he started reception, by year one he was reading very short paragraphs, it’s only the start of the year for the children the first month was settling in so I wouldn’t expect them to be able to read much. My second son is fluent and has been for a year or so, he recently did a reading progress program and came out as 8.2, I really do think it’s depends on the child and what they are interested in.

My reception child is bringing home reading books without words, so I guess they think he's not ready for it yet! He will try to blend sounds though, so perhaps it won't be too long.
If my DC is behind, Im not too worried, he will catch up. Don't compare though, there will always be children more and less advanced!
Ignore the braggy mum, I don't understand anyone who would brag like that in the playground. They must be unsecure deep down about something.
Ignore it all, your dc is doing well, that's all you need to know! 😊

Ooops, insecure I mean, not unsecure! 😂

As a reception teacher it sounds like your little one is doing brilliantly. You're right not to push her at home. She will read when she is ready. Let her play and have lots of different experiences.

Yes, it's a bit odd to brag about it in the playground. But the braggy mum has 2 older daughters at a very top grammar school so I think they are all very bright, don't think it's insecurity.

Yeah but to brag about it though?? 🙄
I think it's good if your kids are bright but why the need to broadcast it to the other mum's.
Guess it depends how it was said! But sounds like she wanted everyone to know!!
Anyway, it sounds like your daughters doing fab! Try not to worry.

My DT’s are in reception and just last night I started worrying they might be behind, so it is a bit of a relief reading how much it varies on this thread.
They are still bringing home books without any words, but can recognize the ‘sounds’ that have been covered and apparently have done some blending of words at school. I read to them loads at home, and they love books, so hopefully it’ll come eventually. They are also quite speech delayed and can only really write their name, but are of course very smart in their own way! (They could tell you how most machines work!).

Yes, it's such a relief to hear about all these variations at this stage. I felt a bit of pressure yesterday as I thought this is the standard the school expected, since they only rewarded the child who was very advanced.

Anyway, I'll relax and do with DD just what we've done so far. The last thing I want for her is to feel stressed and pressurised into doing things she's not ready for.

Thank you x

I also grew up in a different system where we didn't learn to read until 7 but focused on other skills like social and communication. I went on to get an English degree so didn't hold back my reading at all. This means I don't worry about what stage they are at with phonics at all, they all develop at their own pace and there is no benefit to being ahead at this stage.

My dd (reception) is taking books home with 3/4 letter words but at the latest parents evening we were told she is 'above expectations' so a lot of children are probably still on the wordless books. She watched every lockdown zoom lesson my ds had so clearly picked up a lot, I have never tried to teach her reading before she started school. My ds was a lot slower but now in year 2 he is reading well.

DD was reading full chapter books by reception age. DS started reception reading CVC words. DD obviously miles ahead in reading. DS also 'ahead' in reading but way behind his sister at the same age. However, DS has skill sets his older sister hasn't yet mastered, especially socially, which are arguably more important at this age. Don't worry and let school do their thing! Most children will be able to read fairly well by year 2/3 regardless of where they were starting reception.

Oh I didn't realise some kids get wordless books?! We only got 3 or 4 books so far, but they all had a few words on each page or small sentences.

So I assume if she gets books with longer sentences that means she's progressed?

Yes, same here. DD is very social, bubbly and very empathetic.

Yes every child at my dd's school start with wordless books and then progress from there. It might depend on the scheme, we do Little Wandle.

Yes, they do Little Wandle here too but we didn't get a wordless book, not sure about other kids, I never asked. But we only started getting books a week before half term.

DS (4) started in Reception in September too. Before he started he couldn't write his name legibly or read.
The school are using Little Wandle too (new to us) & DS is now on Phase 2 books, is segmenting & blending well & sight reading certain words - he sounds on a similar level to your DD.
Communication with school is good - had a meeting last month, have a communication book we can write in & can speak to the teacher at pick up or drop off, or arrange to speak privately.
We were initially concerned about his progress as DD (who is Sept born) was much further ahead when she started school, but the teachers are very happy with DSs progress & so are we.
One thing we did which has helped was to get out the easel & whilst I'm reading bedtime stories DS asks how to spell certain words & then practices writing them.

My kids managed to read without digraphs, phonemes, segmenting and blending. One was fluent - as in hand them something and they could read it with meaning and understanding just before they turned 5, the other just before they turned 6.
The other didn't get phonics at all and was fluent by 8. The later reader is the one who reads most for pleasure.
In my experience pushing him to go more quickly achieved nothing.

My child is also 5 and has just brought her first school book home. It's a sentence per page of the type "Pip and Sam pat the big dog".

We're doing Little Wandle as well - as I understand it they're supposed to read the book 3 times in a group at school before it comes home.

This is normal for a child who is doing fine. It feels strange after nursery when you often get more feedback. Although our school uses Tapestry (an online learning journey) in Reception which does give you a bit more context to what they are doing.

In regards to the girl who read well getting a sticker, I suspect the teacher was just pleasantly surprised. Hopefully others will get rewarded over time for their effort.

Hi, as someone who has gone through this.malarkey four times, could I just say that what they are or are not reading in reception means absolutely NOTHING. Mine were in a very pushy prep and there was so much covert competition between mums about whose DC were on what book band etc etc - (I should say, this only happens with the first child though, by the second one you're definitely over it)! I look back now and it's hilarious. There was one girl who was reading Harry Potter - an only child who the mother proclaimed as a genius. She was taking her for termly (!) testing with an Ed Psych and sharing the results on the school gates. I'll never forget it.

Fast forward 15 years .... I know Oxbridge is not the be-all-and-end-all, but I also now know that despite this girl being earmarked for Oxbridge since reception, she did not get in (for English); whereas quite a few of the slow readers and even ones with dyslexia who never got a mention or prize or anything are at Oxbridge right now, reading anything from Medicine to Economics.

OP, reading is a bit like walking. Some get it earlier than others, but once they can read, they can read, and you don't remember whether fluency happened at 3 or 7 (or even later). Children develop at different rates. Also, some children are very good at decoding phonics, but perhaps their ability to gain meaning from the words is not quite there; while other children are slower with phonics, but really get meaning and pleasure from what they are able to read. They will all get there in their own time.

My son was 5 in July. In Scotland he started school on mid August. He can recognise what they call common words eg. and, the etc. by sight. He has in the last two weeks started to blend but does so out loud and has to do it for every other word. He can't read without doing this. His sister could blend words at 3, we did the phonics at home with her and she took to them really well. At 4 she started to blend words in her head and started reading shop signs which alerted me to the fact that she could blend and then she began to read at preschool. I didn't teach her how to blend she just sort of figured it out on her own.All kids are different.

If you have concerns about how to support her then by all means speak to the school or have a look online but most kids will get there in their own time and teachers should flag if they are concerned about her progress.

I think this is such good advice!

This being mumsnet every bodies kids will be reading classics in nursery ,in reality it doesnt matter where your child is compared to others ,my son really struggled with reading and it didnt really click untill he.was about 8 ,of course i worried ,but hes 16 next month and reads just fne ,its not something he enjoys ,but
Thats ok.

I think their abilities range so much at this age! My DC is in reception, is amazing at maths/numbers and is storming ahead with reading (currently on phase 3 but finding it easy) but he really struggles with writing. Holding the pen properly and forming letters is difficult for him at the moment even though he can read really confidently. His goal is to be able to write his name before Christmas, for some children this is easy but he's just not there yet.
I think they all have areas they naturally shine and ones that need working on, so I'm not worried. I'm just gently encouraging at home, working on building his hand strength ect, but I know he will be fine. They're all so little still! It sounds like your DC is doing really well so please don't worry!

Thank you for this x

I know what you mean about pushy competitive parents. I'm only just starting to see it now with a few mums and it gives me anxiety. I hope I can laugh it off one day.