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?

I don't understand this. If what they send home is one book a week then reading that book is what they expect surely?

There's a massive range. DS started school (jan birthday) knowing all phase 2 & 3 sounds and could easily read red books and by October was ready for yellow and reading quite fluently. DD is an august birthday, and i am expecting she will not know many sounds when she starts, she may be just starting to blend.
My DN (march birthday) started school reading completely fluently, but by age 10 was unexceptional.

progress is not linear, and the current model of trying to progress the whole class together tends to at times limit those for whom it has clicked earlier and over stretch those who need a bit longer.

Its a poor approach, as with reading there are phases where kids really come on and have a bit of a leap, and you need to ready to react to those.

Can I ask you how do children transition from segmenting to actual reading? My native language is very phonetic, with longer words and so the way we were taught was by breaking words down into syllables and the reading came on quite quickly I remember (I was reading a bit before starting school).

But again I was 6 (late spring born), some of my class mates were already 7 when they started school so we were all more mature and the age gaps between children made no difference.

DD4 (July baby) can sound out most of the single letters but hasn’t really started to blend. She’s still getting wordless books home. As are most of her class. There is no suggestion from her teachers that she is behind and I know by the end of reception she’ll be able to do more. I would take most of what is said here and in the playground with a huge pinch of salt and remember the only parents that are talking about it are the Ken’s that are doing well.

Don’t know who Ken is or why he’s entering this discussion.

😅

Ds is reception - 5 at the end of Sept. He loves trying to read and is pretty obsessed with letters - everywhere we go he will point letters out and try to spell things. We read most nights - he reads to me then I read to him. He's reading simple sentences - some by blending and some by recognition. He gets homework every week and has done since his first week in school, but he really enjoys it so I don't mind.

My eldest couldn't even recognise a letter when he started school. Hated the first few books with words and it was an absolute chore. Then something clicked part way through reception and he just got it, and flew. He's now 9 with a reading age of 14 and comprehension age of 13, and reading is his absolute number 1 pastime.

Comparison is the thief of Joy.

Focus on your kid and your kid alone.

Please don't worry.
One of my dcs could barely read simple words by the end of reception, and one dc started reading at 3 and was a fluent reader in reception.
They're reading adult books quite happily as teenagers
Just carry on reading to her, encourage her to read at times without pushing it, take her to the library and let her choose books.

Following

Ds4 had no interest in it at all prior to starting reception we always have lots of books around and he loves Bedtime stories but he's taking his time and we aren't pushing.

He's learning his phonics slowly and recognising letters and a few short words now but school books still have no words at all.

They l catch up in their own time.

My daughter is in reception, July born so one of the youngest. She recognises most of the single phonic sounds and has just started blending CVC words.
My older daughter who is now in year 3 could read very simple books at the start of reception and by the end was fluently reading chapter books. She was January born.
I would say my younger is daughter is more typical of where they’re expected to be at this stage but there’s such a range at this age. They all get there are their own pace and in a few years time it will all have evened out anyway. Sounds like you’re approaching it in the right way - much better than she enjoys books at this stage than push too much x

I haven’t RTFT sorry, but as a Reception / Early Years teacher for many years I would be THRILLED if my class were all segmenting / blending at this stage in the year! If she’s sometimes frustrated/ bored that’s ok some days. foster a love of reading where you can, enjoy different books, read to her, visit the library and know it’s ok if she sometimes doesn’t want to read. i’ve many children who have no books in their home and who struggle to recognise letters. The gap since covid has v much widened in classes.

My daughter started in September and has a spring birthday. She started with no prior reading practice and as of now is able to phonically sound out a lot of words. Not every word but she's definitely getting there. I was pleasantly surprised today when she started to try and read the names on the cereal box this morning.

Happy with her progress and don't plan on trying to get her to do more or anything.

My DD is 4. She's one of the youngest in her class and goes to a really great state school. She is reading books in the green band. We recently went to parents evening and learned she's in the challenge group and her teacher said it's a group that helps her push her reading skills further. They are given a simple homework assignment once a week (phonics, maths and handwriting) and parents are asked to read with them 3 times a week.

I wouldn't worry. Every child is different and everyone progresses differently. My DD takes Stage 1 swimming lessons with her friend from pre school. DD started back in August and her friend started last month. Her friend is progressing really well and is showing a lot of confidence in her swimming and was moved to stage 2. Everyone is different and everyone's pace is different. We taught DD to cheer on her friends when they learn to read and she knows to cheer on her friend that has moved up another level. It's not a competition.

DD2 was YR in 2020. When schools closed in March she was still saying c-a-t ... dog? I thought she would never learn to read!

Something clicked during lockdown, and she absolutely flew. I think some make slow and steady progress and some make big jumps and then nothing for ages. They are all different.

I’d try not to worry to much at this stage, when my eldest started reception he only brought home a picture book with a few “tricky words” in to begin with, his school focused more on creating a story from using the pictures and if they could sound out and blend the words even better!

my eldest was August born so I was constantly anxious incase he wasn’t ready, some of his friends were on actual reading books/higher level by year 1!

each parents evening I was told how he’s just “slightly behind” where he should be and getting distracted etc.. he’s now in year 3 I had his parents evening and they was saying how he is at the right age for his reading now and his writing is lovely and his presentation is beautiful!

his teachers through the years said to me “when there ready it will just click” and he is now just where he’s meant to be! He’s nowhere near free reading yet but he’s trying and doing well!

i do think in reception it is more to do with encouraging them to use the pictures to tell the story such as what’s happening on them and showing they have understanding of the pictures to.. blending and sounding out to make words etc will all come in time!

in my sons year you have some that are free readers already/some that are level 1.. they all go at there own pace and eventually it does just fall into place!

my youngest son will be starting reception next year and he’s September born and already he’s writing letters and understanding pictures in the story! It really is amazing to see how a year makes all the difference in some situations, but any child whether it be any month they were born will know when they are ready, my one piece of advice is don’t compare! You’ll drive yourself mad, if your child is getting fed up/tired throughout half way, put the book down say well done for what they’ve done so far and leave the other half until the next day.

do just a couple of pages at a time if needed to, they’ll get there..

That's very good advice, thank you. I'm so glad I posted here, I'm definitely not worrying anymore.

Funny enough DD was really into reading tonight and wanted to read books with proper sentences rather than just words 😀.

She also told me there is a boy in the next door class in YR who is very very clever and does really good maths, he can do 5 + 9 and things like that. I said don't worry about it! Just say well done to him! 😄

Maths is another one where the range is huge.

In DS class there were kids who could hardly count to 10, but a couple of kids who were very confident with adding, subtracting 2 digit number and some multiplying/dividing.

I think maths is a mix of individual ability but also the extent to which games etc are played at home.

I agree about maths. For me maths didn't kick in properly until I was about 11 I think and it ended up being my absolute favourite subject, got a degree which was heavy in maths. So I am not pushing DD on that either. She counts confidently to 100 and loves maths games (school tells me so) but we don't do a lot at home as we are out a lot doing activities which she enjoys (drama, gymnastics, swimming).

I honestly don't understand why in this country a lot of parents are so pushy so early. Does it really make a huge difference when they are older?!

The girl who reads confidently in DD's class was taught from early on by her dad who used to be a teacher (the mum shared that), so obviously she reads because her parents were fully involved. I'm sure there are lots of kids who would be perfectly able to read by now if they had that kind of input from their parents.

This was my son too 😂 he's in year 2 now and still refuses to read a book. School aren't massively concerned, he can read when he chooses to - but chooses not too 🙄

One of mine didn’t read at all until year 2, I remember being very concerned. She’s now at uni doing extremely well so don’t worry OP.

Mine October born.
One of the oldest.

She knows all her phonics cos I did them with her before she started school.

She can read cvc words and blend ok.
Knows a few tricky words

Ds started school in August and turned 5
during the summer.
They have learned about 20 tricky words so far and around 12 phonemes. He's had a book home to read the last two weeks and we also read at home. I let him read the words I know he knows like at, the, into etc.
so he's doing ok and following the same curriculum my eldest did and he now at 9 is an avid reader with very good reading fluency.

One thing that helps with learning to read is reading to them. You can also let them listen to audio books without visual stimulation. Studies show that children take in less of the audio when there is a visual element such as tv, ipad. So even if you think the show is educational it's probably not really.

Another one saying don't compare, other parents will only tell you their view of things anyway and all children are different. I work in a school and sometimes children that have learnt phonics etc at home have to unlearn things as they've been taught them incorrectly. The main thing is lots of positive support at home and not making it too much of a chore.