What have you found is the best way to teach phonics?

[RedRobyn2021]

We do a lot of reading together and visit the library a lot

We have a couple of wipe away books

Please can anyone recommend what worked well for them?

DD is 3 and she has been going to pre school a couple of mornings a week since January so not long

Agree. My 5yo is getting on great in reception. At 3 I just read loads to her.

Wow, I'm shocked to read that. My DD's school stream for phonics across the entire (four class) year group immediately after the reception phonics screen. There is some streaming across the infant school as a whole too because since January DD has phonics with a year 1 teacher and lots of year 1 children (and a few other reception kids too, she's not the only one). At the moment she is getting three reading books a week.

It's not frowned upon. No one is trying to hold anyone back.

It's making sure parents are focusing on things in the right order and that are age appropriate.

Phonological awareness and oral blending form the basis and first building blocks of learning to read with phonics.

Children who succeed in these areas will pick up blending, segmenting and learn to read more effectively either at school or before school.

Read lots and lots of books. Share stories. Just take time to enjoy.

I downloaded the jolly phonics app for my eldest and we would look at a letter a day. This was in the first lockdown and she took really well to it and then began to blend on her own and read words. Took me by surprise one day as we were out and she was reading the shop names. For my son we just read loads and listened to the songs on the app, again lockdown though.

I'd look at the jolly phonics stuff if your lo is showing an interest, otherwise reading together lots will help.

The letters and sounds documents on gov.uk is a great resource for practitioners and parents alike, some lovely ideas for games and will ensure your DC is secure in the earlier phases before you start trying to teach graphemes.

But also just what you’re doing now is a brilliant start and is a heck of a lot more than lots of parents are doing so your DC should have good foundations for whenever they start the more formal teaching

If you are teaching her sounds then definitely watch some videos about how to pronounce them. A few I really had no idea about e.g the letter M sound isn’t pronounced ‘mer’ but ‘mmm’ and L isn’t ‘ler’ but ‘uhl’.
Anyway, as others have said, alphablocks show this well or find some you tube video.

I wish they streamed. There are 2 classes, with a teacher each and 3-4 teaching assistants each day so it feels like it would be manageable but my understanding is state education is all about keeping the whole class together these days. I have raised it a couple of times but just get told there’s nothing they can do and to read whatever I want with her at home. Which of course I do.

she gets one book per week and seems to read it multiple times in school as well as at home with me. Todays book took 90 seconds to read (first attempt) with no sounding out required. Not quite sure what the point is to be honest!

the school does have a high percentage of kids getting to greater depth, but I have no idea how, unless it’s just that lots of parents are teaching their kids to read!!

Honestly, I would just read, read, read and read a bit more! Read a wide variety of age appropriate quality texts using expression. Comprehension is so important, so ask your DC questions about the story and characters.

Yes I find this surprising too. My DD is in a one-form entry primary but they’re still split up into multiple groups for phonics based on ability, and have been since the first term of Reception. It goes across the year groups so she’s in year 1 now but there are year 2s and some year 3s in her group.

I’m a Y1 TA. I wouldn’t worry too much about teaching phonics. There’s some good ideas if you want to earlier in the thread. But phonics is only half of reading. The other bit, just as critical, is comprehension- understanding what you read. What I would be doing is reading stories with her and to her. Exposing her to reading being fun, and loads of writing styles and vocab.

We have a few children who can decode very effectively- they can ‘do’ phonics because they are clever and were ready for it. So they seemed to progress quickly. But ask them a question (what does that word mean? Why did he feel sad? What might happen next? You read the book at home did you - brilliant, can you tell me what it is about?) and they say “I don’t know.” In the early stages it’s not as obvious because the stories are so simple but as the books get harder and they move up the school the gap between their ability to decode and ability to comprehend gets bigger. By the time they get to KS2 some of those who were oustanding at phonics are starting to flounder. They can still read extremely fluently and easily decode unfamiliar words but they don’t understand the vocab, and aren’t used to thinking about a character’s motives or feelings. We can do some work on this in school but ultimately, it’s not necessarily the children who were best at phonics who are proving best at reading and comprehension by Y5 and 6.

I hope that makes sense - it’s been a long day!

Why would you leave it if your child is capable of learning! Honestly now I see why able children are often held back so much in state primary because lots of parents just barely bother beforehand.

Kids are like sponges, they can learn soooo much even aged 2!

Can't answer for PP, but for me it's because there's so much else to be doing, and so much else that I value above phonics at preschool age. We work FT so DC are in nursery Monday-Friday. Evenings are pretty much just dinner and bedtime chaos (with bedtime stories, obviously) and on weekends I'd rather be getting them out of the house for a walk, giving them some downtime, baking, setting family, letting them have unstructured imaginative play with their toys. We don't have much time to fit formal learning in, and it's not a priority at all. It will come. For now, we play.

If a DC showed a particular interest then I guess we'd go with it, but neither of ours have. They have other things to be getting on with!

At three I wouldn't do much. Mainly just straightforward letter sounds, if she's interested. If she isn't, leave it for now.

More indirectly, fine motor coordination and lots of reading good quality stories. That is to say, well written with a wide vocabulary. Beatrix Potter is a good example for that age.

Later on, there are plenty of good phonics programs around. I wouldn't trust the school particularly, they tend to teach bad habits. Integrate writing or printing practice with learning letter sounds, and copywork is also a great way to improve reading, spelling, and handwriting.

Agree with @babybythesea about comprehension skills being important.

Talk about what you are reading to her, as you read it and ask questions. Often we talk about how the characters are feeling, what might happen next, why something is happening, what we can notice from any pictures, or just try to see what we can remember about the story at the end. Sometimes we do a recall game- can DD remember the story and tell me it? We also sometimes take copies of the pictures and try to put them in the right order to tell the story, or she 'reads' to me by using just the pictures to make up a story.

All of this also teaches good listening skills- key for school- and a love for stories and reading that will help later on.

Phonics was removed from the preschool curriculum a year or two back, so there is no expectation of any knowledge. It is helpful to get your child to familiarise themselves with their name and the letters that make it up There are great wipe clean books where you can practice things like pen holding, patterns and letter formation- all of which might be more helpful when starting school.