DD (just turned 4) interested in reading...where to start?

[Midge25]

Not sure where to post this ... DD, just 4, has got very interested in reading/writing; she's always loved books, she knows most letters by sight and can write her name and some other simple words like 'mummy', either with a pen or using foam letters on the side of the bath. She seems to want to know more, and I don't want to push things but am happy to help her explore this and encourage her interest prior to her starting school in Sept. Our 1st choice school - won't get confirmation of her place til April - uses Thrass phonics system. I have no idea about phonics full stop and don't want to introduce a system which she can't build on/makes no sense when she starts school. Most of the introductory books available seem to be about Jolly Phonics: is this similar? And can anyone suggest ways of encouraging this interest in a gentle way? TIA

I never liked the phonics thing and just taught mine how I was taught, starting with ladybird books with one word a page and built it up. I simply broke the letters down c-a-t = cat. Larger words car-pet = carpet. Start introducing sounds such as ch, oo, ee etc. When you read always point to the word you are reading as you go along. I used to put subtitles on Cbeebies too lol!

There's loads of helpful advice on the primary school section.

Im certainly no expert but I would definitely recommend starting with phonics rather than learning words by sight as all schools will use some type of phonics scheme.

I know it has changed since I learned! Eg it's mmm not muh for 'm'. Alphablocks on the cbeebies website has all the sounds and is very useful.

Hopefully you'll get much more advice soon. :)

I don't think that there is anything clever or special about phonics - it's just a case of using the letter sounds (rather than their names) to spell out the words. Rather than launching straight into getting any books I think the best place to start is with what are sometimes called CVC words (i.e. all of those easy to sound out consonant - vowel - consonent words such as c-a-t, m-a-t, r-a-t), good old 'the cat sat on the mat' etc you can draw pictures make it fun etc, then maybe as she gets the idea, move on to getting some jolly phonics or suchlike from your library.

If your DD is becoming interested in read and writing, then there are alot of things you can do. Phonics is simply using the sounds of letters. I won.t matter which material you use to help her, as the sounds will not change. I would suggest Jolly phonics as it is easy to understand for parents and children. It starts with the first 6 letters a s p i n t, from which you can make 28 cvc words. Activities are great for encouraging learning. You could put out a selection of items and choose a letter (phoneme) and ask your daughter the place the ones that start with that letter into a basket. Making out shopping lists together is fun. If she can identify the first sound and find it on a page (or use the foam letters) than she can copy it and you can do the rest of the word. Reading together, were you point to each word is good, libraries have all sorts of information and CD Roms that make phonics fun. I would just keep it fun and light hearted there is no need to push her or get stressed over it. Good luck it is an amazing time in your daughters life. Enjoy it.

Presumably she's at pre-school - you could also talk to them about it. They may even be able to lend you some material.

Thanks so much for these suggestions. I like the games and is good to know Jolly Phonics isn't different