What level should she be at in reception in reading?

[lyssie29]

Just curious really. I know they all do it at different times though so not worried or anything like that but she is just now grasping some words like dad, mum, dog etc but not words any longer than that while her friend of the same age can read full sentances with longer words like crocodile.

They're very different. You get a few people on here saying their dc were reading chapter books in Reception but schools will tell you that anything from decoding single words to reading short sentences is normal.

My ds's school is fairly academic, he's on red level EG of a page from a book:
"But the frog did not stop it hopped to the pond"
Which he reads fairly easily. He's a September born though and seems to be almost at the top of his class, with one little girl who runs rings round them all!
So your dd sounds about right, the big hurdle I think, is blending. Once they blend effectively the rest does seem to follow with practise.

You can worry when they are this age and you compare them to others. Its irrelevant in the end once they are learning bit by bit.

My son was only sounding out simple words like 'cat' at age 5 and a half. He really struggled to remember his letter sounds but we worked on it at home. We also practised the dolch 100 sight words.

By the time he was 7 he was reading chapter books with ease and can read books like Harry Potter very well now at age 8. The most important thing though is that he loves reading and I will often find him curled up in bed reading and totally enjoying it.

In a few years when nearly all the children are reading the same books it won't mater who was reading full sentances at age 4 or 5.