First phonics books or readers for 4.5 year old (who won’t learn English at school)

[LeeMiller]

My son is 4.5, he knows his alphabet and sounds, is very interested in letter formation and knowing what things say. We live in Italy and he won’t learn to read in Italian at school until age 6, and English only later as a foreign language, not phonics. I don’t want to push him to read in English (partly as I’m worried he will be bored at school) but I also don’t want to hold him back - this summer he saw that his English cousins and friends can read or are learning and is keen to learn, so I wondered about looking at some very easy readers together.

Which first phonics books or schemes would you recommend as fun/interesting for a kid who doesn’t need to rush or be assessed on phonics but would like to move toward reading?

We read together a lot in both languages and that will obviously continue.

This set starts off with very simple words - adult reads the story on one page and child reads very basic sentences eg 'It is Sam' - and each book progressively adds another sound or gets a little harder.
https://www.books4people.co.uk/products/usborne-books-uk-books-my-first-library-50bks

Along with watching 'Alphablocks' and playing the 'Teach Your Monster to Read' game, it's how my daughter learned to read.

Great, thank you! I’ll look up the game too.

There's a game 'sight word splat' that's fun.
Usborne do a series of books where you read one page and they read one. They're really simple and rhyme at first and get progressively harder.
We started on Biff chip and kipper but these were recommended to us as the stories are better.

You can get really simple recipe books aimed at that age too. So they're reading ingredients and methods rather the pressure of reading a 'book.'

Watch alpha L blocks too if you can. Just keep it fun.

Oh sorry. Just seen it above. Silly me.

Thanks! Will see if I can find alphablocks (no CBeebies here)
@booksandbrooks do you know the name of that series or an example title? I’m looking at the usborne series and getting in a muddle about which to start with.

This is the info about the Usborne Very First Reading series
https://usborne.com/gb/very-first-reading-how-it-works

Teach Your Monster to Read
https://www.teachyourmonster.org/

Alphablocks have a Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@officialalphablocks/featured

The Julia Donaldson “Songbirds” series are good for phonics and a lot less dull than Biff Chip and Kipper.

We have a 3 year old, similar in that we speak English at home, but he will start school at 6 in local foreign language. Nursery don’t teach reading either in local language before school.

I wanted to start him with letters, number and reading in English so it’s established before school.
We have bought the Julia Donaldson songbirds which are very short so easier to learn one word ( stage 1-2 only ) and the usbourne ‘ my first reading library’, which are longer but excellent rhyming stories.
We bought online from Amazon.uk and paid the extra £4 delivery Tony’s and it was way cheaper than local Amazon/ local stores online.

The other thing we are looking at is English speaking Tonies so he hears more spoken

I'd avoid Biff, Chip and Kipper - the stories are good but phonetically they don't teach the sounds in a progressive order.
Songbirds are good or if you have access to Vinted/eBay you may be able to pick up bundles of sets that are preloved. Read, Write, Inc or the Big Cat Collins sets are good.
There are some good apps too - Teach my Monster to Read and Reading Eggs are both good.

Some great advice here, thank you. I’ll have a look at the usborne selections and songbirds.

great tip about Amazon U.K. @Caspianberg

I did the same with my DD, but only used phonics for a small part. I used this American book called something like Teach your Child to Read, I’ll see if I can find it. It was quite effective and aimed at 3-4 year olds iirc. In Italian schools they use a mixture of basic phonics and syllables to learn to read, but with Italian being phonetic the rules are easier. With the other book there are phonics also, but not in the prescriptive way Jolly Phonics uses them, a lot is syllables so it fits well with the Italian system.

in any case it did work, my DD at 4 was writing herself short stories in Italian spelt the English way (chyesto instead of chiesto for example) but once she got to Prima she picked up reading in Italian completely by the end of the first term and was on Geronimo Stilton by the end of the year.

I think it might have been this book but I remember a different cover.

Thanks @Melassa . My son will start prima in September 2024 so I think there’s plenty of time to focus on starting to read English first. I was thinking phonics as so many of the early readers are for the U.K. phonics schemes but that’s interesting about the syllables. I also don’t want anything prescriptive or boring as I’m in no rush and want him to be engaged.

I can vouch for these too, very good for that level.

Great question! For a 4.5-year-old learning English at home, I recommend these beginner-friendly phonics books:

"Bob Books Set 1: Beginning Readers" by Bobby Lynn Maslen - Simple and fun stories that gradually introduce phonics.

"AlphaTales" by Scholastic - Each book focuses on a different letter sound with engaging and interactive stories.

At Fluffy Tales, we make phonics learning an exciting adventure. Our online classes help kids connect letters with their sounds, setting the stage for successful reading, spelling, and writing.

Visit us at Fluffy Tales to discover more resources and start your child's phonics journey today!