Should I be helping her to catch up?

[YunoYurbubson]

Dd is 4. She turns 5 in May. She is in Reception. She recently changed schools.

She has very little interest in reading and writing.

Her previous school had a system of letting the children start reading and writing when they chose to. She adored school and was learning all sorts of exciting stuff, but generally not choosing to go to the reading and writing stations.

She can write her name (big and scrawly) and usually recognise most of her letters, and just about sound out simple words. She is just more interested in other things.

Now she has entered the British system she has a reading book (Kipper, with no words), a reading diary, she is supposed to 'read' her book to us at home. And she is also doing worksheets learning about letter couplings such as how "ai" makes an 'ay' sound as in train and brain.

It seems wrong for her to be doing this more advanced stuff before she knows the basics.

Should I...

(a) Help her catch up on the stuff she has 'missed'. Bring her up to speed? [Disadvantage: hate the idea of forcing boring stuff on a 4yo when she loves school and learning so much]

(b) Chillax and trust that she'll catch up in her own time when she's ready?

(b) without question.

Help her catch up

I'm going to need a deciding vote...

If I say it twice would it swing it for you
I really don't think a 4 year old has to play catch up, it really is more important at this stage, that a love of learning and exploring is fostered/nurtured.

I don't think she can have much to catch up on tbh. I would probably leave it but have a word with the teacher and see how the teacher sees it when s/he has had time to assess dd's level. I'd just keep an eye on it

Exactly, 5 months into reception, it's not like they've covered trig.

are you ok with her using screens? Trying to think of the name of that website with games for learning to read - Starlight? Starbright? Soemthing like that, anyone know?

Will have a google

starfall

knew it was something with star..

I would vote for b, but I live in Scotland, children don't start formal education until they are 5 or nearly 5, they learn to read on ORT scheme. Do you read lots to your dd? Fun story books that make her giggle and generally engage her? The same books over and over again, boring for you but if your dd loves the story she will maybe pick up the words, you could let her finish sentences for you in books? Ds did this with easy books, rhymes such as the Owl and the Pussy Cat. Just try not to force it, over the summer holiday your dd could take a developmental leap but you don't want to put her off!

My son has sn, but reading is something he has picked up easily because we have had so much fun reading to him.

If you feel the need introduce your dd to games on poisson rouge/cbeebies that have letter recognition.

Thank you for the link Zen.

My instinct is to let her be. She seems pretty happy. She's bright, inquisitive and confident.

But then I think that doing huge worksheets where she is tracing dot-to-dot letters of 'ie' as in pie, tie, die, over and over again when it is pretty meaningless to her isn't ideal either.

She cheerfully 'read' the title of her latest Kipper book to me earlier; "it's called 'Kipper rides his bike', Mummy" she tells me, while tracing her finger under the words "Look Out!" So she's not even noticing the first letter of the words, or the number of words there are. Which is FINE, I would like to stress. This is not about getting her to read. It's about the best way to help her get the most out of the system she now finds herself in.

We read a lot of books at home. We always have. Reading has always been a fun thing, and I don't want to change that.

Perhaps I'll do and someone said and leave it for now, but ask the teacher what she thinks in a week or two.

Very much the same position here except my child is 5 and a bit. Knows how to 'sound out' but doesn't want to do it. No worksheets though. Does seem a bit odd if school are pushing those without the basics being there. I think your instincts are right.

b)

I've said it before but none of my children have got reading fluently much before 7 years old (year 2 or 3)

I am very chillaxed now I'm on number 4 being 6 and she's a reader but not fluent

no biggie

If your school follow 'Letters and Sounds' phonics teaching then it sounds like she is on Phase 5 having missed Phases 1 - 4! My school doesn't move a child onto the next phase until he or she is secure with the phase they are on. No wonder she is confused!

Was going to say (a) straight away until ready posts..so now I think (b) as this has weird for me to read as it's making me think that my DCs school is overly pushy and I hadn't realised at all and I'm a little cross!.

My DD (aug birthday - so was still 4 by end reception so I've always been worried about progress) was on chip/kipper ORT level 4b when she finished reception and I was told she was only 'slightly above' where they expect a child to be at the end of the foundation stage! So is that a load of rubbish (any primary teachers reading?) They started her on the ORT the first week in Nov in reception which now reading thise seems early. She can now read v fluently (eg could pick up charlie and lola now and read it her her brother - she's in yr 1, but only 5.5yrs...numercy on the other hand a real isssue for her.

I'm confused what she needs to catch up on?

My ds is in Reception. They have learned all of the single letters (a to z) and a few digraphs (ch, th, sh, ai, ng, ff and maybe a couple more like ck but I can't remember!) If she knows the sounds of single letters then digraphs like ai are the next step (Phase 3 of Letters and Sounds)

I'm confused too - what you are talking about her doing is the basics.