Letterland or Jolly Phonics?

[katierocket]

Both have been recommended to me but I know hardly anything about either. Anyone any advice?

Glad to see you've emphasised that it IS difficult to articulate the consonants without the "uh" bit. I spent quite a long time getting hung up on it and wondering how I was ever going to teach my child(ren) how to say these consonants correctly. But I read somewhere that the "creator" of Jolly Phonics says it's not that important, and I also got in touch with another "reading" expert (I wrote about it somewhere in the MN archives) who said the same. My first two children have very high reading ages despite being taught with lots of "uhs"; my third is learning his letters now - I have tried to eliminate the "uhs" as much as possible - interestingly he is probably the slowest to learn his letters; he's good at "look-say" type reading but not when he needs to know the phonics. I'm not trying to say that he is worse at his letters because of not having any "uhs" - he is a very different child to my older two - it's more a case of different methods suit different children.

As far as LetterLand and JP are concerned, my vote is for JP. LetterLand just seems too confusing, distracting. It was one of the factors in my decision to send my children to a school which was further away as the nearest school was very focused on LetterLand.

If it helps at all the January issue of Junior, just out, has a long and detailed, but very accessible, account of phonics and why it is now back in fashion - it helps all children with starting to read, not just the "bright" ones (the article gives case studies from California). Jolly Phonics is widely used and highly rated, Letterland is neither praised nor marked down, but it points out that it is not a real phonics scheme because it uses pictograms.
Our son is making good progress with Jolly Phonics at school and I found the article very helpful.

I really like Letterland, simply because ds was not very interested in learning his letters at nursery and was suddenly inspired when I bought him a Letterland book. I would not use one system exclusively, though, because, after all, the child is just learning the alphabet and reading and writing, not just one system of teaching. We have got some Jolly Phonics flashcards too, and some general alphabet posters and books. Pick the one that your child seems to find more appealing.

I have just started usinf jolly phonics with DD2 who is 2yes 10 months:. I have the finger phonics books and the jiglets - and she is getting on very well!!
I was inspired by jolly phonics initially as it is used in her school - but now think it is superior to letterland which Iused with DD1.
Interestingly I alos use the letterland books and flashcards with DD2.