Which phonics resources would you recommend?

[BleepingSooty]

My son has just turned four. We live in Japan where he goes to nursery school. He uses Japanese at nursery and I use English at home. We usually spend about 30 minutes reading stories in English before bed. He is interested in the alphabet and knows/can write the alphabet. He knows H is for helicopter etc. He doesn't learn English at nursery.

I think he is ready to start reading so I would like to get him started on phonics. But there are so many resources out there, I really don't know where to start. A friend recommended Oxford Reading Tree but it is very expensive. The Jolly Phonics workbooks are reasonable on the Book People site. But are they easy to teach? There are so many websites too. Where to start?

Thanks for any ideas!

I have had a few different phonics resources, mainly from the Book People! Red House are the same company and also have good offers.

I would avoid ORT (Biff Kipper etc), because they are ever so dull. Really boring.

But the Read Write Inc, Songbirds, Red Nose Readers, are all good. I haven't used the Jolly Phonics workbooks but I have got the Jolly Phonics Handbook - they are popular too.

Can't really help on the teaching, I have just been encouraging DD with practising what she is doing at school rather than introducing new concepts, but the handbook is pretty good for starting from the beginning, introducing the sounds etc.

Thank you so much! I will have a look for the handbook. It sounds exactly what I need.

My son (nearly 4) loves ORT (Kipper etc) and you can get a great deal on the Book People site (£25 for the whole set which will keep you going for ages). However my daughter much preferred traditional ladybird learn to read stories - the ORT is a lot more boyish, so you may find they suit but be less appropriate for girls. That is certainly what I found.
Look at CBeebies alphablocks online which is excellent and fun.

my dc had letterland, there were story books, a dictionary, songs for learning the alphabet sounds and how to form letters when it came to handwriting as well as , flashcards, workbooks and a dvd. My dc loved it though 4 may be a bit old.

Not as prolific in the shops as it used to be but some resources still available on Amazon

I couldn't find ORT on Book People. It seems to come and go. Thanks for the recommendation of the Cbeebies site. I will see if I can access it from Japan.

Letter land sounds good too.

I don't know whether to teach him pre-cursive which seems popular in the UK or stick with print which is common in Japan. I would like to try pre-cursive but print might be safer. .

I highly recommend Schofield and Sims Sound Phonics Books which are very well structured and do cover the whole Phonic Stages- Phase 1 to 6 alongside the ORT songbird books.