ideas about how to introduce 3yo to letter sounds

[noonar]

hi, i just got my schools admissions pack through for dd2(3 last july) who'll be starting school next september. totally freaked me out, tbh. she's so little still. she's a smart cookie, but doesnt know any of her sounds.

now, a big part of me wants to do nothing 'schooly' with her at all at this tender age, but the other half wants to try to give a 'good start'. (i was v relaxed with her sister, who's now in year 1 and finding it quite hard to learn to read).

she does go to pre school, but they're not doing any phonics, atm, as far as i know.

so...if i was going to start introducing her to her letters, how might i do this in a more fun and inventive way than simply using flash cards, alphabet puzzles, fridge magnets etc. ( the school use 'jolly phonics', btw)

tia

We got a big may (foam jig saw pieces) with all of the letters on and played games with them racing to stand on the one that starts "mummy" or "daddy" etc.

This is the kind of thing I mean:

Alphabet mats

leap frogs fridge phonics were fab...
dd picked them up very quickly

jolly phonics is great - can be done with pictures and actions - google it and htere is loads of stuff

hth

thanks! some great ideas but as she cant consistently recognise her own name, i think i'm going to have my work cut out.

We had a Mr Men dvd which does a story of a bus ride and introduces all of the 26 letter sounds, recapping after every 4 or 5.

Ds1 was poorly at home languising on the sofa and watched it relentlessly tgrough choice I might add, took it to Granny's house and wanted to watch it there too.

After a week he'd sussed all 26 sounds.

Nursery pre-school section did some phonics too at about the same time so it all helped.

Ooops languishing on the sofa.

You can probably get the dvd cheap on ebay.

I'm saving ours for ds2

We have the Leapfog fridge phonics, all mine love it. DD starts reception next September too, and I have a lot of DS's Jolly Phonics stuff from last year when he was in Reception. Plus we have a Jolly Phonics Loto game.

Hi noonar, I'm a early years deputy head and as for learning sounds, the important thing is that your daughter can "hear" the sounds(not the names A B C) as well as recognise the letters, (games of eye spy are great)
I would start with one set of pictures for the alphabet sounds so that a is always a pic of an apple for example, b a book etc, and split the alphabet up so that you are perhaps concentrating on just a couple of letters a week. Start to learn the letters in her name first, as they will be more meaningful.

Making the letters of the week out of plasticine, drawing them on large pieces of paper is useful in helping her to recognise them,

Basically try and make it fun!

Hope this is helpful!

Jolly Phonics is fantastic. My 3 year old ds has just started to use the finger phonics books (we have them as his older sister used them) and he loves them, asks to "read" them and blow me, after just a few weeks he has started to blend.

My only problem is that he did do a biot of letterland at nursery which teaches 26 letters rather than Jolly Phonics 40 odd sounds. So he was saying some of them wrong which holds them back a bit.

She is really young to be worrying seriously about phonics. At that age social skills are more important than being able to blend.

I think that Jolly phonics is great if she shows an interest, but if she doesn't it doesn't hurt to leave it.

If you do decide to do phonics then I suggest that you get the Jolly Phonics Teacher's handbook. It would help your older daughter and prehaps your younger daughter would pick it up. The finger phonics books and CD are also very good.

DS also just 3 last summer... because DS is keen we point out the letters on things like road signs and sound out "Ruh Oh Aah Duh" etc. (I think this is synthetic phonics, his Montessori Nursery seems to be teaching 'Ar Oh Ay Dee', instead). Point out to DS that R always has a "Ruh" sound, every time it recurs. I'll be pleased if he starts school with the idea that the same letter represents an approximately consistent sound, I honestly think that's enuff b4 school starts (I have older children).

Jolly Phonics is superb, and ideal for children aged 2-6. All you really need is the handbook but Early Learning do JP workbooks, lettercards, Jolly Songs CD, the programme on DVD etc.

I also recommend that you look at Debbie Hepplewhite's new, completely online programme. She's a synthetic phonic expert who has been advising the government. You can download ALL of Unit 1 for free with no obligation to buy the other units (you'll need to register first). There's also a free, 32 page handbook to download.
phonicsinternational.com

My ds taught himself to read at just 3 by wtching what dd was doing. We had the jolly phonics DVD and the finger phonics books plus the CD which we used to play in the car to and from school.

We used the Jelly and bean books for him which were perfect for a young beginner reader and now his reading is flying. He is reading books normally designed for Yr 2 at still 4 so IME phonics really does work!

Message withdrawn

just wait until she asks.

I was v worried about dd last year because she was in a spanish school, where they don't do reading really until year 2. she just didn't get it, and I tried various things from jolly phonics actions to simply getting her to copy things. she did get it however when she started at a british school and was told the same stuff by a proper teacher. sometimes mummy just isn't good enough...

I think if she likes songs and stuff then I would get the Jolly Phonics CD. My DDs nursery started doing letters with them (but when she moved to pre-school it all stopped) but because she had started it was easy to continue. TBH I think it has made a difference with her starting school, she is confident etc and going over the sounds is simply revision. One thing I would say is that do be careful with the sounds yourself, I don't want to sound picky (but probably will) but the letter sounds for 'r' is not 'ruh' and the letter sound for 'h' is not 'huh' - these letters don't have 'uh' on the end. The advantage of the CD (well for me this was an advantage) is that you also get to know how to say the sounds properly so when she starts to read you will be well equipped to help her. Also the actions and the songs are useful. Mad as it may sound if my DD struggles with a letter I do the action sometimes!

another vote for jolly hponics

they did it at dd2s nursery when she was 3 and now she is top of the class for reading in reception [pointless smug emoticon knowing full well it means nothing]

www.richardandjudybookclub.co.uk/siteimages/RandJ/pdfdownload/phonics.pdf has quite a clear explanation of synthetic phonics. I do collections of stuff with dd and we are making a loose leaf scrapbook. I'm very keen on doing some fun stuff with her as her brother is dyslexic and early aural discrimination skillsare key to reading. We use JP too.

DS1 has started in reception this year and has picked up the jolly phonics from nothing pretty quickly. I wasn't worried about teaching him to read BEFORE school, and now the clever little chap can do lots [proud mama emoticon]

The school suggested we get the jolly phonics CD, if we were going to do Just One Thing over the summer, and we played that a bit. DS2 is not much younger than the OP's DD, and he loves it, asks for the songs CD in the car and makes me sing the songs from the accompanying book at home too. You could try the CD and if that was a hit move onto the workbooks.

wow! thanks everyone. what a huge number of great ideas. i'm so grateful to you all. i especially love slippeddisc's idea of making letters out of plasticine. sounds like that would work well, esp if she's a kinesthetic learner, like her sis.

good to hear support for jolly phonics, too. will start her off singing the 'satpin' sounds over the next few weeks