For parents with kids in Reception (honest answers needed)

[Haylie515b]

Hi

My daughter is 4yrs4months so quite young in the class. I'm just wondering what other kids in reception are able to do (phonics, letters, numbers) and how old they are.

For example, my daughter can recognise probably half the alphabet letters and half the numbers from 1-10 (which she has learned since starting in September) but has no idea about blending words and sounds.

She gets a book for homework each week to read, the first few books that were sent home had just pictures in (and she would make up a story about what's going on on each page), then the next set had words/sentences in (which she obviously didn't know), and then it's like she has been 'downgraded' because the books with sentences in have stopped and the books that she is given now have just one word in (eg STOP). Fine with this as obviously the books with sentences in are too advanced for her, but it has got me wondering whether there are some children in the class who can actually read these books?

I thought reception was about play and social skills, but the school she goes to is very academic and focuses a lot on learning. For homework she gets books to read as mentioned above (at least 4 times per week), a weekly task to complete, and phonics to do each week, which we do! However, the teacher wrote a note in my daughter's homework book saying that my daughter struggled to recognise the taught sounds and that I needed to do more with her at home, which I'm now doing.

This isn't a rant about homework or the way the school operates, I'm just curious as to what other children in reception are able to do having been at school for 2 months.
Thank you

Reception teacher here. We have taught 20 sounds this half term. Some children know all of them, some know about half and some know none. Two thirds of the class can blend orally, one third can't. About one third will be given books with words after half term (they've all had wordless books until now). I will focus on blending with the rest - some of the class can blend orally but can't recognise the graphemes. Is that any help?

My son sounds like he is at a similar level. He can recognise some letters/ phonemes and numbers- the ones they have 'done'. He hasn't brought home a book with words yet. He likes practicing blending sounds but not from the written words.
His teacher is happy with him, he is happy and making progress.

My daughter could definitely 'do more' by this point, but she was much older in the year. It will come, do lots of reading together and keep it fun. She will get there in time- like you said, it should be about play at this stage!

It’s a really wide range, and your daughter is one of the youngest as well. At our school they do phonics/sounds followed by learning 100 sight words. One of my two children went from not being able to recognise any letters to reading the 100 words by Christmas (aged 4 years 6 months). My other one is 5 years 8 months and can now do the same after loads of support at home (now in year 1). According to the school they were both “meeting expectations” even though there’s a massive range in terms of how ready they were to learn to read. It’s good that school are adjusting the level so that your child doesn’t get disheartened, keep reading with them, talking to them and play games with the sounds, words and keep it fun.

Hi Nix

Please can you explain your comment below:
"some of the class can blend orally but can't recognise the graphemes"

Is there anything I can be doing at home that you would suggest? She has flash cards with letters and numbers on them which we practice but I'm not really doing anything with the letters she can't instantly recognise other than repeating them to her and giving her examples (e.g. d for door, d for dad).

I understand reading together is important, we have read together every night since she was a baby. She loves having her book at bed time (usually a Julia Donaldson or similar) so I know she is interested.

Hello

I don't know what phonics scheme they are doing at your child's school but if you look on you tube there is a series of videos by Little Wandle letters and sounds which is a phonics scheme. They start at the beginning in Reception so should be safe with initial sounds. They are full lessons so only so the first 15/20 minutes or until they seem bored!

Which phonics scheme is she doing?
Did she go to a school nursery?
Try watching alphablocks from iplayer.

Yr R is about learning to read and write plus all the other stuff.

@Haylie515b the books with sentences would have been pattern books with no expectation of reading, just using the pictures as clues to finish the sentence I.e. I like the ball, I like the dog, I like the mouse etc. The one word books are probably meant for your child to be having a go at blending themselves. Do you know what scheme they follow? We teach RWI and the expectation is that children should know at least 16/25 single letter sounds by the end of autumn one

@Haylie515b blending orally means if you say c-a-t they will hear the word cat, it is the step before reading the words.

“For example, my daughter can recognise probably half the alphabet letters and half the numbers from 1-10 (which she has learned since starting in September)”

Genuine question and not trying to be insulting - did you try to teach DD her alphabet and numbers previously?

My DD has know alphabet and counting to 10 since she was about 18 months-2yrs old, but we were actively trying to teach her. If you’ve not taught her, and she’s just picking these things up now since she started school in September, then I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. She can’t learn everything at once, and she’ll catch up with phonics in no time at all.

If you’ve been trying to teach her to count to 10/recognise her alphabet for two years and she just can’t grasp it, for example, that might indicate some special needs.

If she went to nursery, they would have picked up on her being behind for her expected age group in these areas.

Does she watch Cbeebies? I’d recommend Alphablocks and Numberblocks for learning her letters and numbers. I expect that’s where many preschool children pick them up from.

My DS is now in year 1. He went to a quite academic nursery and is now at a very academic school. By the end of reception he was reading simple stories (think Oxford reading tree - aka Biff, Chip and Kipper - level 4). Each child is different, of course, but reception isn't all about play, by the end of the year the expectation was that they could read a decent amount, start having a go at spelling words roughly accurately when they wrote, and in maths know number bonds up to 10.

My son recognises maybe 10 letters properly but can't blend them properly yet (pretends to but he can't really!)
I am on the look out for dyslexia as his older brother is quite dyslexic and phonics has never worked for him but I don't think we are doing outside the normal range yet. What I have learnt is there's probably no point in stressing too much about at this stage.

I second number blocks and alpha blocs on CBBies. Also try the Geraldine giraffe phonics videos on you tube - will help you understand phonics too. Kids are not taught to read the way I was at school!

My son is I'm Reception 3rd child of mine starting school, I no he's behind his peers he was in nursery too! June born and his speech was delayed. He talks to everyone now not just me and mixing well. Learning will come he doesn't write his name or recognise things am I worried no, it will come and every child learns at different paces. Do some jolly phonics on YouTube there fun songs to learn about the sound and blending. Teachers will be aware of what children can do and take them in separate groups at parents evening they said they do 20mins slots of working but my child gets bored after 5 so they use that to there advantage as they know after 5 mins he will lose interest. Teachers will be on it hope that helps.

My son is in P1 and he's 5 and a half (Scotland, he's old for the year but this is is first year at school) and I'm not sure he can do what your daughter can. My older son definitely couldn't and he's seven and really good at literacy, one of the best in his class. He couldn't even recognise his own name when he started school and he wasn't young for the year either. My youngest hasn't had a book with words home yet, but he's at a no-homework school so it's all a bit weird.

Personally, I think you're overthinking it at this stage. But I'm quite a lazy parent and have very wilful children who would have no truck with flash cards and the like.

Number blocks and alphablocks are good though, and there are loads of good phonics resources on YouTube if you have a google.

I don't think you need to worry about the stage your DC is at right now because it's early days and everyone comes into school from a different starting point, but reception is very definitely about learning to read, as much as play and social skills.

Did she not go to playschool or nursery? I'm surprised she's only started learning to recognise numbers since September. My two year old can recognise numbers up to 20 and my 4 year old has been able to since a similar age. He's an April baby so the younger half of the year, from talking to other parents I think he's probably about middle of the road compared to his peers, some have picked it up a lot quicker and some are much slower. The teachers work with each child at their own level and make sure no one is getting left behind and overlooked. He hasn't bought home any books to read himself yet but will be starting after half term

Honestly, relax. Your daughter is very little and has only been in school a few weeks. I've 3 kids in primary school and they all learn at their own pace.

My focus for my kids in EY was that they be happy at school, interested in learning and curious about the world, socialising well and making friends. The rest follows.

Rather than make it a chore I would keep reading her stories, watch alphablocks/number blocks and point out and read things like signs, road signs, posters, prices and special offers, captions on TV and make a game of it. My dd was a v reluctant reader but loved the 'teach your monster to read' app and 'reading eggs'.

I asked my DS’ nursery when he was 3 if there was anything I should be doing to help or hinder his reading. (This was the kindergarten of a really good school.) The main thing they said was absolutely do not teach children the alphabet, as in ‘ay, bee, see, Dee’ etc as the letter names are not how they work phonetically and they teach the children with phonic sounds now, not letter names. They said that teaching letter names, as opposed to phonic sounds, just creates confusion

@Haylie515b

Oral blending is when they can put sounds together to make a word, when they hear those sounds.

For example, if you say 'd' 'o''g' - can she put the sounds together and tell you that the sounds make 'dog'? It's a really, really important skill - no point recognising graphemes if you can't blend them together - but it's also really difficult to teach, because you're trying to teach someone how to hear something and that's hard! Many children do it naturally, others will need lots of practice.

Ideas for helping her - firstly, grapheme recognition: choose 3 or 4 cards and lay them in front of her. Ask if she can point to the sound that says . . . Repeat with the other sounds. You could move on to playing that game with words - 'point to the sound you can hear at the beginning of cat'.

You could turn the cards face down and take it in turns to turn over a card and say the sound, or you could play matching pairs (if you've got 2 of each grapheme).

For oral blending, again play games - 'go and find your s-o-ck-s, touch your h-ea-d.

Just make it fun, with as little pressure as possible.

The Little Wandle resources someone mentioned are good, but not if your school is using something different - the images they use are specific to their scheme and could just be confusing so it's worth asking school what their approach is. Hope that helps.

@Autumninnewyork

So teach them the phonic alphabet instead if you’re that worried? I personally don’t think there’s anything wrong with learning the ABC song first. My DD is a couple of months younger than OPs child, in reception, and can read L2 phonics books so it obviously didn’t harm her.

I can't really beat the reassurance Nix32 gave you in the first response, but I was just going to comment similarly.
Then also reassure you that what a child can or can't do compared with their peers just 2 months in to school does not predict their outcomes when they leave school

She is 4 years and 4 months and is getting homework! - what the heck!

And burn the flash cards.

This child is just finding her feet as a human being - she has only been on this earth 4 years. Let her play; and read to her lots.

If this is happening when she is 4, heaven knows what it will be like for her when she is coming up to GCSEs. Do you really want her to spend the whole of her precious childhood on learning? Just cuddle her and read to her.

I think reception used to be a gentle start to school then the curriculum got loaded up, still a lot of play but there are things they're meant to learn.

I wouldn't worry or compare to others, she is where she is (and she doesn't sound as if she's behind, they all develop differently).

Reading before bed is great, but can you fit it in at other times too? It's not only about books, you can spot letters when you're out and about (shop signs, road signs, car number plates etc) or at home on packets or toys. Have fun sounding them out and being a bit silly. Try to make it part of play that you do little and often rather than 'now we will sit and do reading' if you see what I mean. We also do a fair bit of sounding words like 'its a puh-puh-pumpkin' or 'this button says st-o-p' what could that say?

That's what I did with DD and it helped her.

I'm with you to be honest. It's all a bit much - she's only four.