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

@mistermagpie That's fine, but you tell that to the powers that be who decide what national expectations are at various points during a child's education. Like it or not, their best chance of academic success begins with a solid foundation in early reading and phonics. The quicker they grasp phonics, the easier school becomes.

I really wouldn't worry at this age, sounds normal. My son is 4 yrs 5 months. When he started reception he could recognise numbers 1 to 5 and probably about 5 letters. He can now recognise numbers 1-10 and all the letters. But he can't blend sounds yet so can't read words. I'm still amazed at how much he's come in only 6 weeks. They soak it up, don't worry about doing extra work. We do have a little book the school gave us which just has a letter on each page and we practice reading these maybe twice a week. That's it, no other 'homework'

Previous reception teacher here.
Haven't rtft so this may be covered but when teaching recognition of anything : graphemes, numbers 'tricky' words (or whatever your schools phonics scheme calls them) its easier to find a named thing than to name it themselves, and gives a sense of success and motivation. For example writing the graphemes in chalk on the ground and getting your child to run and stand on them, or swat them or whatever, is a good first step before expecting them to tell you the sound. Hope that helps a little, mostly don't worry, she's young and will get there!

Our DS is a September birthday so at the other end of the year. He knows letters, their sounds and has started some blending I.e tap, pat etc. numbers are 1-100 and he can do very very basic adding and subtracting.

@Haylie515b : is the school a private hot house?

DC 1 couldn't read until he was 7, despite us having tried before school. Just passed three decent A levels, very capable and going into higher education.
DC2 couldn't read, but confidently knew letters and numbers up to about 20 within a few weeks (also pre introduced by us) and is probably the least academic overall.
DC3 could read short sentences before as my teacher relative had found some time to entertain him - not a genius or far ahead but at grammar (we are now in a grammar area).

^^ just to give anecdata that early starters aren't always ahead of the rest

My reception child is 4 and 4 months too she seems very young to be honest she’s been very tired and emotional since going full time. Mine can count and do simple adding and subtracting. And has done robot reg classes for phonics for about 2 years she can read or blend quite a few words and is probably ready for a book! YouTube jolly phonics and watch alphablocks. Put letters on fridge and do a few when she’s stood there! I honestly wouldn’t worry too much they will all pick it up quickly we did the classes because there was nothing toddler based with the lockdown and she really needed the social side of them. Don’t be stressed about it she will pick that up just little and often.

Nah I probably won't, but maybe someone should?

I guess I'm just a different sort of parent - I have no idea how many letters and numbers my five year old can recognise, I've never sat and counted, I had never even heard the word 'grapheme' until I read this thread and I just don't want to be putting that amount of pressure on a small child.

I'm in Scotland and maybe the system is different here but my parenting is what it is, as described above, and yet my children are doing fine at school. I guess the desire to 'excel' or raise high achievers is something else, and it's what I see on Mumsnet more than I see it in real life.

If you have access to a tablet or computer you can download "Teach your monster to read" for free, my kids love it and it was a fun way to reinforce what they learnt in school. There's also a paid app call Reading Eggs which is fun and has phonics, maths and games on it. We do 10 or 15 mins of that every few days.

My experience of my DC starting in September, they've come on leaps and bounds in terms of phonics, numbers they were very interested in anyway naturally but there's been an improvement there too... But phonics have been a definite leap... however, Reading some stage 1 (3 letter word books) they just look at the picture and make up what they think the pics depicted rather than any reading at all...Absolutely they could make out the words but they can't or don't have the focus to work it out.
We're asked to read x5 a week but no homework as such.. they're so little I don't think it's anything to be concerned about.

Would highly recommend 'Teach your monster to read' app. It's only a few pounds (one off cost) and well worth the money.

I would also specifically be asking your teacher what she recommends is best to go to support at home. Really don't worry, my DS was one of the oldest and couldn't read anything when he started school.

"Studies have compared groups of children in New Zealand who started formal literacy lessons at ages 5 and 7. Their results show that the early introduction of formal learning approaches to literacy does not improve children’s reading development, and may be damaging. By the age of 11 there was no difference in reading ability level between the two groups, but the children who started at 5 developed less positive attitudes to reading, and showed poorer text comprehension than those children who had started later. In a separate study of reading achievement in 15 year olds across 55 countries, researchers showed that there was no significant association between reading achievement and school entry age." - www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/school-starting-age-the-evidence

So... don't panic 😉

Mine is 4 years 2 months. He can count to 10 and recognise 1-10. He can write his name, although the letters are sometimes in the wrong order. He can recognise the letters in his name and also the letters S and A.
His school don't start phonics until after Oct half term so nothing yet on that front.

Since you asked, and FWIW: my DD is now in year 1 and has a March birthday, so middle of her year. I've slightly forgotten what she did and didn't know when she first started school, but she certainly had the picture books to start, then single-word books. She started learning to sound out some simple words last year (eg. 'cat') and was working on more complicated combinations like 'ch' or 'oa'. I would say those are now starting to click. In her class, there is a big range - there is a very bright little girl who is an August birthday so very young in the year, and who's been reading fluently since before she started school; there are also children who haven't yet learned to speak and who have SN. I don't really know where DD is in terms of ability, but no one has suggested she's failing because she hasn't yet got up to speed with reading, and when I said that she was falling asleep over her 'homework' books in Reception, the teacher just said not to push.

Mine has just started reception and 4.5. Tbh she could recognise all her alphabet letters,some double sounds eg 'ee' and numbers to 10 and could read simple words and add and subtract small numbers before starting school. Now she's in reception she's picking up new sounds really quick and already has all the phase two and three ticky words memorised and about 3/4 of the phase 3 sounds. I've been pointing letters and numbers out to her since she was 18MO but not in any kindof structured way just through play etc.

I think a lot of the battle with reading is learning to blend. I started doing this with my dd when she was about 2.5. I started by stretching out words eg 'look at the C-A-T' After doing this a while I would then 'test' her eg 'can you get your C-OA-T' I'd point simple words out in her books and do the same thing and eventually she was able to do it herself. I think it's important to really refine this skill because if they don't know how to do this they can memorise the phonics sounds til they're blue in the face but it won't mean anything to them. Alongside this though jolly phonics and reading eggs are both fantastic, engaging apps for teaching them their sounds.

I do agree that reception should be about play. However, I'll be honest I find it quite odd that people are referring to reading with their child as 'homework' I read tonnes with my daughter, not because it's work but to teach her that it's fun and make it part of her daily routine and our bonding time. I hope that doing this with her she won't see it as a chore but something to truly love and embrace. Kids are very intuitive. If we see it as laborous then so will they. Same goes for counting and simple maths.

I would say little and often is the key especially when it comes to learning phonics etc. As pp have said her level atm might not be a concern if she hasn't had much exposure to letters and numbers but might be if you've regularly been trying to teach her. I think all you can do right now is keep going and see how things go.

I really think it’s about being ready developmentally and also about what they’re naturally interested in. Like @Hangingoninthere88 dd, my dd lapped up words and numbers and learning at home and could read well by mid reception. Ds grew up in the same environment but was never interested in books or listening to stories, despite my best efforts. He had no clue about letters and blending throughout reception, but it suddenly clicked at the beginning of year 1, and then he picked it up pretty quickly. Dd always progressed (physically and mentally) on a steady slope, whereas ds has always had sudden gains in leaning, then long periods of no progress.

It all evens out eventually. They both went to grammar schools and got good exam results (ds now in sixth form, dd at university) but ds is still not really that interested in academic learning or reading. He is very curious about the world though and a deep thinker.

Honestly I wouldn't worry. Just read to your child as often as you can, making it a nice relaxing cuddly experience for you both, and talk about numbers in the real world whenever it comes up.

DS has just turned 5. He can recognise all letters and blend CVC words. He gets a book home from school every day (Pink Book Band so the one above the books without words I think) which usually have a sentence per page. To echo posters above, they all learn at different speeds.