Reading and writing in reception

[Peonyyyy]

My son has just started reception and he is a bright, funny, sensitive boy who loves books and dinosaurs. We read to him every night and we’re all chatting to him all the time, he asks lots of questions, he doesn’t have an iPad but he does watch some tv.

he told us yesterday that one of his friends goes to a different class for phonics because he’s ’really Good at reading’ and two of his other friends go in a different group, and he stays in the classroom with another group. I also noticed when it was his birthday that most of the children had entirely written the cards themselves.

he recognises letters, numbers and his name and sometimes writes his name independently but he cannot read or write properly yet.

i thought this is what they teach them at school and we support at home. But what I’m hearing more and more from parents in their class is that their kids could already read and write before even starting reception. is this a new thing, are parents trying to get ‘ahead’? I understand some children are very bright and I understand they may start sooner and of course parents shouldn’t hold them back, but this is like it’s a thing that parents feel they have to have them reading and writing before starting reception.

is this a thing? I don’t want to him to lose confidence because he’s not at the same level as his friends and I don’t want the teacher to think he’s not bright, I know it will change a lot and probably won’t matter in a few months when they all catch up but I genuinely didn’t know this was a thing everyone was doing.

There’s teaching to read (school lead) and there’s the wider development (home led).

Things like counting steps as you walk up and down them, playing ‘spot the letter’ with ones in their name or ones you know they’ve been doing at school so far.

Singing nursery rhymes (rhymes help phonics)

Writing own name in cards (copying from an example or tracing over your pencil writing for as long as needed).

Colouring, playdough, setting the table, pegging out washing, folding clothes, brushing own teeth before / after you do them building fine motor skills and grip strength.

he brings a library book home every week which we read to him (he doesn’t read it to us and a lot of them are not suitable as a learning to read book) we haven’t been told that they should be reading to us yet - I assume this comes later.

we do learning just through daily activities - counting things, finding letters and numbers etc. and we read multiple books every day. We just haven’t been sitting down with him and actually teaching him to read.

with writing weve just been doing the letter they get in their bag and encourage him to write his name in cards or whenever he’s drawing

Yes we do all of this

I think not making a chore of it is key. That's why the Little and Often method in that book sounds so appealing.

It sounds like you are doing all the right things. Reading is not about decoding but about understanding. You can have a fluent reader who doesn’t undersmuch about what they are reading. Speech and language understand is the most important thing - a really language rich environment will have the biggest impact on academics long term. He will have fun in phonic groups and soon catch on. Do do lots of rhyming games and ispy games in the car. Also letters have names a as in ayyyy and sounds a as in apple. Play with playdoh making the individual letters . Don’t bother too much with handwriting but setting up the correct sitting posture which is stable, both feet on floor and relaxed but nothing floppy. Use a sand tray so he ‘writes’ a letter with his finger. Don’t worry about pencils and paper. Confidence is key and he will want to be like his peers so will be motivated to catch on quickly. Don’t worry, he will be fine.