Reception reading too easy

[Cutie18327]

I have a 4 year old daughter, she is August born and I wanted her entering reception confident (we have had slight behaviour issues in preschool while she caught up socially and emotionally with age) so I taught her to read before she started school. I am a teacher (secondary) so I have greatly enjoyed this process. My daughter has always been bright for her age, not exceptionally so, but enough that strangers will always remark how eloquent she is for her age/how good her memory is etc. and obviously I do want to nuture that.

Her reception teacher alluded that she was top of the class for reading at the moment, I did tell her that we were blending diagraphs and trigraphs at home but she has come home two weeks in a row with books that have 'Dig' or 'sat' on one page. She has been able to read those for a year now, and at home will read more complex sentences.

The issue I have is that 1. I don't want to come across as the pushy parent and 2. The teacher did already say it is supposed to be easy to encourage practice. I am following a totally separate reading program at home so I am happy to continue with this and nuture her growth in other ways but equally I do want her to be stretched and challenged at school as she is very capable.

How would you approach this?

Presumably your Dd can fly through the reading book sent home in 30 seconds then move on to something more interesting- bit of a non issue tbh. Having said that my Dd ( October born) didn't really have to try at school until GCSES as she was so used to everything being easy for her- she did find it a bit of shock, so I think it is worth challenging them younger. Onedoes read ahuge amount about how many in reception have huge SLT needs so I also wonder what else this teacher may be dealing with.

OP’s DD can read sentences and has been given books with one word on the page. I think it’s clear she’s got a grasp of that level.

The school curriculum should be more flexible in this respect, DD’s lovely yr 1 teacher used to sneak her maths worksheets from the year above to see what she could manage.

It must be very frustrating for teachers to not be able to just do what they think is right. I think a lot of the enthusiasm DD got was because her teachers were able to be more flexible. Personally I have a lot of respect for reception teachers, DD’s own was an absolute superstar who really knew how to encourage DD in areas she was less confident.

I would also point out that we have kids increasingly turning up to reception in nappies. If more parents took an active interest in their children, as the OP is doing, I imagine school would be a much more effective place. I don’t think she should be mocked for it, I think she’s doing a great job.

Have you seen one called curious cryptids it's a beautiful book about mythological creatures

You follow the phonics programme at school and continue reading books at home.

At this stage id drop your phonics scheme and just focus on enjoyable books for your DD. Otherwise you're going to confuse her when they move onto the next couple of stages.

This is when we started reading chapter books with DD, and she would read a bit - like she would read the speech bubbles if there were any and we would read the rest of the text.

Once they start assessing and grouping, usually after christmas, DD will progress quite quickly. MY DD was beyond bored of the books around christmas time in reception (and we didnt teach her anything beforehand), and we had to force the reading a little but as soon as the books got a little more interesting she was enthusiastic again.

Mine could already read before starting reception.
You can carry on reading your own books and just do different things with the books they bring home.

For example, cover up one of the letters and she has to say/write/pick out from a pile of scrabble tiles what it is.

Read the word and then make up a funny rhyme.

Do writing practice instead of reading practice: she records herself reading the words then at the end plays it back and has to write the words down.

Oh, for a book recommendation. PIL got DD a beautiful book called goddesses and heroines that she absolutely loves. Pretty pictures in it too that she looked at before she was confident to read the words.

That was the year they went down the "strong female rolemodels" theme and I love them for it.

Just read different books that she enjoys at home. I started school in 1959 and had to read two pages of Janet and John to the teacher every day but was reading Enid Blyton Famous Five books etc. at home.

The teacher probably has to stick to the phonics scheme as per school policy (I was a Reception Teacher but I retired just before Read Write Inc was brought in) but your child can read anything she likes at home.

I had similar issues with my DD (now year 4). I had taught her basic phonics at home during COVID and she started reception reading quite fluently (I remember her reading "The giraffe, the pelly and me" to herself on the sofa and crying when they all went home at the end). There's little you can do in Reception but we have had teachers along the way who have shown a real interest in her and given her differentiated work. She's still ahead with reading now (reading age of 16, apparently, although how they work it out I don't know). I just make sure she gets exposed to a range of books and reads for enjoyment (e.g. she loves Katherine Rundell and Harry Potter, although at the moment what she loves most is a book I'm reading to her about the history of science). I think you may have to be a bit patient and just get reading books from the library.

It’s not irrelevant. If OP is going to teach phonics she needs to get the terminology right!

One of my kids learned to read before starting school. He still had to work his way through the school reading scheme and phonics. The most annoying part was when he was supposed to be learning letters and brought home colouring sheets to learn letters he already knew. His teacher said that as long as he read the assigned school reading book then he could choose whichever book he liked from the school library and whatever else he liked at home.

I had this situation years ago. It was a different system then and the reception had a word pot that contained the 50 most used words. My also August born DS went to school being able to read and just before the Christmas break his lovely teacher sent DS home with year one words and a bunch of year one books. We already had some of them and I also bought a lot more to have at home.
I occasionally bump into her at the shops and she always asks after my DS and mentions how tiny he was and how he loved to read.

Do you really think that children won't be able to blend and segment two letter sounds if their teacher says diagraph instead of digraph? Do you know that many competent and qualified EY teachers say diagraph without realising? It isnt an issue. Ideal, no, but has zero impact on the learning.

It isnt relevant to the child doing phonics.

It is relevant and I know of no Early Years practitioners who say it incorrectly. You seem to presume that I’ve got no direct experience of teaching phonics or Early Years. I actually have over 30 years experience as an ex-teacher, deputy head and head.
I also wouldn’t presume to think I could teach secondary. My expertise is in primary. The two are very different beasts. I think OP should enjoy books together with her DC and leave the phonics teaching to school.

Your CV is very inpressive, but do you think that saying the mum saying 'diagraphs' will hold her child back?

Your CV is very inpressive, but do you think that saying the mum saying 'diagraphs' will hold her child back?

unless the child show signs of boredom don’t worry especially at this age

Our school will not move you on in book bands unless your writing and comprehension are at the same level.

My DD has hyperlexia and could happily read HP books at 4. However, they were not appropriate for her to read. We have been waiting now for the book capacity to match her reading ability.

My experience of schools is they teach the level of the majority and can’t really cater for the outliers. My dd was also reading before starting school and her maths is excellent and I was basically told off for teaching her and told he had to work at the level if he class the teacher couldn’t facilitate stretching her as had to help those struggling. Fine I understand that. Until my dd started struggling with English and got working towards in her SATs when I asked how we could help her I was told she’s still one of the top in the class and would be getting no additional support. I was having to teach her at home. Add in the terrible behaviour of the other children in the class and a couple injuries they didn’t attend to (a 2 inch gash on her head left for another 7 year old to mop her up!) I now home educate. Got a tutor for English as she still struggles and the tutor initially just couldn’t accept a child can read exceptionally well but not be able to spell, did the comprehension test to prove she’s not such a good reader then was surprised at the result.

I think basically if your child works above or below school level the very limited teacher time won’t strech to them so it will be in parents to step in

This is the main reason why we moved to private.

One dyslexic child and one hyperlexic child.

They would have been failed in mainstream.

DS was also an advanced reader.
We had a great reception teacher who did say to me she knew he could read and wanted to work on proper comprehension.

It was many years ago, but from what I can remember, she gave him a little extra work. So descriptive words for example, how many other alternatives can you think of?
Large ... Huge, massive etc

His handwriting was actually awful (it still is). He is left handed but broke that arm so moved to his right hand for writing. As you can imagine, that was a bit of a struggle as one page of a schoolbook would be taken up by only 3 words 😂😂 but that task stretched him and worked on his weakness with a pencil.

She'd also ask him to work on retelling in his own words. Or thinking of different outcomes. What characters might be feeling. What he liked about the book, what he didn't like and why and probably other things I've forgotten.

Haha, I noticed all this too, but didn’t want to say.

However, now that you already have, it seems a lot of people have broadened the usage of ‘to allude to’ / ‘an allusion’ way beyond its original meaning.

Our grandson (now year one) is 2 levels above with the Kipper, Biff and Chip books. School (state) set work accordingly.

Not in itself, no, but overall my impression of OP is that they’ve fallen into that trap of thinking it’s easy to teach young children whilst it’s actually quite complex.

I'm not sure who on earth got the impression that I said it was easy to teach phonics to children? I didn't explicitly say that nor even imply that. I have lots of spare time with my children because I can afford to work part time and not put my young children into childcare so I have chosen to use that time to give my kids a headstart and ensure they have the best opportunities avaliable to them. My daughter is top in her class for reading as a result, and she is the youngest in the year. I have not said a bad word about my daughters teacher. In fact, I think she is fantastic, but I know how hard it is to have a whole class of 30, especially when they are 4 years old.

I'm not a primary teacher but I know enough to teach basics phonics.

When did we start crucifying mothers for wanting to actually help their children with their education?

I'm really disappointed by some of these responses, they are completely unnecessary.