Teaching to read...

[norfolklass]

Apologies for posting here but thought you guys might be able to help more than anyone else!

Ive got a little boy who is nearly 4 (end of feb) who is desperate to read. He spends literally all day asking me "what does that say mummy?" and Id really like to harness his enthusiam while he is so eager to learn.

He knows all his letters phonetically and can sound words out ie C A T phonetically but can't then hear that it says Cat if you get what I mean? Its really frustrating for both of us because I know he can do it and it just seems like we are one tiny step away but I can't think how else to do it.

He's quite a bright little boy (if I do say so myself!) and is so desperate to be able to do this that I just feel I want to help him. He goes to a private nursery for his govt funded sessions and while they are great with him they are about as much help as a chocolate teapot reagrding this. All I get is well he doesn't need to learn to read yet and he is too young.

Sorry fro the long ramble...just thought if anyone knew how to do this it would be on here!

We're just doing a trial with Education City at the moment and he loves it so think we'll carry on with that but just wondered if anyone had any bright ideas? Shall I just carry on as we are and then hopefully it'll just click?

when you're sounding out the letters, are you saying "cuh" and "tuh", or are you saying just the "c" and "t" sounds? IME if you don't clip the extra vowel sounds at the end, blending them together is really hard, as the individual sounds you say don't make the word (i.e. cuh-ah-tuh doesn't sound like cat).
Otherwise, persevere, and it will just click. DD3 has taught herself to read with a mixture of Read Write Inc books, and lots and lots of stories, looking at signs, and generally talking about sounds and words.

have a look at www.starfall.com
My DD(5) loves it and learned to read while having fun .

All the schools round here follow Jolly Phonics which might help. I think ELC stock the books and DVD.

Thanks for the replies much appreciated. Yep we have been using the jolly phonics for about 6 months now and thats how he learnt the letter sounds but he can't seem to transfer the sounds to how the words sound...if that makes any sense at all?!!

Don't know if you've seen the words at the back of the jolly phonics books such as Sat,Pen etc...well he can "read" them as in Suh ahh tuh but can't hear that it says sat.

Will have a look at starfall as well...someone else I know recommended that.

haven't heard of Read Write Inc so will look into that as well.

My gut feeling is that it just needs a lot of perseverance and he will eventually get it-trouble is he wants to do everything now and cannot understand why he can't do it lol!!

Thanks for all your help though...much appreciated x

Hi
It's the blending of the words that he is struggling with and it's just a case of keep practicing with him. The blending and segmenting is the tricky bit and children need lots of practice with it.

Model it for him a lot, "c, a, t, cat" Get items out eg, pen, pin, hat, cat etc and say can you find me the "c, a, t" etc.

Have a look in the Phase 2 letters and sounds stuff

HTH