How did you teach the alphabet?

[ThreeLittleDuckies]

My little one is about to turn 4 and has just started being interested in letters, so I'm going to start teaching her the alphabet. I know they'll teach her when she starts school but she is showing an interest now!
Do I teach lowercase first, or upper and lowercase at the same time? I can't remember how I did it in school!
Thanks!

Strange how schools work. The workshops were run because of scenarios such as the above. Same with literacy for parents, to help them help their child read.

Workshops are run to show parents how to support children at home once they are being taught to read at school. Not before. The OP's child has not started school yet.

Of course schools are not forbidding parents from supporting their school age children with reading at home! That would be a complete nonsense.

I think some posters are getting shirty about teachers teaching and parents parenting.

Just make sure you teach the letter sounds not the letter names, or you’ll mess up all the phonics they do at school. My neighbour did this and her dd was very upset when she started school and had to try and set aside all she’d been taught by her mum to learn the sound the letter made, not its name.
National curriculum is phonics, so try to get some resources that fit with that. I think Jolly phonics is still a method primaries use.

Lower case and teach the phonic not the letter name x

I’m not sure how many schools are running phonics workshops for non-school age children who aren’t yet on the school roll. I’m assuming it’s not many. They usually happen in the autumn term if reception for parents of children who are in reception.

A child's education should be a partnership between the parents and the school.
In my view a school is better off saying 'it isn't necessary, but if you want to here is how to do it' than saying 'don't do it'.

Especially as there still seems to be a significant minority of teachers who still don't teach phonics but instead teach 'mixed methods' including guessing from pictures.

I’m not sure how many schools are running phonics workshops for non-school age children who aren’t yet on the school roll. I’m assuming it’s not many. They usually happen in the autumn term if reception for parents of children who are in reception.

No, the school held a general open evening to prospective parents a few months before the children started year R. It was a welcome meeting, who's who, info about uniform, routines etc.

The year R leader was very clear that parental support is hugely appreciated by the teachers, and we were given a date for the phonics workshop that would happen in September. Until then, as parents we were advised not to start out own phonics activities with our children at home, but instead to encourage a love of reading, promote readiness for reading on the ways I've mentioned, and particularly for the younger ones to ensure they had the practical skills needed to manage the school day (dressing, toileting etc).

Sorry if I have caused confusion.

A child's education should be a partnership between the parents and the school.

Absolutely. A child's outcomes are most likely to be good when this partnership is positive.

In my view a school is better off saying 'it isn't necessary, but if you want to here is how to do it' than saying 'don't do it'.

I'm not saying don't do it.

I'm saying, don't do it yet.

Let the school do it...

... Then support the application of it in your child's reading with you at home.

Sorry blue but my kids like reading, I’m not going to not teach them!

And also,

Do it, but let the school show you how they do it first, and learn from this.

It's not rocket science but Letters and Sounds is quite particular in the order in which sounds are taught. There are 42 sounds corresponding to 26 letters. Sounds should be spoken succinctly (pure sounds) and some words cannot be segmented or blended, they should be taught by sight.

orcaaa it's great that your kids like reading. How old are they?

4 and 2.

Obviously it's your call how you approach reading with them. I'm just sharing my professional and personal opinion 🙂

The thing is blue I’m sure you are great at what you do, but not every teacher is.

You don’t really get much more important than good reading and sound literacy skills.

DS1 was book obsessed and started asking around the age of 2 "Dat?" and pointing at the individual lettersand whole words. I got a lower case alphabet poster and done Melissa and Doug magnetic letters which I presented in a baking tray in the same layout as the poster. He used to pick up the letters, lay them on the poster letters and we'd say the common sound associated with that letter. After he'd learnt them we did upper case letters and letter names the same way and used Bounce Patrol's British version of the alphabet song on Spotify to learn that. Next we got a phonics poster and book for him with the blended letter sounds ans various vowel sounds included but didn't actively teach him what was on there. We play lots of letter games like sound I-spy.

Around the time he was 3 he stopped asking to be read to and started looking at books alone so I suspected he was reading or learning to read but it was about six months later that I actually knew for definite that he was reading.

He was very keen though. I'd have had to work very hard to stop him learning his letters I think. He loves maths too and asks to do maths with beads and Duplo blocks when his brother goes for a nap. He likes that more than playing with toys really.

DS2 is just 2, loves to play and is less studious in nature, more how you'd expect a toddler to be. He just picks up bits haphazardly from his brother as he loves to copy and be involved with anything anyone else is doing. If he finds something with a letter m, he brings it to me and says "m for Mama!". He is fascinated that a lower case d for Dada can be turned upside down to be p for Peppa!

The thing is not all children will be satisfied with beating around the bush when they want to know.

Some children also attend preschool and nursery before reception and start learning phonics before. Should we not encourage their learning and support them with it?

Children are all different but parents are the ultimate educators.

There is no right or wrong way. It is information they will use sooner or later.

There is nothing to unlearn in my view.

Workshops are run to show parents how to support children at home once they are being taught to read at school. Not before. The OP's child has not started school yet.

As I said in a previous post, the school ran the workshops for anyone interested. Other teachers, nursery staff, ta's, parents and carers etc. The school believes that children learn at different stages and it's better to teach when they are ready. If this happens before formal school, then it happens, just in the same way that some will get there later in their primary education. They understood that parents introduce books aimed at small children because they are widely accessible.

Some books will have words phrased as d-o-g often with a picture on the next page. To help them with their learning it's better to teach as a word is written surely to save any possible confusion.

Omg I am an oldie on here and I learnt my alphabet at about 2 and my granny taught me forwards and backwards with a song. I think you are overthinking everything, It’s not all about school - they teach it in differing ways which seems to change with the wind. Make it fun. Kids are adaptable and can learn a different way when at school.

We had foam letters in the bath when DS was two or three, among many other bath toys. I used to pick up an o and say "ooooo" to make DS laugh. We'd make his name by sticking it on the side of the bath. He also had his name on his door. We would point out letters and numbers when we saw them when out and about. DS learnt a lot of words by shape, so could pick out "chocolate" and "fireworks" when he was three for example, but couldn't necessarily sound them out. I wasn't going to stick my head in the sand and go "no, DS, we will not touch the alphabet until you go to school." when he clearly wanted to learn to read and when I got such joy myself out of reading. No teacher ever said I was wrong, and he had no problems at all at school.

But the vast majority of parents haven't attended a phonics workshop if their child is 3, nearly 4. So if they start teaching their children it could go something like this...

Sentence: Tom was at the park.

Mum: What does that word start with? Yes it's a tuh! Tuh-oh-um. Tuh-oh-um. Tom.

Child looks confused but perseveres.

Mum: wuh-ah-ess. That says was.

Narrator: /t/ /o/ /m/ is a CVC word that can be easily segmented and blended. Careful though, just make a 't' sound for /t/ without 'uh' afterwards. This blends more easily with /o/. Also, /m/ should be taught as mmmmmm, not 'muh'. This is to make sure the sounds run together smoothly and actually sound like the word.

'Was' is a common exception word and should be taught by memory. It cannot be segmented or blended.

You get the idea.

Teen I don’t really disagree with you. God knows there are enough uninformed teachers out there when it comes to early reading.

But I don’t think it’s fair that the skills and experience of a teacher should be called into question for pointing out that if you don’t know what you are doing you can screw it up and it might be better not to do it at all than to do it badly.

I didn't banish toys with letters on them from my home during the preschool years. We had foam letters in the bath. That is part of developing readiness for reading.

I just never explicitly taught them, this letter makes the sound /o/.

My DCs were highly interested in stories and we devoured books together. Their comprehension of books was brilliant and we discussed characters, settings, plots and so on, made predictions, compared books. But I didn't teach them to read until they were ready. Very few children are ready aged 3 neatly 4.

Thinking back to my time in education, we had some that couldn't 'get' phonics. Some that knew how to read and write. Their work and books were adapted to meet their needs. Just like any other subject where a child is struggling/excelling. Sometimes how something is taught can be confusing, you have to find what works for that learner.

For years I couldn't understand algebra and some advanced math. One day I met someone who made it all make sense. I would have failed my gcse, instead, I passed with flying colours. The person thought outside the box and ignored that schools standard way of teaching. I went to school a long time ago when it wasn't the standard to differentiate work. Yet reading was my forte and I would have been held back if someone tried to teach me a different way to how I learned.

Rafals I totally agree that if people don't know what they are doing with phonics they should leave well alone.

However if parents do want to help their child with reading before school then pointing them in the right direction is surely better than just saying 'don't do it' which will be ignored by many.

It's not that hard to say:

• it's not necessary and self care and love of books is paramount but if you want to then:
• sounds not names
• look at alphablocks to learn how to say the sounds and particularly don't add an 'uh' sound
• here's a list of the sounds in a sensible order for learning
• don't encourage guessing from pictures, help them with sounds they don't know
• keep it fun, don't force them, if they're not enjoying it then stop

Most of my friends with kids at the school listened to the advice and didn’t teach phonics or try to teach how to read. You know, because the teachers, who are the experts, said not to and we listened. Those that were too arrogant to listen complained most of the way through reception that their child was struggling with phonics and that all the parents’ ‘good work’ was undone .