Any reception teachers??? Reading questions!

[worriedmama16]

I see a lot on here that teachers know the children who are read to.
How???
I've read to my child pretty much since birth, her speech is great but getting her to sit and let me read to her has been a challenge over the last year, often I just end up reading the book while she potters round the room.

She also likes to look at the book herself and "read" it, with books like the hungry caterpillar, gruffalo she does recite them correctly.

She is good at nursery with sitting still and when home often plays carpet time with her stuffed toys, I'm not worried as such I just wish she'd let me read to her properly!!

Oh she's almost 4 btw, starting reception in September.

You can tell 100%. Things like sitting, turning the pages, discussing the pictures, following the line of words with her finger. Has she started phonics in nursery yet? You will very quickly move onto her doing to reading in reception (although reading to her is still important, she needs to see that she can read too) I have parents in reception who read the child's reading books to them and then wonder why they are struggling to blend sounds. Slow and steady when the time comes, teachers don't expect your child to read the while book in one go.

A teacher told me once that they can tell children that have been read to because they have a far greater range in their vocabulary. They will have picked up on interesting words they've heard in books and may use them in their every day language more than someone who hasn't heard those words over and over again.

The example she gave me was that a typical child might describe mud as 'muddy'; where as a child who has heard We're Going on a Bear Hunt a million times might describe it as 'thick oozy mud'
And there are a million other examples I guess where that might happen

I think they're doing phonics, she does a lot of "look there's an apple, A is for apple" when out and about. Also if we see her initial on shop signs etc she'll say "there's my letter!"
We pass a McDonald's she'll say "look, mummy there's your letter, M is for mummy.

She can write out mummy but not her own name yet.

I know you asked about reading but one of the best skills you can teach her at home before September is to read and write her own name and try to get her to form the letters correctly.

They can tell by various things vocabulary,general knowledge, recognising characters,letters/words,story lines, how they use books etc.

Sorry but I have to disagree with Russell19. The best things to teach your child in readiness for reception are life skills. Can she go to the toilet and wash her hands independently? Can she put her own coat/shoes on? Can she get herself changed for PE? Those of the things that will make her life easier.

Teaching letter formation is only really helpful if you know how the school teaches it - for example, my DC's school teaches cursive script from day one, so all letters are taught with the lead ins and tails ready for joining up. Other local schools just teach block letters. A friend of mine who is a primary teacher has always said it's much harder to reteach a child whose been taught to do something a different way than it is to teach someone from scratch.

With the reading, as a pp said, I think their vocabulary will be a giveaway.

There are kids who start Reception not knowing how to hold a book, turn the pages etc

Thanks everyone. I've purposely not tried to teach her to read as I'm not a teacher and don't know what I'm doing!
I've heard it can make it difficult when at school, I've taught her to count, shapes etc there's only one way to do that!

Just enjoy her the most you can and push school to the back of your mind. The pre school days fly by so quickly 😭
Embrace every minute and have as much fun as you can before September, that's my advice!

Totally agree with life skills yes but I think recognising a name when written down is s massive part of that. Knowing which peg is yours, being able to self register and seeing your work book/reading folder etc and knowing it is yours is important. Reading your name is not teaching to read in a sense..... a lot of names are not decodable anyway so don't follow a phonics approach.

Hmm my son is almost 4 and despite the fact he has been read to frequently since being a baby is not advanced with speech and vocabulary and is having speech and language therapy. He also doesn’t put his finger along the words and I do all the book holding and page turning. I hope it’s not assumed that he’s never been read to because we read loads.

She can read her name, can't write it out yet!

There are lots of kids who start school not even knowing their name let alone having ever seen a book.

They don’t even know what way up to hold a book or what way to turn the pages or that the letters are words which are sounds which are related to the pictures.

The teacher will know your dc isn’t one of these dc.

@usuredo can't you let him hold the book and turn the pages??