early reading question. Sorry.

[stardice]

My dd (4), has a really good grasp of her alphabet sounds and can read any simple word phonically. Just not sure what to do next. Any advice appreciated.

Give her a book and see how she goes. Listen to her read and help her with the words she finds tricky. My son started reading Mr Men books, they were far more interesting then the Oxford Reading Tree.

most primary schools seem to use oxford reading tree, you can get them fairly cheap at bookpeople.com, we've bought some for dc's so they have more to read than the one a week they get sent home with, ds1 found other books a bit overwhelming to start with- I think the first ones are just 'I am Chip' 'I am Dad' etc

if she can do cvc words, and those with sh/ch/th, start to blend words like skip/belt then introduce words with double vowels... moon/boot etc.

you can use phonic based books or share ordinary books and let dd read the words she can.

introduce a few tricky words like: the, is, a;

Ds (4.2yrs) loves reading Topsy and Tim to himself. Unfortunately his sisters taught him to silent read, so it can be difficult to know how much he's reading. Every now and then I get a shock when he comes down (as it did a couple of weeks ago) and announces that Alex Rider is defusing a bomb, and what does defusing mean. It means time to make sure your sisters keep their books out of your way dear.
ORT is boring at the early levels for them to read.

DeWe give him a joke book. You will know that he can understand what he's reading because he'll laugh at the jokes.

Good idea! Or a sad book. He cries over those!

Erm... I'd avoid sad ones. I hate to see children crying.

Please don't use ORT unless they are the new Floppy Phonics (Sounds & Letters) books there are much better schemes out there (and most schools don't use ORT but many aren't in a position to buy in new schemes perhaps the new funding will see change) take a look at Oxford Owl free online books if you really want to use scheme books.

What mrz said.
Reading chest.com is also good as it includes lots of different schemes,my dd really enjoys the project x books.

My DD is just 4 and reads the Songbird range by Julia Donaldson. All of the words can be 'sound out' and very few tricky words so she can read them herself.

We've tried the Orchard Tree range but they are too difficult for her at the moment.

I agree with belledechoc, - the Mr Men books are brilliant for early reading, the actual font is very clear and simple and, although each story is very different there is much repetition which helps the child to recognise actual words.

Thank you for all the really helpful advice. She has got the songbird books which she enjoys and i am going to google oxford owls. I think i will stick some tricky words on the fridge too.

Don't restrict her to just a reading scheme or a specific set of books! Let her go to the library and let her choose whatever she wants and share it. She can read what she is able or follow what you read to her if it's too difficult. Let her pick out the words she can read or tell her the name of the main character and let her find it each time it appears. Try some factual books too - whatever she finds interesting. There are soooo many books out there - let her try and experience them all.

[[I can make writing lively and interesting. I can change the length of my
sentences]].

www.oxfordowl.co.uk/FindBook

I'm not sure how that happened

Songbirds- DS got on really well with them over the Summer. I love Julia Donaldson! Also, Usborne very early reading books are fun as designed for adult to read left page, child to read right. I've been reserving them from the library!

DS also likes to read cereal packets, road signs etc etc, but I have to be a bit careful with books as although he's keen he gets quite easily put off- ORT scheme that is not the phonics is best avoided big time!! (IMHO).

Thank you mrz! Hadn't seen that site before and think I may be on it a fair bit now!