DD (just 4) showing an interest in reading

[Midge25]

Originally posted this in behaviour/development but one of the replies suggested it might be better here...

Not sure where to post this ... DD, just 4, has got very interested in reading/writing; she's always loved books, she knows most letters by sight and can write her name and some other simple words like 'mummy', either with a pen or using foam letters on the side of the bath. She seems to want to know more, and I don't want to push things but am happy to help her explore this and encourage her interest prior to her starting school in Sept. Our 1st choice school - won't get confirmation of her place til April - uses Thrass phonics system. I have no idea about phonics full stop and don't want to introduce a system which she can't build on/makes no sense when she starts school. Most of the introductory books available seem to be about Jolly Phonics: is this similar? And can anyone suggest ways of encouraging this interest in a gentle way? TIA

Type and print out a simple sentence or two for her to read every night before bed. It needs to be about her e.g.

Mummy and DD went to the park to play.

Ask her to find a "D" (say the sound, not the name of the letter) in shop names or newspaper headlines. Stick post-it notes on things e.g. "Bath",
"Door" and so on. Make reading an everyday activity.

let her read what she wants and give her a broad range eg magazines, non fiction etc
make her own books
look for environmental print ie words around in shops etc you'd be surprised how many children know and recognise the word tesco!!
im not sure about thrass not heard of it, i use jolly phonics. But you could look at the basic letter sounds - make sure you use sounds not names ie b makes a buh sound (without emphasis on th 'uh') rather than bee (the name) i say a just like a dog is called a dog but makes a woof sound, a letter has a name but makes a different sound, talk about things which start with the sound, make it all practical and fun, play matching letter games,

Teaching Handwriting Reading and Spelling Skills is a mixed method system

Thanks for these replies. mrz what does mixed method entail?

bad practice

If you can't write, read and spell at least then you didn't get anything wrong. You can always watch TV your whole life.

I'd try and use some websites like these:
www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/kentict/content/games/literacy_menu.html
activities to cover KS1 phonics and beyond.
www.starfall.com/
fun interactive activities and printable worksheets.

It will give you some ideas of what phonics entails. The first one splits up activities into different phases so you can see which phonics are covered in which phase and start with the earliest ones.

There are also some good early phonics materials on the phonics international site and unit 1 is free to download.

www.phonicsinternational.com/

If you use resources like these as a guide (the Phonics International site also has a guide of how to pronounce all the sounds and an overview of the many ways in which they are written) I don't think you are likely to cause her problems with any school system.

Jolly Phonics is good, but I think it is quite expensive to buy.

Is that your advert for the THRASS method Learnandsay?

JollyPhonics is around £15.00

Ah - OK Mrz - which bits of Jolly Phonics does that cover? (A friend of mine bought it some years ago and it was over £100 but she had all the big books, videos, flashcards etc)

No, it's my advert for parents to teach their children how to read.

And from the looks of things, parents should be teaching their children how to do maths/arithmetic too. But perhaps it's time to distinguish maths from arithmetic. One of which most people can't possibly hope to do without and the other which most people can probably do perfectly well without.

Perhaps we should have two distinct calculation subjects in school.

All the essential bits sarah. The video is dire and so are the big books and totally unnecessary.

In that case op. Jolly Phonics might be a good place to start too.

The essential part is the handbook the flash cards and the song book are useful but not vital