Phonics and learning to write alone (very reluctantly). Please, any advice?

[Eggrules]

DS's is in Reception and his school use Learn Read Write Inc, ORT and Education City. He struggled in nursery but has settled into school really well and will shortly finish a Y1 RML sound group. In the past his homework has included work sheets, letter sound and formation; RML ditties. Literacy homework now consists of two ORT/PX books per week, Education City and practising writing sentences and short stories.

His teacher has suggested that he decides his own writing practise and I am having problems supporting and encouraging him

School use phonics and will do so next year when he will be in a mixed Y1/2 group. I feel that up until now school have followed one system and we do our own thing at home. I understand that phonics are important for reading and spelling; this is all new to me.

He has always been reluctant to write and hates colouring in. He reverses some letters and numbers but is on a par with his peers. I assume Y1 will contain a lot more writing practise. He writes phonetically and I and not concerned that words are not spelt correctly - should I be?

When he first started, he wrote between 5 - 10 sentences. He has now started to reverse letters/numbers more frequently. He articulates a story and then simplifies it to a very basic level so it it easier to write.

He started nursery this time last year and could not hold a pencil. His peers were practising first and second names and he was very upset to be behind. I am not worried about pushing him ahead but would like to support him at home as best as I can.

Any ideas?

Thanks

he sounds like he is doing well - my DS started Y1 doing less than that and I have NO concerns - improved massively over Y1
Personaly I wouldn't push it too much - could really be counter productive a couple of sentances max would be fine in my household - sound like a lot of homework for reception in my view as well
re spelling in reception and in Y1 phonetic spelling is fine

He is doing well now but had a very shaky start. If he hadn't been upset in thew past about writing I would be less worried now. His progress this year has amazed me. If it levels out next year that will be fine.

As school have mentioned writing practise, I feel it is important to support them. We do 20 mins working at home a day about 5 times a week, which I think is about right.

When you say writing practice are you talking about forming the letters, handwriting, or creating words and sentences, or both? My daughter loves creating sentences with wooden letters. She can do less with handwriting. She enjoys both, but prefers wooden letters because she can do more.

eggrules I would probably focus on correct letter formation in as many ways as you can find
if his spelling is plausible (you can work out what it's meant to be) I would praise him and say something like "that's a really good try but in this word we write it like ... so he gets used to seeing the correct spelling.

If you can't work out what's been written don't you ask the child, (nicely, of course!)

Thanks.

Writing practise to me is letter formation, starting to write independently, in sentences and using some punctuation. He writes a few sentences on his own and reads it back to me. His spelling is plausible; his teachers find it easier to understand. School has send home a double sided number and lower case letter sheet. He would sit and copy this but would find it really dull.

I will concentrate on letter formation. He has a cheap desk from Ikea that has a whiteboard on top. Off to Pinterest and Google for more ideas and games.

"If you can't work out what's been written don't you ask the child"
I think what Mrz was saying is that if your child has written "We had caik" then you can work out what your child has written as it is phonetically plausible, although the child used the 'ai' phoneme rather than a-e. If a child has a sound phonics background you should be able to work out what they have written, because even if they haven't learnt a particular phoneme yet they can use another one that makes the same sound and therefore make an attempt at the word so it can be decoded by someone else. If a child is unable to hear the phonemes in a word and therefore can't work out how to spell something, yes you would need to ask the child what their random letters were spelling, but then work with them to hear the sounds, rather than just tell them the correct spelling.

Eggrules I found with DS1 he loved forming his letters in the air, or writing them in sand to practice the formation in the right way, not just writing them on paper.

My problem is twofold - I am new to phonics and I have a different accent to my child. This comes back to my poorly articulated issue. I am worried that the work we do together at home is different to school.

Of course I would ask him if I couldn't understand. Up until now I haven't tried to correct him too much and so to get around this I ask him to read it to me. I think HE has started to realise that his spelling isn't correct and hence the reluctance to write - especially more complex words.

The TA at school had a group outside writing letters in water with squeeze bottles on the school path.
They looked like they were having fun.

He made a card without help and wrote:

To Dab
Haqqy farthers day
you are the best
1 he gave me his acrn figrs. (action figures)
2 he teyx me to cinwaib (takes me to Cineworld)
3 hes a goob bab dad.

Love miniegg xxx

I understood what he meant and haven't corrected the card.

He would LOVE letter writing with water. I'll also get some chalks.

Buntingbunny and mrz thanks for advice. I took an old washing up liquid bottle and filled it with water. I wrote "b is for bat on it" - I don't know what the correct mnemonic is. DS is going down the stick first and then around the ball. He wrote b.a.t unprompted.

We have tried hands and B.E.D. in the past. DS clearly needs at least a couple of little tricks to help him remember.

The other thing I teach my class is to stick up both thumbs curls fingers in towards them to make a fist knuckles together the left hand is a b and the right a d so they can do a quick check.

Thanks mrz We have tried hands and B.E.D. in the past that is what I meant. WE turn it upside down for pig. This worked for ages but has stopped. I think that is why I get frustrated. He was fine until he started writing large quantities and then he started reversing d/b and p/q most of the time.

I'll persevere

Have you looked at the free materials on Nessy?

Nessy look great, thanks.

I love the Hairy Letters. I will have a good look tomorrow.

Don't get frustrated....sorry, easy to say, less easy to do. Some of it takes time and for my DS writing seems quite a lot harder than reading. DS here always asks me for any words that aren't obvious to him- eg "blue", and "drawing" were two he asked for today. I take him through the steps- eg well what does it start with "b" then what?, "l", then what's the next sound? He might say "oh, is it ew and I'll say, well no, it's ue this time. I think he asks me more now he has more awareness of different spellings and knows he doesn't know if that makes sense.

ex TA here:

I've had Yr 3 kids that could only manage two or three sentences, with very few words correctly spelt. For Reception (even though it's almost the end of Reception year now) that seems OK to me, and I don't think you need to worry.

If you are uncertain about Phonics yourself, I don't think a teacher would mind giving you ten minutes (at a time to suit her of course!) to explain it to you. Or maybe a friendly Teaching Assistant could help (with the teacher's permission). Some schools hold parent workshops to explain current Literacy and Numeracy methods, which have changed since virtually all parents were at school themselves. (and it's due to change again I believe.)

It is more important that he is happy, has friends in school, and can cope with all the other aspects of school - arts, crafts, PE, music and singing, playtimes, mealtimes, etc.

I agree it's early days and settling in to a school regime is more important than being academic.

Frustrated is the right word, he seems to have gone backwards. The reluctance may be a confidence thing - he knows what he has written isn't spelt correctly.

I have asked school about phonics and they have said he is doing well and not to worry. I'll google it and see what sense I can make.