Sounds in reception

[nocheeseinhouse]

How many sounds would you expect a reception child to have learned by now, or how many have they learned in your child's school?

We have 10 sounds in our sound book, and are going no where fast! I'm aware it's a marathon, not a sprint, but...

10 is not very fast at all. In fact it's snail's pace.

In practice it can depend on a number of things. Some schools have long settling in periods so might not have all children in school until 2-3 weeks after the start of term and start introducing sounds then. Some don't start teaching phonics until after October half term.

Also different programs introduce sounds at different rates. Letters and Sounds recommends 4 a week. JP is 5 or 6 a week. I think I've seen Debbie Hepplewhite suggest 3 a week for Phonics International so assume Floppy's Phonics is about the same pace.

I'd be less worried about a teacher that started later and introduced sounds at a fast pace than one that started at the beginning of term and had only introduced 1 sound a week.

We follow Sounds~Write and our reception children have just begun unit 7 (so 25ish sounds)

Same as MRZ.

I am not sure how many they have officially done at school but it must be about the 25 mark I think. my daughter tends not to tell me because she knows the first 44 or however many it is so is revising them. she tells me lots about blending though because she likes that.

10 really doesn't sound very many to me.

DS3 (reception) has done a sound a day, for 4 days of each week. So I'm guessing about 30. They are currently doing things like ch/sh.

When DS1 started school they did one a week, which IMO, was rubbish compared to how DS2 and 3 have done them.

My ds has about 10 sounds as well, which I am pleased about as he does not guess them and recognises them and pronounces them instantly. I would rather they learnt them slowly than rushing them.

I'm a TA in a reception class - we've just completed all the individual letter sounds along with ll ss ff and ck but there is a lot of revision happening of them all all the time.

No staggered entrance, full time since September.

So, what can I do about it?! Do we do more sounds at home, or talk to school?

I don't think my son's school have done very more than 10 although he knows all the individual letter sounds and some diagraphs and has done for a year.

I think they are on unit 3?

I would just do them at home to be honest. The school will teach the way they teach for whatever reason. They presumably have a plan they follow and hopefully it is one which works for them so if you feel your DC is able to learn them more quickly then I would just get a list of what order to teach them in and start doing them at home. they will then revise them at school which is what lots of children do.

Do I need to? He'll still learn to read, right? Just slower. I'm just worried he's getting in to bad habits guessing words in his (non-phonic) reading books from school. I could just read his books to him, and accept he'll learn slowly, I suppose.

Ds is having the dandelion readers home - he's on unit 3. They have sentences like Pip get the mop, and the tap is on. Some tricky words and some CVC.
They must be learning something because ds can read them pretty well but was only sounding out CVC words before he started.

Surely he should be having phonic reading books home?

Lots of schools play lip service to phonics (or genuinely believe they are teaching phonics) while holding onto ancient Look & Say reading schemes

I would have thought so, but they're certainly not phonic if you only know 10 sounds! And I frequently stumble on how to sound them out, as they're split diagraphs or just irregularities. I don't know really. Phonics didn't exist when I learned to read, and I did learn, so it must be okay, but I can't decide whether to push at home, or have more fun?

our reception children did 30 before half term and now we are revisign the same 30 and adding the double letters in and practising blending.

DS's class are doing 'h' and 'b' this week. So if they are following jolly phonics, which I think they are, means they have done about 12-13 sounds. I think they are covering about 2/ week.

I think its about 30. My daughter is doing RWI and apparently her group is taking a break from sounds to start doing "ditties." I think some of the others will revise the original sounds. They've done blending from the first few sounds.

I don't understand schools that send books home before they've got enough sounds?

Having said that - ours don't send books home for ages - until they are sure the children are confident in their sounds I guess. My daughter is desperate to read since its clicked at school so we got the basic songbirds book for her to "Play" wtih at home but only when she wants to.

The other schools seem to be sending books home around here though.

We send books home once children can blend the sounds they have been taught.

I was rather shocked to see the book DD brought home this week - her first. She was 4 in August and started school already knowing her sounds.
She's been taught some, but not all, her sounds again and is still learning to blend them. She was very enthusiastic about learning to read.

The book she came home with is an ORT one. The first sentence is "Who is this?" It includes the words "Chip" and "spaceman".

She hasn't a hope of spelling it out, the pictures don't mean anything to her, so no clue there

She said she doesn't want to go to school and read books any more

tanith

DS2 is in reception and appears to be learning sounds very slowly. I'm pretty sure they are differentiating because one of the girls has a reading book and we haven't had one yet.

I'm pleased with this approach. DS1 went to a different school and is now in year 2. He still doesn't get how to blend the sounds together and has really struggled. In our last school he had a reading book from day 1. I'm still not sure how they taught the sounds and he used to memorise his reading books.

How bad is it that I have no idea what sounds they're learning in class?

My guess is that her class is all over the place as the teacher mentioned at the start of school that some kids were already reading. Mine knew the basic phonic letter sounds and could read and write the odd word when she started.

They're doing two one on one reading sessions a week with her, one with the teacher and one with the TA. At some point soon I think the intention is to switch to practising reading in groups but I presume she's not good enough for that yet.

She's on level 6 of the Dandelion books which is z, f and k. She reads (when she's in the mood) with a mixture of blending and sounding out and word recognition.

I only know what sounds they are doing as they have homework every day to practice the sound of the day e.g. write the letter, draw a picture that starts with the letter etc. DS went in knowing most of his single letter sounds, but learning to write them properly has been really useful to him.
He particularly likes 'round the dinosaurs big fat bottom' when making the letter 'd'...

Not much differentiation going on for phonics here I think- different from DS last year who spent most of the year working on his own for phonics. DS2 also knows at least the initial 44 sounds but is doing it over again with the class. He does however get a reading book with words in at level 3 (which is also a bit easier than he reads at home.) This year I'm trying very hard to go with the flow and not worry and hopefully things will pick up a bit for DS2 as they settle in.

My daughter has had her second set of 2 letters yesterday. So, thats 4 letters in total. She hasnt had any reading books home. She has known all her sounds for at least a year and can blend ok. The school keep saying they will start books next week, or after half term and..nothing. I am starting to get annoyed and worried. Am I overreacting? Blood pressure is rising!