Help with DS and reading please.

[Kyrptonite]

DS is 4.9. He's been on pink band books since the start of reception. He's absolutely fine with these apart from 'the'. He cannot remember it.

At home (they only change school books twice a week) he's been reading one or two books to me each night (Oxford reading tree level 1&2 and oxford reading tree songbird phonics 1+).

He's doing really well it's just the word 'the'. I have no idea how to get him to remember it.

Also I have no clue about book band levels. Is pink the same as ORT 1/2? I don't want to ask the other mums as they looked at me like I had two heads when we were speaking about the number homework (write 2 numbers) and I stupidly said DS could add and subtract .

Give him a smartie every time he gets it right. He'll soon get the hang of it.

I already use the chocolate button per key word system

I shall up my game to smarties.

Write out a few words like cat, dog, pig etc and the on paper and stick them round the room and do a game of the first one to run to. I would make the other words quite easy for him at this stage.

Change the words (apart from the) around (and maybe change the actual words when he is ready) but still include "the" until he cracks it.

You can try the Oxford owl website for loads of free ebooks to read.

That's a good point about the phonics, TravelinColour. If he's only been taught 't' and 'h' separately he might be trying to blend it and getting confused. I would teach him 'th' and how to blend 'the' and then unless he's showing any other signs of difficulty in recalling letters/words, it's just a case of regular repeated exposure I think.

Surely it will come - he's only a term into school. Lots of schools around here including our s don't even issue books until after Christmas. I'd carry on with whatever amount of reading he's happy with and with lots of repetition he'll get there.

You really don't want v to be making v an issue v of it or drawing attention to it or putting him b off I'd have thought? Especially if c there's no other problems c and he's happy with his phonics.

Not sure why there's extra letters. ..

It is possible at that age to EITHER learn 'the' as a whole word/shape (which can cause problems as The and the look different), OR to sound out t-h-e and convert that to 'the' so they learn that the sounds 't-h-e' make the irregular word 'the'. The latter method works well with many children, and they use it for spelling also. Which method have you been using? They won't know 'th' yet as a single sound.

If they don't know 'th' as a single sound then the school should not be giving the children books with the words 'the' in!

Chill. It's a long road, go at his pace . Unless the ORT are phonics based I wouldn't do them. Some of the ORT "easy" books are deadly and the best way to put your child off reading. Stick to songbirds, or there are lots of other phonics books around if you are interested. Or as others have said you can make up your own words. We did this for a while.

OP here (nc)

He's got 'th' on the sound and word cards he brings home. We did his keywords Wednesday night. Thursday he came home with a note in his bag saying he needs to practise 'my' 'like' 'the' and 'to'. He knows these at home!

We've been doing ORT phonics as first stories are a bit beyond him. He can read a lot of the high frequency words such as 'was' 'from' 'off' etc and he's picked up the 'ee' sound but this is from home. At school he has pink words still.

I'm trying not to pressure him. He's way ahead for maths (not so stealth boast ) but DP is dyslexic so it's in my head that maybe DS won't get reading. It's silly I know. I was a free reader at 3 and being able to just read whenever I liked was lovely.

I'm just going to keep doing word games and things when he shows an interest and bribe with chocolate buttons

We have a tag reader pen. I might dig that out. He much prefers interactive things.

"my", "like", "to" and "the" are random, strange words to know when you are first learning phonics. I think they are misguided trying to get him to learn those. You haven't covered the sounds- as you progress in phonics you learn that "y" can be as in "mummy" (ee) or as in "I" (my, try etc), then you learn the split vowel diagraph ( in about 3- months time, like, bike, hike, you learn "to" can be "oo" (to, do), but probably you learn "go and so first", and the you learn "th" and add "e".

Gah!

I would stick to the pure phonics, ditch learning whole words. And do your own thing with phonics, look out for some good readers- DD likes these www.amazon.co.uk/Top-Love-Reading-Phonics-Level/dp/1848983905/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1387062164&sr=8-2

You can just read the "tricky" words for him to start with so he can concentrate on the phonics.

Don't do First Stories, dreadful non-phonic, guaranteed to confuse and distress (and that's the adult..)

Relax. He is not even five yet. He doesn't need to know how to read "the" or any word, for years. As a primary teacher, my advice is that the best thing you can do as a parent is help your child enjoy books and stories, and don't get hung up on what they can't do. Reading schemes are depressing enough for teachers - as a parent you really shouldn't have to worry about levels and colours etc. that will only make you stressed and your child may pick up on that and start feeling stressed too. Have fun with reading and making up stories, and let everything else fall into place in its own time.

Thanks everyone. He's always been so quick to grasp things (4-5 word sentences by 1st birthday, writing his name, mum, dad etc from memory at 3.6 etc) that I forget he is only young. That makes me sound like I hot house him. I don't, I didn't realise it wasn't average until nursery when they began making a big deal out of it.

He seems to get words quicker if he writes them down himself. I'm going to try not to worry about reading levels. Luckily no one at the gates seems to be discussing them so I'm clueless as to where the other children are at.

Try shaping the letters and words out of play dough so they are 3d rather than 2d, I think that was the only thing that helped my son remember the little words like a, an, the

That's good u are trying notto worry about the other kids - it doesn't matter where they are in their reading, it's not a competition. And children learn in fits and starts. Your child has probably been learning lots of new social skills in the past few months, especially if he has just started school. Maybe he is concentrating on physical development - what are his priorities? More likely to be mastering the monkey bars or getting the attention of his class's It child than learning how to read "the" - a fundamentally uninteresting word, anyway.
You are clearly a supportive and interested parent - your child has therefore won half the battle in succeeding at school already. I really think the best thing you can do for him now is back off, trust his teachers to do their job, and nurture his own interests.