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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Reception child - note on reading log.

28 replies

smearedinfood · 15/01/2015 23:22

It said "Are you actually practicing key words at home?"

We are! although my little summer born DS is quite resistant and I'm finding really difficult to get one to one time with a 7 month old baby in the mix.

Please hold my hand and tell me not to worry.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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GillSans · 15/01/2015 23:31

The 'actually' in that sentence makes it quite accusatory and rude.

I would be tempted to write "yes we ACTUALLY are!" but I'm at the other end of the school now and wouldn't have done that when my first was in reception.

I'd have a word with the teacher and show her the note. She probably didn't write it as it's usually volunteers who listen to reading. Reassure her that you are practicing, but taking at a pace to encourage enjoyment of reading rather than making it a chore.

maizieD · 15/01/2015 23:33

There's really no need to worry about those 'key words'. Schools often focus on them at the expense of phonics learning. But, as a matter of interest, which ones is she supposed to be learning and how has the school advised you to help her?

Really, what's more important is that she learns her letter/sound correspondences and how to sound out and blend words. And, that she isn't required to read books containing words in which she doesn't have the phonic knowledge to work out for herself

(Three guesses as to who posts on this thread tomorrow morning with a spiel about the difficulty of English spelling )

Ziggyzoom · 15/01/2015 23:37

And shouldn't it be "practising"?

Not that I'm suggesting you should point this out.

Original poster

smearedinfood · 15/01/2015 23:38

It's definitely a fine line with DS enjoyment/chore he is just tired after school some days and gets a bit frustrated with crawlers knocking over his lego towers and me telling him not to leave tiny things near the baby.

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Original poster

smearedinfood · 15/01/2015 23:40

Oh Ziggy that's probably frazzled me

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Original poster

smearedinfood · 15/01/2015 23:41

Maisie that's quite reassuring as he 'is' getting the phonics.

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AmantesSuntAmentes · 15/01/2015 23:48

Through consistely responding that (actually!), I believe 6 hours of academia per day is quite enough for that age group, school gave up pushing homework. My DC have suffered no issues with learning as a consequence!

Ziggyzoom · 16/01/2015 00:00

Oh sorry. In the circumstances, quite understandable typo for you. It would have been beautifully ironic if the teacher had made it!

Seriously, don't worry about it.

ReallyTired · 16/01/2015 10:13

Does the teacher realise quite how rude she has been. Parents and teachers should work in partnership. It is unacceptable for a teacher to treat a parent as if they are a naughty five year old.

I thought that teaching keywords went out with the ark. (or the last govenment) A four year old should be practicing his phonics. Tricky words can be introduced when the child is ready.

Original poster

smearedinfood · 16/01/2015 10:28

Ziggy

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HarveySchlumpfenburger · 16/01/2015 10:31

Sadly it didn't go out with the ark. Although if I'd received a note that rude in the reading diary I'd be sorely tempted to write an equally rude note back pointing that out and outlining current best practice.

I'm aware that would very quickly label me as THAT parent though.

GillSans · 16/01/2015 10:32

My autocorrect prefers practicing too. I have an American keyboard that doesn't even have a pound sign. V frustrating.

TeenAndTween · 16/01/2015 11:13

No idea if this is practical with a baby, but we've always found reading practice in the morning before school works better for our DD.

MrsHathaway · 16/01/2015 11:43

DS's spelling homework came back with "Great practise, DS!" on it.

Veeeery tempted to green pen it even though I like and respect the teacher very much. My irony and pedantry sensors are buzzing.

Hand to hold and don't worry. We don't practice anything and never have. We scarcely read the reading books either. He was one of the last in his class to get on to the first reading level, but the first in his class to go on to Free Readers (ie off the top of the reading levels). By taking the pressure off we've allowed him to read and write what he wants, so he creates his own motivation and doesn't resent the work. Admittedly if he were less motivated we would have to do more.

tl;dr: My summer-born son was scarcely reading or writing at all by this stage. Two years later he is top of the class. We did no fecking key word practice at all.

MrsHathaway · 16/01/2015 11:43

Interestingly, the latest research shows that children who do a learning thing (eg reading, spellings) shortly before a sleep retain that learning better than children who don't.

So late evening practice sinks in better than morning practice.

GillSans · 16/01/2015 11:54

Ooh, that's interesting MrsHathaway we always did our reading last thing at night and they did very well with it. But now they are Y4 and Y6, we do homework as soon as they get in from school (to get the bloody stuff out of the way) and they hate it.

Would I be better leaving it till after tea? Do you have a link to the research?

MrsHathaway · 16/01/2015 12:02

Gill they were testing small children - probably still relevant to OP's 4yo but perhaps not to your DC.

Here's a link. I haven't looked into it in great detail, just read the headlines/summary as reported.

Mind you, revising until the small hours always worked for me for GCSE/A Level/BA.

MrsHathaway · 16/01/2015 12:03

GillSans · 16/01/2015 12:03

Thanks

maizieD · 16/01/2015 13:06

It was interesting research, Mrs Hathaway , but it was done with babies up to 12 months! It's not clear if its findings can be extrapolated to older children. Also, as I saw it reported on the BBC website it was talking of sleep within 4 hours of the learning and a sleep of more than half an hour. I wasn't too sure of how they had applied the findings to reading; at up to 12 months any reading would be by the parent to the child so it would be more an 'exposure to language' than a 'learning to read' situation.

But I'd have to read the original research paper to see what was actually reported...the media can mangle press releases...

maizieD · 16/01/2015 13:09

Oops, hadn't seen your link to the 'naps' research.

Intrigued..what on earth is a 'sleep spindle'?

365ThingstoDo · 16/01/2015 13:14

Nope - we do very little practice I'm afraid. My DS has a younger brother and an older one and after school is not a very peaceful time here. We read at bedtime and do some cursory chatting about words every so often. But no, we're not really practising key words they're only little!

GillSans · 16/01/2015 13:17

[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_spindle Sleep spindle]

Not sure mine are working properly. I can never remember what was happening in my book

GillSans · 16/01/2015 13:18

try again

Original poster

smearedinfood · 17/01/2015 16:05

Thanks teen he's not a morning person (which used to be a blessing).

I ended up asking DP to go to work an hour earlier and come home an hour earlier, which means I can cook something with 3 vegetables in it and get some one to one time when I'm not absolutely frazzled.

The other parents at school were a bit "oooh my darling loves reading" but they all seemed to have no baby.

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