Reading in Reception - how can I help?

[Mummyfit]

My son has a real love for reading and as such is reading and spelling really well, he has just started reception but can read a lot of words (his spelling and writing is also good) he can read most short books cover to cover and out and about can read complicated words such as 'supervised' etc. I did the Burts reading test which had him at a reading age of 8.4 - now I think this is a bit bullshit but he is definitely reading better than an average 4 year old.
I don't understand anything about the reading levels or books I should be doing with him, I want to support him at home so he doesn't lose the enthusiasm as he is way past phonetics which they will be starting in reception.
Can anyone advise? He likes to read a bed time story to me and his sister and a little bit of extra reading and writing for fun nothing full on but just to feed his enthusiasm and help him progress
TIA

Your son sounds like my daughter. She ended reception on purple level and loves reading for fun. She's in year 1 now. It sounds like you are doing the same things I did. We also went to the library regularly and for longer books took turns reading a page each. Also, let him read anything, be it a cereal box, junk mail, etc. and if you are out and about see if he can read signs etc and make it a game.

Do not worry. Both of my children started school being able to read. The youngest could read (decode) texts far beyond her comprehension.

It took their teachers a couple of weeks in Reception to figure out how well they can read. Then they moved them up the reading scheme rather quickly and worked on comprehension, expression, etc.

The phonic sessions themselves at the beginning were less useful - but just reinforced what they knew. But it gave my girls satisfaction and confidence, which is also important.

Eventually, the phonic lessons become more useful as hey move into alternative spellings of various sounds.

Thanks both, I'm not too worried but good to hear schools have it in hand, we encourage him to read everything from menus to choose his own food, signs etc he really enjoys it so easy to encourage but will start taking him to the library too.
x x

I'm an adult and I'm not way past phonics so why would a 4 year old even with a reading age of 8.4 be past phonics?
Phonics is as much for spelling as it is for reading please don't assume your child doesn't need it.

Continue to share books and talk to him about what you read. Encourage him to predict what might happen next and how characters might feel or do.

This is a book you will find useful, and will also serve him until secondary school. And 'ordinary' dictionaries, thesaurus, and encyclopaedia are also useful (notwithstanding everything is also on-line):

An inexpensive and easy to use book, that can encourage children with reading, spelling and writing, and really help them to understand Phonics, is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews section. Just search ??Phonics?? and my name.

Encourage him to learn his phonics and don't give him the idea that he's way past them. He might not use them at the moment but they will be a toolkit he can use to decode unfamiliar words in future. So same advice as you'd give to any YR really - make sure he is using the correct sounds eg lllll instead of 'luh' etc.

Find some books he loves and feed it. Look at non fiction, eg the usborne see inside or beginners. Don't consider picture books beneath him just because he can read the words - pictures are very engaging. Read TO him every day even though he doesn't need you to.

Thanks to those of you with the comments and help.

I love how someone can dissect one tiny bit of my post and assume that I don't think phonics are important!

He had speech therapy due to delayed speech which encouraged phonics from age 2 giving him a head start and enjoyment for it. I am fully aware of how important phonics are!

We have done phonics at home for the past 12 months as we went through the jolly phonics books series due to him enjoying it from watching alphablocks. He is an excellent speller not just for his age, but it is hard to still use phonics ALL THE TIME with a lot of English spelling. I still encourage phonics but I am in no way qualified to teach someone to read and would like some help and guidance that is all!

He loves reading, writing, spelling and writing songs (very basic) this is something he spends time off his own back doing I don't want him to lose the enthusiasm for it if he is bored in class as they are doing phase 2 phonics.

Don't get me wrong, he needs help and encouragement in a lot of other areas that are suitable for his age and reception will be ideal for that.

I don't give him the impression he is past them I just personally think continuing with JUST phonics will limit his progression. He uses phonics to spell out long words and separates them into smaller words before putting them together for the long word however they are pronounced wrong a lot of the time because he does rely on phonics a lot. This is not a problem but this is why I think the phonics lessons only in school at this age will be boring and possibly will hold him back.

Sorry for phrasing it incorrectly.

Ferguson there is no book title or link I'm confused by your post.

Cheers for the sarcasm.

We are only trying to help. Lots of children who learn to read before school do it almost entirely through sight words. It wasn't the slightest bit clear from your OP that you "still encourage phonics" or indeed that he had used them at all. It's not petty or "dissecting" for posters to suggest encouraging phonics when the only reference to them in your OP is your statement that he is way past phonetics.

He sounds like he is doing well. My youngest DD had just started reception and can only read her own name. She cant recite the alphabet - can't even say abcd etc through to z without getting lost and doesn't recognise written letters beyond those that are in her name.

My eldest DD is in year 3 now though and started reception a fluent reader and ended reception a free reader. She still sat through all the same lessons as everyone else and loved school at that age. It didn't hinder her or hold her back.

I assumed by saying he was past phonics meant it was obvious we have been doing it for some time - like I said I'm sorry for not being clear but I felt like Mrz was being rude and upset me last night when I read the comment and I purposely didn't respond as I was upset.

I am grateful for the genuine help but upset you would think I would make him skip phonics or that it is not important based on a very small part of the post.

I just want advice on what books he should be reading but I'll go elsewhere.

I'm glad noisytoys that is reassuring

I'm sorry if you were upset but as you hopefully gathered I didn't much appreciate your sarcasm myself. And honestly, I was trying to help with my suggestions. I read your OP as "how can I support my child's reading?" in the broad sense, and I think others did too. You've now rephrased it as "what books should I give him to read?". Sorry if you didn't find my suggestions helpful, but they were a genuine attempt to answer the broader question I thought (wrongly, clearly) that you were asking.

Mummyfit, don't be offended - it wasn't clear from your post whether you thought your son didn't need phonics or that he already knew them. I have a 3 yr old phonics whizz too, so know where you're coming from, and also a tad concerned about what she'll make of reception level phonics next year.

Normally I'd expect that school will figure out what level he's at and send you home some books at an appropriate level from their phonics scheme. That would give you some ideas about level and you wouldn't have to source books yourself too. You could also take a look on Oxford Owls and try some books at different levels (it's free!) to get an idea.

If school persist in sending far too easy books home after a few weeks, you might want to have a chat with the teacher and see what they're wanting him to work on at that level, and explain what he likes reading at home.

Generally once they know most of the phonics (and I mean alternative vowel sounds too - not sure how far your jolly phonics set went?) then it's really more about what they like to read. If you give us some ideas what he's currently enjoying perhaps we can make some suggestions? We've got various sets of phonics readers and other books from the Book People; and the local library are really helpful because they will reserve books for free for kids, so if they're working their way through a series you can reserve the next few books to pick up. And you can see what they choose for themselves :)