Are these phonics books American and does it matter?

[ilovetosleep]

Its the Lego Super Heroes Scholastic box set.

Its not a school book but one I've bought DS (reception age) I think its a bit advanced for him right now but was just flicking through the first one and I'm a bit confused. The book focuses on the short a sound but lots of the key words are not short a to a normal English accent. The list on the back is:
Asks
Bad
Bat
Batman
Blast
Catch
Fast

etc etc you get the picture. Surely Asks is not same a sound as Bad. All these words in the book are in bold. It's going to be too confusing for him isn't it? Is there a way to explain this?

Thanks in advance

My oldest didn't have a problem with split digraphs - it isn't meaningless as they are told the meaning.

Isn't "magic E" a bit confusing, as an e at the end of the word doesn't always change the vowel sound?

No more confusing than a split digraph which they are told does the same thing.

I am sure that telling them its a split digraph works just fine. Its not exactly catchy though is it. I have a problem however with these threads which make things so complex that they put people off teaching their children to read (which is exactly what happened with the OP here).

I am an intelligent educated woman and I had never heard of a split digraph. I would have been put off teaching my children to read had I hung around these boards too much when they were little. As it was I taught them at home and they could both read well before they started school. Without any split digraphs and understanding magic E and the like perfectly well.

Magic e ? Bare, gave, come, done, some, love, core, more, store, cafe, give, etc, etc, etc ....

No they aren't told the same thing.

Children are taught from the simple to the more complex if a five year old doesn't find it confusing it's perhaps because they have no reading baggage ... They aren't carrying around magic e and when two vowels go out walking the first one does the talking (and says its name) and all the other "rules" we told children but then had to tell them but of course that doesn't work in any of these words so ignore it!

There are lots of exceptions in the english language. That's why its a difficult language to learn. Teaching a child about split vowel digraphs doesn't help them to understand "love" any more than calling it magic e. Treating love as having a split vowel digraph would mean it was pronounced "lowv"

Telling parents that they have to teach split vowel digraphs and saying "don't call it magic e" will put people off since many of us haven't a clue what you are talking about (since we didn't learn split vowel digraphs at school).

I don't really know why I bother to make this point really since my DCs are now older but it frustrates me that parents are put off teaching their children to read.

I didn't have one of these advanced MN children who learned to read at 3, so he just learned about split digraphs at school, I didn't have to teach him anything. I just listen to him read.

English is complex. Sounds in English can have a number of different spellings and one spelling can be a number of different sounds.
Parents of course are free to magic e for all they are worth but they shouldn't be surprised if their child becomes confused or tells them we don't call it that because its not magic (I don't teach split digraphs I use the term split spelling - they know ie oe ue ee spellings as single sounds so they learn that the spelling is split by another sound)

I am very confused, and yes atticus I am being put off the idea of teaching him at home. I will still try to the best of my knowledge, but I don't know what a split digraph is (am intelligent educated etc and was reading books before school age 3 taught by my trained in the 60s reception teacher mum) and tbh with a sleep theif toddler in the house and a very tired reception child I don't have the time energy or headspace to read up on how to teach him to read the proper way. Which is a shame, because I know he is capable of learning faster than he would at school but I think I will have to stick at their pace and learn these rules and terms at the same pace he does. I'm not criticising any of the advice here but it is off putting to think I'll get it wrong and hold him back.

Well I am clearly educated enough to spell thief wrong and skip punctuation ;)

Zzzzzzxx

Ilove please just go for it in the way you think is right. My DCs were both taught by me at home in the 1970s way. I didn't even use the jolly phonics sounds I used

a
buh
cuh
duh
e
fuh
guh

like we were taught. I know that's considered a crime now.

Mine both started letters and blending letters when they weren't even two (because they were interested and it was a game to them) and could both read comfortably at about level 5/6 by the time they went to school (DS1 was 4.5 DS2 is a summer baby and was only just 4). It therefore mattered not one jot that they did things differently. I'm sure they then covered split digraphs in school but by then they could read anyway and so already turned the a in "gave" into an ay sound without even really thinking about it in the same way as everyone who can read does (although they might have thought "oh a magic e!" ).

Please don't be put off by the techie terminology

It does help if you know what a normal digraph is first. th, ph, sh are all normal digraphs. Two letters, one sound. For adults who care, di = two, graph = letter. Children don't care but can easily learn the concept.

Atticus I didn't teach mine to read yet he was a free reader before nursery school ...what does that prove?

Gilovetosleep you don't need to know any of the technical language. As a school we've deliberately taken the decision to use language we all understand.
Graphemes =spelling
Phoneme = sound
Digraph = 2 letter spelling
Split digraph = 2 letter spelling split by another (sound) spelling

Useful things to know

In English there are 44 sounds (slight variation according to accent)
Spoken Sounds are represented by spellings (a sound can be spelt using 1,2,3 or 4 letters)
One sound can have different spellings
One spelling can represent different sounds

If in doubt say the word and think if the sounds you can hear and match to the way they are represented in the word.

I'm not trying to argue with you Mrz I was simply making the point that you don't need to know the most up to date teaching methods to teach your child to read. There were lots of children in my DS's classes who were reading pretty fluently when joining reception. My DS's were by no means the best in either of their classes.

The OP has been put off by the technical speak - as I would have been. It's not a good thing for people to be put off teaching their children to read, surely teachers would agree with that?

The most up to date teaching that's been around since written language was invented?

As I said you don't need technical speak and you certainly don't need magic!

Blimey you like an argument. Surely the fact that your own child taught him or herself to free read before starting nursery proves my point. And I'm pretty sure those ancient mesopotamians didn't use the phrase "split digraph"

But I spend my entire life arguing, I don't need to argue at the weekend when I'm not at work. Have it your way, yes OP unless you teach your child about split digraphs he or she will never learn to read so you'd better leave it to the experts and not try to help your own child .

No the fact that my son was "free" reading before nursery is a major factor in my belief in high quality phonics instruction with no nonsense or ineffective strategies thrown in.

You said I didn't teach mine to read yet he was a free reader before nursery school but then say the fact that my son was "free" reading before nursery is a major factor in my belief in high quality phonics instruction

It can't have been both. He was either taught or he wasn't.

Anyway, I'm out. Good luck OP whether you try or whether you leave it to school

Where have I said he was taught?

There are not many pronunciation differences between UK and US English, and there are some differences in the UK too, as has been pointed out.

The main sound for a 'closed' a, i. e. when it is followed by just one of more consonants, is as in 'cat, mat, hand, sand, panda' (in 466 of the 7,000 most used words which i examined).

An 'open' a, i.e. when followed by a single consonant and another vowel, has mainly the /ai/ay/, or long 'a' sound, as in 'male, mate, bacon, nation' (in 338 words of the 7,000).

But in southern England in 55 words a has the 'ah' sound of father even when 'closed', e.g. ask, blast, fast, last ...

In a few words a has other sounds as well: any, many, was, want, all, tall, and in quite a few words a is short before a single consonant and vowel (family, animal, salad...).

To begin with, it's obviously best to practise with words which have just the main sound short sound for a. But English phonics is not simple, especially not for vowels. That's why many children take quite a long time to become fluent readers.

??????

Sorry Mrz
The vowels a, e, i, o and u are 'closed' and mostly short,
when followed by one or more consonants (had, hand, bed, bend, bit, blink, cot, cottage, mut, mutter)
NOT one of more ...

Or was there something else that u found confusing?

you obviously can't read emoji symbols masha ??????