Best Online Phonics/Maths resources for a 4 year old

[starfish8]

Hi

My son is 4 in the autumn and won't be starting reception until next September. He will not be attending a school based nursery, and will instead stay part time at a private day nursery, which will be less educational.

I don't want to start him with formal workbooks just yet, but wondered if there were some online/app resources for phonics/reading/maths that any of you could recommend? Free or paid (if worth it!) A colleague of mine used Reading Eggs with his son, but I'm a bit put off that it's Australian and doesn't use the exact same way of teaching phonics as in the UK.

Any suggestions most welcome, thanks everyone.

Warning: you’ll get lots of people saying ‘just leave him to be a kid’!

My suggestions (very gently, and only if he’s really ready and enjoying it):

For phonics, he’ll need to know his letter sounds first (pronounced phonetically, eg b, b, b rather than bee). I’d be seeing if he could tell you what sound a word starts with, and then ends with. I’d also suggest watching lots of Alphablocks. Also worth looking at the Phonics Play website, though this may be too advanced.

For reading, it follows on from phonics. Perhaps, once he knows his letter sounds and can tell you the first and last sounds of a word, start with SATIPN with magnetic letters and make some words.

For maths, I’m not sure whether online tools are helpful at this stage: it’s probably best to make it very practical. Lots of counting of objects, taking one away etc. Laying the table for the correct number of people, reading house and bus numbers, counting apples into a bag while shopping etc. Perhaps odds and evens.

Oh, and a good day nursery will be following the early years framework, just like school. The learning might slightly less formal, but they will introduce letters and numbers and counting and work on fine motor skills in preparation for writing. Don’t worry that he’ll be ‘behind’ because he didn’t go to school nursery.

Rather than website/apps, I would recommend him playing with educational toys. Magnetic letters/numbers, abacus, lego, fraction toy to get the sense of numbers.

And as Gin says, lots of practical everyday things, including counting sweets, recognising house numbers, looking at clocks, using money, recognising shapes, etc.

Also looking at the globe, world maps, drawing with chalk on the pavement, colouring, dot to dot, lots of junk modeling, simple science experiments, cooking together. Talking about seasons, temperature, plants and animals, lists goes on.

Love teach your monster to read and also love busy things site.
busythings.co.uk

Teach your monster to read is really good for phonics, though if you get that far not ideal for how it teaches "tricky words".

My two loved watching alphablocks and numberjacks on youtube, or alphablocks is on the bbc website with lots of games too. Had a trial of the number version of reading eggs once and really liked it.

I'd also highly recommend Dragonbox Numbers. It is a paid for app but is super cute with animated cuisenaire rods - you may remember those from school! Really good for developing number sense I think.

YouTube videos

Pirate phonics. Great app for that age, good for recognition, lots of fun.

Number bonds by thinkout. Awesome maths program.

Thanks all so much for your suggestions. I totally agree with 'let him be a kid' but if he's interested in educational apps then it will do no harm - much better than me trying to do workbooks with him!

Agree Ginmummy1, he will still be doing bits and pieces at his private nursery and getting all the social and emotional development alongside his peers too.

I suggest practice doing worksheets of tracing. You can start easy, like lines, curves etc. If he can do those, then move on to easy letters. You could do this once a week. This was the kind of homework my daughter was given during nursery. It was basically to help with writing ability. And some phonics. Sometimes I have my son do these worksheets, which you can print from online, when my daughter does her homework, so he feels included. He is only on lines though, as he can't trace letters yet.

The jolly phonics app worked great for my son when he started school. He didn't notice he was learning.

I'm a big fan of Mr Thorne - he has a whole series of phonics apps.

we have used loads of ideas from clever classroom. I found it on facebook so not sure if they have a website but the ideas were really unique and most importantly fun. My 4 year old doesn't have a very good attention span so if something doesn't interest him he will not do it for very long. It does involve a little work on your part though to make some of these things so not sure what you are like for time but if you enjoy making things its a great and in expensive way to build on their phonics and maths skills. Good Luck!!