stressing haven't done enough work at home to help dd (reception)

[dinny]

she's been stuck on her sight words for a while now, is totally fed up with having to learn them and isn't progressing in her reading (eg. lots of other kids are 3 book boxes ahead. really worried this will affect her in year one next Sept - how can I get her to learn these bloody words?!!!

really hate this learnin-by-rote, goes against my instincts!

any advice gratefully receieved, thank you.

don't make a big issue of them - keep reading at home fun - but point them out when you come across them.

but she's very aware she is being left behind - worried it'll affect her confidence (which it has, in fact, as she used to enjoy sounding words out with her letter sounds but is so hesitant since sight words were introduced)

really feel I am failng her

Ok, dont panic, I read with reception kids and some do find it a chore whilst others enjoy.

Try and different approach.

Lay the words out on the floor and ask her find the word.

The ones she recognises put in one pile and the others in another pile.

This way she can see just how well she is doing and may strive to improve.

Ensure she is totally familiar with the sounds of the alphabet cos without those sounds she will most definately struggle.

Set about teaching her sounds such as CH. I say to mine C and H make CH. S and H make SH.

Persevere with reading to her and with her on a daily basis. It will all soon click into place.

thanks, Tenalady - just feel sucha failure, really. especially as ds has just been referred for speech therapty (2.5) also.

Thats ok, just try and make it a fun way of learning.

I have tried pinning the words up around the house and asking ds to find them (kind of hide and seek) They forget they are learning that way.

dinny, it will probably click one day soon. Can you make up sentences with some of these words in , then substitute a word or two at a time to vary it. The magnetic versions are handy for this.

remind her that everyone learns at their own pace - doesn't matter what the others are doing. And that she is probably better at running or drawing or singing - or whatever.

And praise her to high heaven for whatever she does manage.

have a look at

she's really good at maths, but it's so frustrating as all the assembly special mentions are based around reading targets.

have just been sticking some words around the place again, actually.

thanks

this

I have enlarged the words and copied them and cut them out. This way you maybe able to get ahead of the game.

thanks, LIZS - we have the magnetic words and she does enjoy making sentences sometimes but I feel really strongly that until it all clicks with her, it's just learning by rote with no comprehension (ie, she very rarely recognises hfw out of context of learning the list of them in her reading book, you know?)

she was doing so well sounding out words until hfw were introduced!

with ds1 i use to play the claw and have started to play it with ds2. lay the words out maybe start with just two and say something like can you get "x" before the claw does, hold arm above head with your hand like a claw, if she goes for the wrong one you can guide her by the claw going to get the right one slowly.

My boys love this and the louder the better, this will depend on your dd. Then as she gets more confident slip another word in then another, then before you know it she will know them.

thnks, TL - appreciate it

wow,fab idea, Helbel - that would be right up her street!

dinny I wonder if laying off the pressure altogether might be best. DS was only just bringing home his first very basic reading book at this stage of reception. He is now on ORT stage 10 in Y1 and among the top ones in the class. It just clicked with him.

dinny, ds started in January. he knows only 15 key words.

dinny, you instincts are completely and utterly right. She should not be getting sight words. She needs to be taught the basic building blocks of reading. ie. Phonics!

Forget the sight words and don't worry about what reading level the other kids are on. Some kids have very good memories, but the acid test of whether a child can read is whether they can reading something outside the reading scheme.

I suggest that you buy the jolly phonics handbook and go through it in the summer with her. It need not be heavy, just 10 minutes a day learning the 42 letter sounds of the English language and how to blend the letters together to read regular words. Most words in English can be read by blending letters. There are some irregular words that just simply have to be learnt.

Please don't think you have failed your daughter. The person who has failed your daughter is the teacher! This time last year there was a royal commission led by Jim Rose which looked at the evidence to find which was the best way of teaching reading. It concluded that synthetic phonics was the most effective method. Learning lots of sight words by rote goes completely and utterly against the Rose Report.

These links might be of interest to you.

www.rrf.org.uk/

www.syntheticphonics.com/

www.dyslexics.org.uk

It is a myth to think that reading will necessarily "click". 20% of children who leave primary school cannot read.

Your daughter is still really little. Its important to remember that there is a big range in ages in a reception class. As your daughter gets older being younger than the winter children will make less of a difference.

We learnt the sight words standing on the sofa, if DD got it right she could jump off (not allowed normally!) that plus magnetic words on the fridge.

Their is far much pressure put on child about the 45 sight words. After all it all about the school been able to tick all the right boxes.
The best way to learn to read is phonics once she can sound out word the rest will fall into place in it own time.
You must remember every child learns at their own pace so don't push her to much or she will be put off before she's even started.

but how can I concentrate just on phonics when school tests their sight words every week and they get a special mention in assembly and a certificate when they get all 45?

thanks for links, Frances

My dd1 knew 8-10 key words on entering Reception, and 8-10 of them 6 months later. Eventually, around the June of Reception, we started bribing her to learn them (big prize for first 25 key words learnt). This worked and suddenly, around the July, her reading took off and by September she leapt up 3 reading levels at once.

She still learns in fits and starts, she's just 7 now and a good keen reader. so don't panic.

You are not failing your daughter.

My son is in reception class and he has a book bag. I dont even know what is in it anymore! I looked in there the during the first three weeks of the term he started and was at what he was expected to learn! So we closed the book and went for a walk in the woods and did things that a 5 year old loved - we played.

Yes, we do talk about words and read together, do funny drawings of letters with animal heads and sing strange counting songs - but in a far more informal way that what is in a 'book bag'. He is at school for 6 hours a day - i am not his teacher. I am his companion and we learn together and from each other.

With regards to worrying that he will fall behind others - i did the same as this with my eldest son and he was really very slow to read in school (vvv boring kipper books) until this year (Y3, he is eight now), when he has zoomed forward past his 'expected reading age (gggggrrrr!!!) after discovering some authors he loved, getting a new night light and his brain maturing in its own time.

thanks for your posts - yes, we have crappy Kipper books that dd just finds so uninteresting. she loves Faraway Tree, Mr Men and Roald Dahl at the mo - we currently reading Fantastic Mr Fox, which she loves.

it's weird, but a few of the kids who are doing well reading-wise at school, have parents who have ONLY JUST starting to read to them (and only read the school books)

wtf is that about?? how are they so far ahead??