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.

I am a Y1 teacher (currently on maternity leave) with a ds in Y1 at the school I teach in.

I would not worry too much about those sight words. Last year, we had exactly the same experience as you - ds not doing as well at reading as others in the class, but loving books, listening avidly to Raold Dahl chapter books/My Naughty Little Sister/Faraway Tree etc, and generally being brighter than his reading level indicated. He had the sight words sent home, but found them tedious. Being a full time working mum, I didn't push them, as I would rather spend the time we have doing things that we enjoy, so carried on doing the reading, reading our own books etc. As I teach Y1, I had the reassuring knowledge that Y1 is the key year for things "clicking" or falling into place for so many children, so decided I would worry about ds when we got to the end of Y1 if the situation was still the same. (He is also an August birthday, so that can play a part, particularly at this level.) Anyway, it has all come together for him this year, and as a previous poster says, he has shot along the reading scheme and is now one of the furthest along readers in his class, loves it, reads his chapter books by himself, has great expression and understanding of inference and implicit information, all of which I put down to the variety of books that we have read together outside school and chatted about, and my own particularly hammy acting style when reading .

I know that there is an awful lot of anxiety around this kind of stuff with little ones, and I (personally) don't agree with the certificate for being able to read the HFW (I can read a physics text book, doesn't mean I even vaguely understand it) but then, that WILL work with some children, and schools do have to approach things in different ways to accomodate as much of the variety of learning styles as they can.

IMHO (please don't take this the wrong way), the worst thing that you can do is become hung up and stressed about all of this; children are well able to pick up these vibes, and the most anxious children I have taught generally seem to have parents who are anxious also. It sounds like you have been doing lots of lovely things, and making sure that reading isn't "something for school" but something for life, and that's a great gift to give your dd.

I think you should try and chill a bit. Easier said than done I know - I probably have a thread on this from last year . My DD was like this in reception and is now in Year 1 and is doing very well. Some kids just aren't ready for all that in reception. Best not to make an issue of it.

thanks, Inthoseshoes - that is reassuring. I just feel she isn;t being done 'justice' ikywim, by this approach as she SO loves books and readign and is so imaginative and bright. just horrible to get to school and realise she is being judged by such a kind of turgid system.

suppose that is what school is about though....

suppose I am just worried she will be find it hard in Y1 if she hasn't go to same level as the top half of class.

Prehaps your little girl would like this website.

www.starfall.com

It really helped my son learn his phonics.

At this age learning has to be fun. Little people don't like being still for long.

Most hight frequency words are phonetic. Once a child can blend and segment then they can tackle anything.

Intheseshoes, I found your post mostly reassuring too!

I just stopped trying, with DS. It was causing stress and resistance, and undermining the single most important educational factor (IMO) - enjoyment of learning.

I did a couple of things - photocopied the high frequency words etc and stuck the sheet onto thn card and cut them p into cards for playing 'couples' with - and also used them to help teach his bear to make sentences by putting them together.

But mostly I just stopped putting any presure on at all. He plodded on slowly through the first half of year one (I told his teacher that I had abandoned reading practice becuase it was causing upset - and she said it was more important that he maintained enjoment and that he was 'a bright little boy' and it would fall into place) - and now, Hey presto! all of a sudden, it has fallen quickly into place and he can read.

The other thing i wish I had discovered earlier - advice from many reading schemes is that you do actually read words to your child first - and then get the to do it. I was getting DS to tortuously sound out every word before he knew what it was. Now I help him as soon as he struggles, read alternate pages, read the book first (sometimes, sometimes not)...and he is progressing much faster.

thank you, everyone, really good advice Dinny x

We do/did Blu's thing of reading alternate pages if they are finding it hard going.

Another thing which helped dd1 was a set of magnetic key words (which you can buy for £2 from a seller on Ebay). They were a bit more fun to play with than the lists in books or than paper cut out versions, which was just another little motivation which seemed to encourage dd1 a bit.

[takes mental notes]

thanks, Fennel.

I played the "claw" game last night with dd using the 10 hfw she is unsure of and she got them all right. but then when I said how well she'd done she said "oh, but I don't know them" - it really is a matter of confidence with her.

and then read her school books - when she can kind of be bothered, she can read them, but she just isn't that interested in being able to read herself, iyswim - she just couldn't wait to get onto our next chapter of Fantastic Mr Fox. Who can blame her, hey?