No book yet in reception

[time2sleepx]

My ds is 5.5 in reception. He is one of the lower attainers but is progressing. He can write his name and a few other words. He can count to 20 and add and subtract 1. With reading he can do a bit of blending and read a few cvc words.

Most children in his class seem to have reading books (I helped one and saw them given out) but ds does not. I asked if he could have one but the teacher said his blending wasn't good enough for a book. I just thought it would be good for his self esteem to have a book. He can sound out cvc words.

School does the "read write inc" scheme. School haven't provided anything not even sound cards to help practise reading at home but I see other children with reading books. I font want to be a pushy parent but what should I do?

It seems strange to me that the school isn’t giving him any reading books.

DS1 had reading books home from day 1, before he’d grasped blending. Very very simple ones at first.

DS2 is in school nursery now, and they’ve started sending one reading book a week home with him - books without words, just pictures. To help him understand about the structure of stories or some such thing.

If school won’t give out reading books, could you try getting some from your local library? Our local library stocks a decent range of reading scheme books (mostly Biff Chip & Kipper one’s), which we’ve borrowed to supplement the ones from school before.
DS1 also enjoyed using the Get Your Monster to read app when he was in Reception.

I find it odd too. Our school send book home from day 1 too. Some children get books without words. But it's still very important to talk about, and get into having books every day from early days.
If the school isn't helping, I agree that you should go to library and get appropriate books for him. It could be any books. My ds loved reading(talking about) books without words from library in early days.

Mistofelees I'm not suggesting that 6-year-olds learn 20,000 - 24,000 words off by heart. That would be ridiculous, that would be approaching the day-to-day vocabulary of an adult anyway. Little kids are never going to come across that many words when they get their first books.
It's all very well blending and sounding out, but there is no point in that if you don't know what the words mean. No point in sounding out a whole book if the understanding isn't there.
English isn't a phonetic language anyway. Much easier to learn the difference between simple words such as 'cat' and 'car' by memorising them from picture books. Once you already know the word, you will then understand what the teacher is wittering on about when they start to explain the '-at' and '-ar' endings; they can then apply them elsewhere.

Adults have a vocabulary of closer to 45000 words actually.
Good teachers don't 'witter' on about at and ar endings because that isn't phonics. And most of English is phonetical it just has quite a complex code. Also, comprehension should be taught alongside sounding and blending but not to guess words from pictures as this is not an effective strategy for reading.

OP I'd recommend https://www.udemy.com/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/ it's a free course for parents who want to help their child with reading and writing. If you have an iPad the Sounds Write app ( first units are free) is excellent http://www.sounds-write.co.uk/page-82-app-for-ipad.aspx

Hedge from the first 100 HFWs - a, an, as, if, of, can, had, and, get, him, his, nit, got, but, the, to, I, no, go, into, will, that, this, then, them, with, see, for, now, look, too, he, she, we, me, be, was, you, they, all, are, my, her, went, it's, from, just, help, said, have, like, so, do, some, come, we're, there, when, out, what, don't old. I'm by, about, your, made, came, make, here, saw, very, put, oh, their, called, asked, could. How many could you illustrate?

That's crap. DD's school follows RWI but they were still bringing home books from the beginning of reception. How is he supposed to get better at blending if they aren't encouraging him to practise?!

"No point in sounding out a whole book if the understanding isn't there. English isn't a phonetic language anyway"if a child can accurately decode the word and the word is in their receptive vocabulary why wouldn't they understand it? . In English a sound can be represented by different spellings (letters or combinations of letters), the same spelling can represent different sounds which makes it more complex than languages with a transparent one sound one spelling system which is why it needs to be taught explicitly and not left to chance. English has a complex orthography due to history and our habit of acquiring words from other languages but that doesn't mean it isn't phonetic

IIRC most, if not all of the words in DS1’s first reading books were words that he’d come across before, either in general conversation or from TV or from listening to us read him books. So once he sounded out the familiar word he was able to recognise it as one he knew.

Now his reading books are starting to get more complex and more unfamiliar words are starting to pop up (stalagmites and stalactites being a recent example), but he’s still able to sound them out and then ask us what the unfamiliar words mean.

We had books from the first couple of weeks - just picture books from the more battered selection of the school's stock to build the routine of sharing a book together (and filling in the fucking reading diary).

They sound crap. I would complain, loudly. And in the meantime, you can buy black and white RWI books on Amazon for very little money. Do them at home with him.