help with my synthetics (no not the wrong form) please

[samanthar]

was just wondering if anyone cd be kind and help me sort out what is synthetic /blended/
etc

of the following what is what and which ones are hand wash only and hence shd be avoided at all costs

ORT
letterland
jolly phonics
usborne big big on a dig etc
ladybird stunt duck etc
ruth miskin
and what are the other schemes

actually what is the differnce between synthetic and blending

am genuinely interested as know twins boy/girl are /will be alerning in different ways

dd has learnt cat/dog/ hat/moon/ dress from usborne picture and other jigsaw books etc and very basic words but i can tell she is looking at the whole word and she gets cross trying to work stuff out

sorry rather many more questions than i had meant to ask

hi

When my dd learnt to read last year (3yr-prep school)she started with whole words no phonics or sounding out. When they could easily read twenty words plus they bought their first book home; this was before half-term. her first book was Dick and Dora(Happy Venture readers), she read the introducion book and book one then she progressed onto Peter and Jane Ladybird series(Level 2).She then read a mixture of Happy Venture readers; Peter and Jane series and the Read it yourself Ladybird series 2 (black front from late 70's as harder than current range.)During the summer term they learnt about vowels and letter sounds.

At the end of her first year at this school she was reading ORT level7 fluently sounding out the odd unfamilar word. She has just entered reception and is starting to read chapter books on her own.

The Usborne books are phonics as are the Jolly phonics and Ruth Miskin. There is an excellent phonic reading site www.starfall.com Personally I would say read everything and anything they are interested in doing.

I must admit at first I found it frustrating not sounding out the odd sight word she couldn't get but having listened (painfully) to my nephew read by sounding out every word then repeating the word (he is 7, level2) I now appreciate the wisdom of her reading method [grin}

Jolly Phonics & Ruth Miskin (Read, Write Inc) are both synthetic phonics schemes.

ORT is not.

Letterland is definately not.

Ladybird/Usborne have some books which are decodable but are not a proper scheme and require some knwledge of blending/group sounds first.

I'm not a teacher but as far as I am aware blending is something you do with different sounds in a synthetic phonics reading scheme.

You learn the sounds c a t and blend them together to make cat.

Letterland teaches cuh ah tuh so blending is more difficult to make cat so relies more on look say whole word method.

In synthetic phonics you learn that combinations of letters make different sounds so you will learn the sound o and the sound oo, whereas in letterland you learn the 26 letters of the alphavet.