With the lockdown and the resulting home-schooling, we are looking for some guidance / tips / materials / books on how to help 5 year olds to read. It needn't be free material, we'd be happy to buy books on the topic.
We have bought a set of Usborne phonics books (fat cat on a mat, Ted in the shed, etc) which seem fairly similar to the books the school uses.
However, our child is always asking questions about why certain words are pronounced in a certain way. Ted red fat cat etc are pronounced how they are written, but how do you explain why beside or look or cake etc are pronounced the way they are?
Our questions are:
- Do you just teach 5 year olds that there are no rules and they must memorise the pronunciation for each word? Or
- Do you try to explain some basic rules? E.g. in words starting with "kn" the k is silent, etc? How certain words together make certain sounds? Etc
- Is there an official approach in English schools? Are ther ebooks on it? Or does each school follow a different method?
We haven't found much on the topic. It seems that the school wasn't teaching specific rules but I have no idea if they would have taught them in the near future.
Does any one have any ideas / experience / recommendations?
To be clear, we are not looking for more fat cat and red ted and frog on a log books, but for guidance on whether to follow approach 1, 2 or something else.
I have found (not yet bought) this book: www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0671631985?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 which seems to provide certain rules to teach kids how to pronounce; I worry the approach might be a bit too different from that of the school, which might be confusing for kids, but then I haven't really understood what approach the school follows, to be honest.
Thanks!