Reluctant 4 yr old -how to help him learn outside school

[Fizzylemonade]

My 4.4yr old has started school and is happy singing phonics songs, however at parents evening we were given areas to "work on" with him. One is getting dressed, easy enough, another is learning rhyming.

He doesn't seem to even understand what a rhyme is or that he can sound out a word but can't put it together to form the actual word. He can spell cat but doesn't understand that bat, hat, mat etc rhyme even if we just change the first letter and he sounds it out.

He is very reluctant to do any of this after school anyway so I am finding it hard to keep it light and fun.

Do other children understand this already? He was in preschool at the same school for a year and I know they did rhyming strings.

I wouldn't do it as learning if he is reluctant anyway, but just build it into everyday life.
Find words that rhyme with his name, with things you are talking about - with things that are interesting to him. Don't spell them out, just stress the sound of the rhyming bit (Cath sat in the Bath etc).
I think they just get rhyming, so the more you talk about words and say rhyming words, the more likely he is to get it.
Some other children do understamd rhyming at this age, which doesn't mean that lots of other don't.

His name rhymes with nothing, I too have an unusual name that again ryhmes with nothing!! I have tried not to do the sit down and learn with me approach. Foam letters for bath time and some phonics games from ELC to make it all fun.

But your advice is good so will try and just include it in every day life.

there is no such thing as a name that rhymes with nothing .. unless you are both called orange .. even then you can stretch a rhyme

I'm good at rhyming .. give me a go

I make up really silly 'poems' with ds who is 4.8 and we have done for a while - eg I found some jelly in a welly and even though it was smelly I ate it in front of the telly and now it's in my belly!

He loves thinking of extra bits to add to the poem and it doesn't matter how nonsensical it gets as long as it rhymes. You could do a really good one for words ending in -at; ours was about a rat that ended up going splat! I think! If you can both be really silly with it, he'll be laughing too much to realise he's learning.

Also get some fab books like Duck in a Truck or Gruffalo which are rhyming and fun.

How can his name rhyme with nothing?

I really NEED to know his name now

If his name doesnt rhyme with anything you can make up words that do! At this stage it doesnt matter if they are not real words, as anything that rhymes will help him get the idea.

re: name rhyme - did you never sing that name song at school?
fizzy bom bizzy
stick a lizzy
fi fizzy
fi fizzy
stick a lizzy
thats how you spell fizzy

ds1 thinks its hilarious

other than that i woudnt worry, ds2 is 7 and only clicked reading last year, now he loves it and is doing really well.

The Hairy McLary (sp?) books are good because the rhyme is so sing-song and really bounces along. If you read rhyming books frequently to your ds, you can start to pause at key moments and get him to join in with saying the rhyming word really emphatically.

to the tune of oranges and lemons

PLEASE TELL ME THE NAMES THAT DON'T RHYME WITH ANYTHING

I've been thinking and I can't think of any names thta don't rhyme

Finbar

maybe guitar?

Finbar rhymes with "star" and "you'll go far"

bump

Dr Seuss is good for rhymes.

Rhymes are things to play with not to 'work on' at home.

Do you sing nursery rhymes? If not, there are CDs.

Do you have any children's poetry anthologies? There are some great ones, I used to read loads when DD was little. Lots of funny ones and limericks. eg Michael Palins immortal lines:

A man on a length of elastic
decided to do something drastic
When he jumped of a cliff he
came back in a jiffy
and screamed to his friends "Its fantastic!"

I love making up doggerel with DD.

If only we had been instructed at that age to work on "getting dressed" ... now thats HARD

all afloat noah's boat is a great book
also the snail and the whale and all the other alex scheffler ones. if hes only 4.4 it seems quite young for them to give areas to work on

I have LOL at all your responses!!! Thank you for making me smile about it all. His name is Elliot so if you can ryhme that with anything then please enlighten me!

We read Each Peach Pear Plum (I spy Tom Thumb) and also Rhoal Dahl his favourites are Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs. So they do rhyme I honestly think he just doesn't get it.

He loves reading books, well me reading to him and he pretends to read to his little brother.

We tried ryhming earlier with Cat, he suggested Mouse, I said house, to get him to see. He seems to want to tell me what letter words begin with.

To be honest when he started preschool he would often come out and request complete silence, no talking at all whilst he collected his thoughts. He also does this when we come out of school although to a lesser extent, it is almost like he is mentally exhausted and needs to rest his brain. I give him a flapjack to keep him going until tea.

Do you think he may be just too tired and so doesn't even try?

Sorry I didn't get to this earlier (must stop trying to do FLY on the Good Housekeeping board) although my kitchen is lovely and clean and all breakfast stuff on table and ready to go for the morning (except the milk)

I think it is great that he wants to tell you what the initial letter sound is, and agree with another poster that he is very young to have "areas to work on" (though it is ds1's parents evening on Thu so maybe I will come away with some!).
Look at Elly with the smelly belly - ok so it isn't exactly Elliot

elliot, whats that on his bot, oh its a spot

he is very hot, but we love him alot.

Usborne Phonics readers are good for rhyming. Ted in a bed is good, Hens pens is one of daughters favourites

If he's tired after school and asks for quiet, then certainly don't bombard him with jolly rhymes or asking him to come up with rhyming words.

Maybe, if you really want to 'work' on it a bit at the weekend, turn it around so that he gives you a word and you have to try to find a rhyme. See if he can catch you out if you come up with something that doesn't rhyme... if he doesn't then go 'silly me... better try again' ... so theres no pressure on him.

Tired little Elliot's
Not going to watch telly lots.

Elliot wants a Jellytot.

Has Elliot got a smelly bot?

sorry... probably not good ones, but it can be done.

He's 4 years old - why should he learn how to do rhymes if he doesn't want to?

Read lota and lots of rhyming books - he'll get there!

And tell the school that you don't intend to put him off the whole idea of learning by pressurising him at the age of 4! Tell them I said so - I'm sure they'll listen to me!