Year R Keywords help

[clto2021]

My son is a July born 4 year old. As far as I know he is doing okay in school and there are no major concerns. In year R at my sons' school they have to learn to read 400 keywords. Now I know I shouldn't compare and that all children learn at different rates etc etc. But my older son had learnt all 400 by Easter and generally found them very easy to learn just by running through cards. That is not the issue as such. The issue is that my younger son doesn't learn them as easily, doesn't concentrate and has no interest in doing it and I really want to help and support him without it becoming stressful. I've been playing games with them (bingo, pairs, snap, homemade board games) but he is still reluctant. He has learnt 150 so far (which is great and I acknowledge and praise him for this) but the thought of having to get to 400 fills me with dread!! Any tips or ideas of ways to make it fun but also to get the words to sink in? Any online apps or sites where I can input my own words? He is pretty good with his letter sounds and phonics.

That’s crazy if you mean read 400 irregular (cannot sound out) words. 150 is brilliant if that is the case.

If it’s a mixture of can sound out and can’t sound out then keep working on the sounding out and practicing the taught sounds rather than memorising the actual words.

That's really odd. We got a list of fewer than 50 irregular words for reception. Everything else was phonics, so no need to learn the words, just how to sound them out.

It's a mixture so words like "this" and also words like "know". The way you've suggested is exactly what I did with my older son but it's just not working with ds2. He gets bored and uninterested which is why I've been trying to do games and activities with the cards. He is able to sound words out quite well but they literally test each week and expect them to know them by sight. I can see the positive side of it because he is really familiar with a number of high frequency words which makes his reading more fluent. I can just feel myself and him getting frustrated and stressed with it all 🙄 can't bear the thought of doing it into year 1!

That's alot of words. My boy of the same age enjoys the teach your monster to read app as well as reading eggs, could be worth a try if he hasn't used them before.

At the end of Reception DD1 was still working on blending... You might as well have asked her to fly then learn lists of words! (She still can't memorise lists and she's in Yr5... Times tables are a struggle for example.)

150words seems good going to me.

My April born four year old can manage 10, and frankly I’m quite happy with that. My eldest probably did do more at this age but a) he didn’t miss a term of eyfs due to a pandemic and b) didn’t have two months being emergency home schooled by two working parents

Thanks everyone. The logical part of me knows he doing perfectly fine. Just a bit sick of word packs! 🙄😂 Everytime we get through one set he comes home with another 20 words in his book bag!! Feels never ending. Don't want it to become a battle but equally want to help him to progress.

Work on a few at a time, letters and sounds website have the words on lorries that we cut out and laminated. We put a few on the floor in different rooms and got him to spot the right one. eg. Can you find 'they'. Turn it into a game and see how fast he can do it and then add a few more. We also blue tacked them on a door and got him to shoot them with a nerf gun, take in turns so he calls out the word to spot too. Make it fun and not too daunting 🙂

That sounds like a horrible way to learn to read to be honest. I also thought that went against phonic principles (ie if they know the rules they have a wide range of words they can read without needing to learn by memory). I’ve been amazed hot many my daughter has just learnt through reading. I think she’d have pushed back if we’d been doing tests on flashcards every week.

@Dustyhedge

That sounds like a horrible way to learn to read to be honest. I also thought that went against phonic principles (ie if they know the rules they have a wide range of words they can read without needing to learn by memory). I’ve been amazed hot many my daughter has just learnt through reading. I think she’d have pushed back if we’d been doing tests on flashcards every week.

My older son loved it because he found it easy and loved getting 10 out of 10 each week! But not so good for my active and easily distracted youngest. They do a lot of phonics and sounds at school etc but we are asked to support at home by practicing the keywords. I have no issue with the school really and his teachers are lovely just bored of word packs!

The problem is your school, not your DS.

A) who is getting children to learn 400 words by sight in reception
B) who is testing them on it weekly.

I know it doesn’t really help you but , 150 is more than enough.

This sounds bizarre, and not something I recognise from dds reception experience at all. Like a pp said, strange way to learn to read.

Maybe the way I've described it makes it sound more old fashioned than it is. I work in a school too (although not in year R) and they send similar words home to learn (although I think it's only 100 or 200 words rather than 400). In school they do lots of phonics and hands on learning and overall I am very happy with the school and his teacher. As parents we are asked to practice keywords and read their reading books at home in addition to school learning. So it's not how they are taught to read as such.

They learn 'tricky words' at dds school, but I mean they've done about 20, they learn them at school (home learning/lockdowns aside), only reading books done at home, no particular need to do anything else extra at home.

Rote learning 400, or even 150 words at home at age 4 or 5 sounds like utter madness!