Which books to teach reading at home and any other useful advice please?

[Amethyst8]

Have a 4.8 yo DS who is not yet in school due to not managing to get a place in a decent school. Just really want some advice on getting him up to speed for when he does start, which will probably be in April. He knows his alphabet and the sounds of the letters (phonics?) and can read and state numbers up to 100. Have a couple of the Biff, Chip and Kipper books, which we are reading but I think it is a case of him knowing them off by heart rather than reading. He can write his name and a couple of other letters but he does really hate writing. Still having to correct how he holds a pencil. Is this usual at this age and how can I help him with this.

Have read recommendations for the Jelly and Bean Series. Would they be suitable for him at this stage? Also any other information of what will be expected of him when starting school at 5 would be very gratefully received. Thanks.

He sounds very advanced in terms of number work - can he count objects and do simple +/- (3+2=)etc - he should be using objects to help. Name simple 2D and 3D shapes?

Reading - get him some simple phonics books - ruth miskin ones are good, BOB books by Bobby Lynn Maslen and John Maslen are also good. Does he know common digraphs (ai, or, ee etc)

Most of my Year 1s don't hold a pencil correctly - are you using a fat one?

TBH I wouldn't worry - he sounds like he will be fine!

Thanks for replying. Feeling very proud after your comment on him being advanced in number work. He can count objects and usually gets it right when I ask him to recheck what he counted. He can do simple +/- and he knows the names of most shapes - he has done for about 18 months.

Any advice on teaching him the digraphs. He basically knows the alphabet and the sounds of the letters and thats it. How would I introduce this idea to him? I have looked at some Jolly Phonics books but I think with what he already knows that trying to introduce the actions at this stage might confuse him.

Had not been using a fat pencil but will be from now on. Didnt even think of that. Thanks again for your reply.

I suggest that you buy the Jolly Phonics Teachers handbook. You can get it from Amazon quite cheaply. It contains step by step instructions on how to teach a child to read properly.

www.amazon.co.uk/Phonics-Handbook-Teaching-Reading-Spelling/dp/1870946073/ref=sr 11?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195253213&sr=1-1

The jolly phonics manual has lots of photocopible sheets that you can use to teach handwriting. The finger phonics books, Jolly phonics DVD and jolly songs CD are also good.

I would teach him his letter sounds and how to blend using word boxes. When he gets confident get him some decodable books like Jelly and Bean or Ruth Miskin books.

Flash cards - we use Jp at school because the link between action, looking at sound and phoneme helps. Don't think it would confuse him! What scheme will his school follow? I would find out?

Also agree about the decoding/word building - spelling and reading go hand in hand.

Make sure you read to him too so he is hearing story langauage and developing his imagination

Thinking about pencil grip - climbing, hanging etc all hope with the gross motor development. Using pegs, flicking, picking up pasta with the pincer grip will help with fine motor control,

ohh and can he hear simple start and end sounds (e.g. if you said cat to him would be write cuh etc)

spelling should be phonetic at this stage.

I got the new ORT phonics books from the School Link. I got 18 Songbirds books for £9.99. My library also stocks reading scheme but they keep them behind the counter so ask the librarian.

Very short reading scheme books are easy for kids to learn off by heart, so the more you have access to the better, but you don't want to fork out for too many books that will only be needed for a few weeks. My 4.5 year old starts school in Jan, and she also hates writing but loves reading. Good luck on the hunt for a school, your son sounds like he will be very well prepared.

Have a look at www.phonicsinternational.com
It's a online reading programme written by synthetic phonics expert Debbie Hepplewhite.
Unit 1 is free with no obligation to purchase further units.

Apart from that, Jolly Phonics is good for the 3-6 age group -you only need the handbook, as Reallytired suggested already.

I would recommend the Dandelion Readers from www.phonicbooks.co.uk

I have used them with my son and he has just flown. They start in a very structured manner just using five sounds and then build up very gradually through all the phonic sounds.

The pictures are great and the stories are funny. Lots of practice in new words and decoding. My Son really enjoyed the cast of characters.

I have also made my own books in the past and that has been great because we can use names from the family - simple stick drawings were enough.

The other thing is to do lots of word games. Listening for sounds at the beginning and end of words and in the middle. Starting with simple constonant vowel constanent (CVC) words e.g. cat, hot etc. and then building up to more complex CVCC e.g. went

Also word building by giving a set of letters (maybe on bits of cardboard) perhaps with an extra couple thrown in and trying to get the child to work out how to write the word.