Reception child, phonics

[88milesanhour]

My 4.5 YO has just started reception. I wouldn't say she's ridiculously ahead with her reading or obsessed with it/hyperlexic. She brings home new reading books once a week. She blends really well and seems to understand what she's reading well. She also gets a phonics folder every other week with some new phonics sounds/tricky words. The thing is she's literally got the new sounds/sight words memorised in minutes. I have taught her a bunch more sight words in addition to what they gave her at school and she's got all of the phase 2 and phase 3 words memorised (including 'all' haha) I've made this quite obvious by including a printout of these extra words in her folder and ticking them but there's no evidence that the teachers have even tested on these.

My issue is that she's come home today with.an 'updated' phonics folder. However it literally only has 2 more sounds added and no sight words. These are to last her for the next 2 maybe 3 (half term) weeks. She will have them memorised by the end of tonight. Also, the reading books she has are way behind the sounds and sight words she's familiar with and basically the same as last week's meaning she's not actually enjoying using her new sounds. I don't want to (and am not going to) pressurise my child but I'm thinking that if the pace isn't picked up she'll just start to find the phonics element of reading even more tedious.

Has anyone else been in the same boat? What have you found works? Do I stretch my dd to what I think she's capable of or trust her teacher. They are a fantastic school and she's very happy there. I want to add too that she's read to frequently by us atm and this is still very much our focus. Thanks x

Do what the school asks of you, then in addition top up with 'harder' things at home, find some library books at her level, make up words for her to read with the sounds she knows, practice more tricky words, have her read action words to act out - hop, jump, hug, skip... practice letter formation - she maybe able to write m, but does she start/finish in the right place that kind of thing..

Only her teacher can move her on to the next level. MN can't.

The teacher is going at the pace of the class - she won't be doing individual phonics teaching with just your child!

If the teacher is lucky and has a couple of TAs available, she might (depending on the phonics scheme used - the school has to choose one from a list approved by the government, and not all allow for it) be able to split the class into two or three ability groups. However, if the teacher has a limited time available for 1:1 or small group interventions she will be focussing on the children that need it most, not racing ahead with your child.

In Reception they are likely to be working through about 4 new sounds a week, and one or two 'tricky' or 'sight' words.

At this point in Reception it is likely that phonics teaching is done as a whole class, so they will be going at the pace of the majority. Depending on how they structure their phonics teaching, they may separate into groups later on this term. It is not really feasible to teach one child at a different rate to the others.

she's finding it so easy it's almost painful and it's even more tedious to make any kindof routine out of practicing it

Just don't practice.

Whizz through it once to check she's OK with it, then leave it. Use the time to read other books together with her

You really don't need study routines at this age. Just read together for 10-20 mins every day

My daughter started school already reading. When they assessed her, she knew all the phase 2 & 3 phonics sounds.
She hasn't even brought a school book home yet this term 😂

Honestly, it doesn't matter. She's my 3rd child so I know. Just enjoy reading at home, do the work the teacher asks you too and don't stress about it.

She's four! Reception is all about playing, social skills, and learning the foundations. Your daughter can stretch herself (if she wants to) by reading story books or writing labels and captions on her pictures during their free choice time. Or she can just play in the sand and with the dollies. Either way is fine.

Don't gallop ahead .Leave the teacher to give out the phonics cards etc and instead read lots of other books. You read to her.
Fiction and lots of non fiction.
My DD was and still is v able. She started the piano at 4 and the violin at 5 to give her breadth. She also took swimming, tennis and ballet to keep her active and help coordination.

Education is much more than just learning to read quicker than everyone else.

Go for breadth.

There are loads of different phonic reading books available. We’ve got big cat phonics, songbirds, a few biff chip and kipper and various others as well as the old fashioned ladybird keywords (the current favourite) and we read the school books and then read whatever takes DCs fancy in the home books. I roughly banded them and we stick to a level lower than at school to be ensure it doesn’t interfere with the way school teaches phonics. It gives variety which my dc needs

Our DS is like this.
I just let him pick books at any level that he wants to read, then he reads what he can out of it. It keeps him interested in books.
He also reads his school book so we can fill out the reading record.

Exact same here. I can see how ridiculously easy the current reading books are for my Y1 son (phase 5 Little Wandle, green band equivalent) but it’s whole class teaching so he can’t race ahead and the books can only include the phonics they’ve been taught.

He enjoys phonics and likes that he gets more free play than others (his group literally reads the book to a TA once in the week as a group, whereas less able readers get more help).

At home we’re reading turquoise/purple books easily and some short chapter books I found, but mainly just whatever he picks off the shelf.

When you teach a new sound to children, the Majority will seem like they 'have it'. They use it to read words, write words etc.

But if you show them the sounds within a word a few weeks down the line, they often can't transfer this skill and struggle.

There has to be a lot of repetition.

There is an abundance of books in the library or in shops. If you wish to push your child further, just pick up some challenging ones and read together. If that's what you're doing already, then great! I don't really see what the issue is.

Our DS teacher said there are no problems with him reading higher levels at home so check with them in on parents evening,

she's 4.5! Leave her be and let her enjoy school

Please relax. The best thing you can do for a child is to encourage a love of reading. You are fortunate you don’t have to labour over phonics. Take the extra time to enjoy stories and books.

Trust the teachers. There are a lot of foundations being built in the basics of phonics that are often skipped or overlooked when a child has already learned to read at home that are much harder to go back to as time goes on.

You can get mn to change it to the one you used for original post

I wanted opinions as to how I best support my dd and whether I work at their pace or in addition to it. I don't expect the class to race ahead no but if it's going to be in her interest I'm sure as hell not going to hold her back either. It isn't about showing off at all but sorry I forgot that MN is the land of 1) opposing or gaslighting anything an OP says and 2) refusing to accept that sometimes parents of kids who are ahead need help and advice too

I think the general consensus has been to chill a bit with her. There doesn’t need to be practice routines and sessions with a 4 yr old. No-one is suggesting you ‘hold her back’ for the masses. Just do what you’re doing and read normal books to her, I can’t think what the other option would be?! Phonics will be a thing of the past by yr 2/3 - they will all be able to read and whether your child learnt the ight phoneme (or whatever they’re called) a few months before or after others doesn’t matter

OP, imo teachers are pedestrian and teach to the lowest common denominator.

Both mine started school reading.

Go through the motions, tick the boxes, complete the reading record and nod and smile.

Meanwhile read them wonderful stories. Let them read simpler stories and tell you about the pictures. Leaf kick, patio paint, do finger painting, count the cracks in the pavement, examine stones, teach them flower names and what they smell of. Look at clouds and learn about them. Teach them the birds and their song, teach them to swim, to ride a bike, to recognise the different musical notes, explore the flight of the bumblebee and buzz around the garden with them.

Bury their feet in zillions of grains of sand at the beach, find shells, and explore rock pools. Count the shells, count the conkers, watch things grow.

Let them chop and stir for dinner. Introduce them to baking and why cakes rise. Tell them about the components that make fire.

Laugh with them, love them and enjoy everything with the. On the whe fuck school until they are a bit older.

At school they learn about others, changing for PE, being quiet, rules, making friends, independence, cause, effect and consequence, blending in, social mores, nodding and smiling and jolly well getting on with stuff.

If you can afford it, introduce them to some organised club sport and playing an instrument.

All you can do is: love them, feed them, encourage and facilitate. That's what makes teaching them formally easy.

I did my own thing at home, dd was reading before starting school and they tried to teach her synthetic phonics which she found boring - she took a favourite book in (dick king smith book) and read it to her teacher to prove she could read - they stopped the phonics cards!

My DD was reading chapter books by the time she started school. She still had to do phonics as a whole class but they did/still do differentiate the work for her. If she can read well, start making sure she comprehends, can infer and also reads with feeling. DD does some brilliant voices for characters in books now (far better than I can). Other than that just do what needs doing. For example, I do the 3 sessions of hearing DD read a school book requires and answer the comprehension questions. We do the spellings (she's Y2 now) which are comically easy for her. I literally do a quick test Saturday morning and check she can spell everything and then forget about it for the week. The rest of the time foster her love of reading at home.

@RosesAndHellebores Blimey do you write for the parental equivalent of mills and boon…..

Our local Primary school teaches in ability groups rather than age. But they learn to write the phonics not just read them

My ds sounds similar, also in reception. He is far beyond the others in his class and has been reading since 2 but has made pretty slow progress before school as I didn't push it and only did it when he showed an interest, it went in phases.
He's now sitting through the class phonics lessons and then having a separate 1:1 phonics lesson with his teacher teaching him vowel digraphs. We read his school reading book 3 times before asking for it to be changed. The first time is usually him sounding out a lot of words and working it all out. Then he gets progressively more fluent. The 3rd time he basically reads it without properly looking at the words because he's memorised it.
I'm an early years teacher myself so I feel confident in teaching phonics to my ds but what I outline below is what I've done and it works for us.
I would speak to the teacher and say that you are worried she might get bored.
I would try to find out the order they learn the sounds in and teach a bit ahead to keep her interested if you feel comfortable doing so. Make sure you teach the letter names as well as sounds. E.g. this is the letter A, it makes the sound ah. Very helpful for when she gets for example the ay digraph. These are the letters A and Y, together they make the sound ay. And say the sounds as pure sounds, not with a schwa.
Maybe try the library for reading scheme books, ours has quite a few, I take out some yellow book and then I have something new for ds to read when we've done his reading book 3 times and there is no challenge if it hasn't been swapped yet. He's loving making progress again.

Cut and paste more like

Go to the library,let her choose books and just encourage a love of reading and books,if you can do that she'll learn at her own pace and enjoy the stories.