4 year old in reception- phonics and blending worlds

[Mother990xxxx]

My son is 4 and in reception (August baby)

He has this week come home with his first book with words which he is very excited about . His teacher told me he is great with all the sounds / letters but it's struggling when it actually comes to blending

I have been going through his book with him, and he can do 'cat' 'on' and a few others but I can't think of them right now 🤦‍♀️

Is there anything I can do help him ? I get him to sound out each letter, and I try to blend it with him but he sometimes just can't quite get it!

Is this normal for his age? Should he be doing more ? I don't want to put to much pressure on him, but he's so excited when he does get it right!

He's very eager to learn, even when we are out and about he loves to point out letters, especially if it's a letter in his name!

I work in education, but in a high school so this is all new to me!

Thank you

I have a 4 year old August baby too. He struggled with blending last term but had sort of grasped it by Christmas. I think he's actually gone a little backwards this term because he's stopped trying to blend words and just guess them instead.

Just before Christmas, we were told that knowing all the sounds but not blending was bang on average. We do quite a lot of reading with him. I think that's all you can do really plus use phonics with them all the time. I did find myself spelling out a name at work in phonics the other day though...

My son is similar. He is year one now and still struggles. He is great at writing and can spell lots of words, his maths is brilliant but reading is still very laboured and slow and we have to sound out every letter and then he just guesses. He can read simple words but his books are more tricky now and it’s knocked his confidence.

His teacher has said it’s normal so I’m not worried but I do wish he’d grasp it soon

@mynameiscalypso thank you for your advice 😊 hopefully I don't find find myself using phonics with a bunch of 15 year olds a work, they will think I'm crazy 🤣

Practice blending sounds with him verbally as part of everyday life. Eg, please can you find my b-a-g. This will help him with the process in a natural and unpressured way.

Totally normal, blending us definitely something that ‘clicks’. Just keep going, it can be a little like pulling teeth at the start but it will come together (coming from yr 1 parent).

In most of Europe and Scandinavia they don't start teaching this to kids until 6 or later, and that's because most kids brains are ready for it at that age and not much before (obviously exceptions but as an average). Your baby is so little, just go with the flow and will be fine.

Get a sausage of plasticine and as you say each sound, squish a dot on it. Then say the first sound and keep saying it (if possible - either stretched like mmmmmm ssssssss or repeated p-p-p-p etc) as you roll the plasticine - change the sound as you get to the next dot and stretch until you get to the next dot, so you end up with something like mmmmmmmaaaaaaaat

It just didn't click for DS until close to six. He already knew hundreds of words at that point and could break down words he knew as far as syllables and initial letters, applying that to read many new words. He just couldn't blend from scratch yet.

I'd recommend having him learn all the sight words by heart first as they comprise of 70-80% of all phonics books. There are many flashcards and online apps that teach these common sight words.

Love this idea. Will try it.

Follow this lady to help, shes got quite a bit on her page for blending

https://www.instagram.com/phunphonics_and_magicmaths?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==