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How to encourage my little one to slow down when blending words? (Phonics)

9 replies

Worriedmumofone1 · 24/08/2025 16:29

My little girl has enjoyed starting phonics at the beginning of the summer holidays. She is following the scheme she will be learning when she starts reception in two weeks. I’ve ensured she has been taught everything correctly (phoneme pronunciation etc).

Shes done amazingly and learnt new sounds and read new CVC words each week. But over time she’s just become almost impatient and tries to guess the words (more so with 4+ letter words) before properly sounding out the letters.

Any good tricks to help her slow down? She is very capable and definitely knows each letter and associated sound.

For context she was 4 two days ago

OP posts:
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Wirdle · 24/08/2025 20:41

Chill out and leave it to the teacher?

Wolfiefan · 24/08/2025 20:43

Yep. Definitely. Chill out and don’t rush things.

Depressedbarbie · 24/08/2025 20:54

If she's impatient and rushing, she's not quite ready and interested enough for cvcc/ccvc words. Leave it, and come back to it later. It's an expectation for the end of reception to do this.

Wirdle · 25/08/2025 06:42

Wirdle · 24/08/2025 20:41

Chill out and leave it to the teacher?

Had a few wines yesterday and my response wasn't very helpful was it. Though I'd still have the same advice this morning to leave it, she's about to go through a massive change and will be one of the youngest in the class to deal with all the social expectations. I'd be giving yourself a pat on the back for a good start and supporting her as she goes.

Then outside the phonics do you model slower paced reading to her, doing voices, dramatic pauses, following words with your finger, longer chapter books with more suspense when you stop for the night etc

Nix32 · 25/08/2025 07:16

Why the rush? She doesn’t need a head start - the scheme will have been written in a very specific way in order to make sure that the children make progress.

Moving from cvc words to 4 letter words in less than 6 weeks is too fast - she needs time to deepen and consolidate what she has already learned. There are so many cvc words - focus on her being to apply her grapheme recognition skills to reading those for now.

BoleynMemories13 · 25/08/2025 07:44

Was she showing an interest in learning to read? As a Reception teacher, I would always advise parents to hold back until they start school, unless a child is genuinely interested. When they are, it usually clicks quite early. If they're not, it can be a bit of a slog.

It's not unusual for children to take a while to become competent with blending, even once they've started school. It is far too soon to be rushing her on to 4 sounds if she hasn't grasped blending 3 yet, so hold fire with that and return to CVC for now (if she actually wants to engage with it). If she has lost interest don't push it and leave it until she starts school.

Oral blending comes first. Is she able to hear words when you sound out instructions to her? (Eg go and find your h-a-t, put it in the b-i-n, sit on the m-a-t).

I would go back to basics if she is still interested. Leave reading words for now and play lots of oral blending games instead. You can play a cvc version of I-Spy (you sound out the object and see if she can point to it, eg I-spy with my little eye a d-o-g, a t-a-p, a b-e-d etc). Another game we play a lot is Simon says, sounding out body parts (stamp your f-oo-t, touch your b-a-ck, point to your ch-i-n, shake your h-ea-d etc). Or have fun making animal noises (eg what noise does a p-i-g make? What about a c-a-t?). What's in the bag? (Have a selection of random CVC items from around the house and sound them out for her to identify, eg in the bag is a c-u-p).

Have fun with it. She will get there in her own time and, when she can confidently hear oral blends, she'll generally be a lot more successful blending words in their written form. Jumping straight in to asking her to blend learnt graphemes (letter sounds in written form) in order to identify the word is missing out a huge step in her development.

CaptainMyCaptain · 25/08/2025 07:49

Depressedbarbie · 24/08/2025 20:54

If she's impatient and rushing, she's not quite ready and interested enough for cvcc/ccvc words. Leave it, and come back to it later. It's an expectation for the end of reception to do this.

Edited

I agree. There is no advantage in the long term in rushing this. (Retired Reception teacher here)

Worriedmumofone1 · 03/09/2025 07:35

Thanks everyone. I totally agree with not rushing and although the learning was initiated by me she has enjoyed it and will tell me when and if she’s had enough. She tells me when she wants to do her “learning” every day. Since posting she’s blending four letter words seamlessly so once again I’ve been too impatient 🥲 and we will definitely continue to reinforce her CVC word knowledge!

OP posts:
RafaistheKingofClay · 03/09/2025 17:54

There are two ways you can tackle this really, either get a piece of card and uncover each letter/spelling one at a time which should slow her down a bit or turn it into a competition. If she blends it correctly she gets the point, if she doesn’t you get the point. Chocolate buttons work well as ‘points’ at this age.

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