Skipping ahead in reading

[RedSpottyMushrooms]

DS is 5 and in reception. He's one of the oldest and quite bright and seems to be doing well.

The school obviously follows a phonics scheme, but he seems to be ahead of this, and is quite good at "figuring out" words even if he hasn't covered the specific phonics. We have a lot of books (including phonics books from other schemes) at home so read these most days.

My question is, does it matter if we are "skipping ahead" like this? Will it teach him bad habits of guessing words etc? Last term I was spending quite a lot of time ensuring that I was reinforcing phonics rules (if we read things that he hadn't covered at school), but this term I really haven't had time, so we're just reading together and I will sometimes mention e.g. "ure" says "yuer" but often I'm not even sure of the phonics rules myself (how do you explain "through"?!).

Can anyone offer reassurance, or tell me what I should be doing instead?

Go to the library and get books he can read with you. Focus on his comprehension. Get him to predict what might happen next or go over what’s happened and happening in the story.
Read to him and talk about the books. You can go over the phonics he’s doing at school and obviously encourage him to use them to decide words. He sounds like he’s doing really well.

Oxford Owl website has great parent resources on pronouncing sounds.

Whatever phonics scheme he does, there are ‘tricky words’ that he will need to memorise/sight read because they aren’t spelt phonetically. It’s also so important he develops his vocabulary, his comprehension, and starts to enjoy reading for pleasure - so reading and being read to - from ANY book - is very much worthwhile. Phonics schemes are a method for teachers to teach - but they aren’t the only way to learn to read and we all learn differently.

My son was a really reluctant reader in reception (he’s a summer baby and a late talker so I think he just wasn’t ready) and rather than have a fight about sounding out three letter words in a picture book, I read stories to him that he actually enjoyed. He is now year 3 and reads everything.

If he can read without sounding out the words, so much the better. Reading requires a combination of skills and insisting on sounding words out phonetically, which can't be done accurately in many cases, interferes with fluency and understanding. He only needs to use phonics when reading unfamiliar text if he can't recognise the word/work it out from the context/ make a sensible guess from the picture. I never thought I would say this, as I valued phonics when I was teaching beginner readers but there is far too much emphasis placed on phonics now in the curriculum without taking into account all the other skills that fluent readers use.

When did you last sound out a new word when reading? And local accents vary so much that often the national scheme doesn't match the words that children use and understand.

Phonics is a great way to learn to read, and really helps with spelling, but for some children reading just ‘clicks’ and they don’t need to work through all the stages. Your DS will still benefit from phonics learning for the spelling aspects but will also get a lot of benefit from reading more complex texts as they will develop his comprehension and vocabulary.

He's doing great and you don't need to change anything. My DS learnt to read before learning lots of the phonics sounds. He was able to read complicated books at home but was still quite fascinated to learn e.g. what sounds the vowel diagraphs make when he learnt them at school. The phonics also helped his spelling of words.

As PP said, at home he would read and we would talk about the story. We did make sure to also read the school reading books to practise the phonics sounds they had learnt, particularly later on when they were introducing harder phonics sounds, as he already knew all the simple single sounds.

One of my children had hyperlexia and could read before starting school. He still had to go through all the phonics so that he would be able to decode more complex words on his own. His teacher said it was fine for him to read more advanced books at home so long as he kept working through the school reading scheme at the same time. It was a bit boring for him sometimes when he had to read school books that were far below the level that he was reading for enjoyment but I think all children get bored with the school books at times, especially when they have to read the same one for a week.

fine to be reading other and harder books at home. Don’t overthink it

I would just ignore what the school are doing and do your own thing at home (ie also dont kick up a fuss if you think his school reading books are too “easy”). My children’s school insist on working through each phonics stage and sending books for each stage but I started teaching mine in preschool and they use a range of methods. Eg if they are understanding the context then they don’t need to sound out every letter in a word - can usually get it from the first syllable, and they develop fluency by recognising the shape of words over time.

By about year 2/3 they can ditch the school schemes, everyone can read and it’s not an issue. I often see parents saying “the school wants me to read the book x4 a week and it’s so boring”….they can’t make you do it you know! Just follow your child’s lead and keep reading to and with them.

We did our own thing, it’s fine, fluency in decoding really helps with comprehension later imo. Main thing is he enjoys it and is actively engaged with his reading. I taught mine to read early, didn’t hurt her one bit.

Our oldest was very ahead with reading and writing. When she joined reception they put her straight on yellow book band (3rd band) but we felt that was still too easy so we used the book subscription service Reading Chest to start her on Orange band books which were the right level (reading 90% easily and sounding out or needing help with 10%). School asked her to read each book three times but we read their yellow band books once to give us time for our books. They were fine with that and she caught up with our home book band by mid year one then was a free reader at the end of year one. We actually kept her on banded books longer with Reading Chest as they stocked "extended" KS2 banded books whilst school stopped at Lime in KS1. We felt this kept her on a bigger variety of genres and types of book as the chapter books she picked were good but mostly on the same themes (magic or historical).

We had a similar situation so I can give you a perspective from a few years out. Yes, she sometimes has a "bad habit" of guessing words. We remind her to sound things out but ultimately, it hasn't impacted her reading in a hugely negative way. Perhaps if the phonics scheme was faster she would not have developed this habit. I believe with some children you can't keep up though. Something clicked for her and she wanted to read everything. If it wasn't more complicated books at home, it was words on packages, on store signs, everywhere.

We did what most people here suggest and read what we wanted to at home. She has been a "greater depth" reader and has only had positive reports about her reading so while I understand your concern, I hope that reassures you too.

Like PP above. I didn't do phonics for home books. I just helped them with the word if they got stuck.

Phonics was for school books and we did them as required by school, but DD got very bored very quickly of the school books and moved on at home pretty quickly.

She's 6 now, Yr2 and independently reads chapter books at home. I've got a great picture of her on holiday in October eating pizza and reading The Twits.

Keep school reading and home reading separate. It won't confuse if DC has grasped the basics.

Thank you all, this is very reassuring 🙏

Tbh, I have no idea where they're at with phonics at school! I think it was clear early on that he knew his basic letter sounds and so the books he has from school have never really matched up with what he's doing in class and they don't give out a weekly summary or anything.

I think I'm probably extra concerned because my own spelling is terrible, and I also tend to skim read and miss things 😬

Mine is in reception, is the eldest and can read pretty fluently at this stage; school have put her on the light blue band at the moment although at home we’re reading whatever she fancies (at the moment it’s the Brambley Hedge books). However, don’t forget they have to pass the phonics screen at the end of Reception, so phonics isn’t optional - she’ll still need to do all that stuff alongside reading for pleasure.

@Cheepcheepcheep I thought it was end of year 1?

I'm definitely not anti phonics, and I think he's happy to do the phonics sessions at school. I guess it's just whether we can read "normally" at home without it interfering with learning the actual phonics rules (which I hope he is doing at school but who knows!).

Sorry, you’re quite right - Y1! Not why I wrote reception. Definitely not suggesting you’re anti-phonics, just parroting what DD’s teacher told me, suspect she thought me saying DD could read meant I would cheer and chuck the phonics sheets in the bin when they came home 😄 DD’s teacher said she was delighted for DD to do whatever she wanted with reading for pleasure as her number 1 goal was to instil a love of reading in children.

Our children tead whatever they fancied at home. Why not? All this band nonsense don't work for all children.

I was utterly flamed on here a few years ago by daring to say I felt a diet of pure phonics was far too narrow for brighter dc who really lapped up reading. DD, in yr, (August birthday) had breakthrough words, a reading scheme, free choice library book from school (chose Ladybird diary of Samuel Pepys one week) school books changed 3 times a week and we went to the library. We had a very mixed diet of books and poems. There are many great authors dc can enjoy. She did loads of phonics at nursery but it was never the only method used - thank God. If dc enjoy reading, let them.

Phonics scheme books can be really dull. The main thing is enjoyment. The only thing I would caution is if they get too far ahead, some of the school scheme books can be a bit beyond them in terms of content. I had a precious reader coming home with books with some pretty dark themes. My 5 year old asking about suicide was a highlight as was a book about Pompeii with a description of people’s faces burning off and then choking on the ash.

@tutorbuddy Some dc in yr don’t guess though. They do actually know the words. They can streak ahead and why not? My DD did phonics mostly in nursery. She was well up for reading at 4. Summer born. Phonics can be so slow and seems designed for dc who need more time. I fully agree with dc having library books (our school allowed dc to choose age 4) and we also went to the local library. DD also loved poetry for children. A broad diet of books and words really helps bright dc and it’s a shame phonics is so boring.