phonics: how many sounds did/do your kids know after 8 weeks at school?

[mydoorisalwaysopen]

We have just had our first parent consultation for DS1 who started school in September (he was 4 in July). The teacher said she is very disappointed with his grasp of phonics and he only reliably knows one sound. Dyslexia was mentioned. Apart from feeling so guilty because we have never tried to teach him the alphabet (until now ) we don't know if this is terrible as all the children seem to be getting very similar comments. I have been doing fun stuff since the meeting and think he knows more than one sound but probably not reliably. I'm not really stressing about this but just wondered what experiences others have had with slow starters.

thanks for the post and link to your site tom. I'm impressed that you're allowing us to see the whole of books before buying.

MDIAO have you been given a copy of their phonics book to re-instate at home? Both my children had a little book with the letter printed in small and capitals, the sound it made and an action to help them remember and associate it with.

You must ask for this ... you can help him for 5 mins in the evening going over a new sound. We did one sound a week which was their school's target for him to learn. IT WORKED and he had no phonic knowledge or interest in it prior to starting school.

As a reception teacher I teach one sound a day from the first week in school and all my class know single letter phonemes and many know the diagraphs (2 letters representing one sound like /sh/ or /ee/) The important thing IMO is to practise practise practise lots of short visits to the sounds taught and using the sounds in words not just in isolation. Remember cuh ah tuh doesn't say cat ...so be really clear when saying the sounds.
Swedishmum try saying suh ah muh it doesn't make a word which is why you need to say s-a-m.

Personally don't care for THRASS as I've said before or RWI but each to their own.

The world has gone mad !!
Parent's are naturally anxious about their children and for a teacher,a professional, to be fuelling these fears because a boy who is just turned 4 ,little more than a baby does not recognise enough letter sounds is absurd at best and cruel,unprofessional and destructive at worst.
Some kids will come to school reading ,others won't get to that same level for another couple of years but by the time they leave you won't be able to tell which were which.

Just a few. he only knew them all by the end of reception. He's now in Yr1, doing OK a bit behind but I'm refusing to worry I know he's just not ready.

Talk of dyslexia is SHITE at this stage, and I do know quite a bit about it.