How much should I "push" DS

[annaje]

DS2 is in Reception and seems to be struggling with the "words" that he brings home that have to be learnt and normally accompany the book he is reading that week. He came home today having learnt all the words he was given his week, but because he had forgotten the previous weeks words, they have given the same books as the last two weeks and made him learn those words again! I was cross that he had forgotten them, but then feel bad because he is only in reception.

But I know from previous experience (DS1 is in Year 3) that a lot depends on how well they pick up things in Reception to how they progress.

I know it sounds ridiculous as he is in reception, but I worry

I don't agree. My Ds didn't take well to reading/writing in reception at all. Once he'd settled into year 1, he picked up and he's looking at Grammar school in September. At 7.6 he had a reading age of 11.
Some kiddies just aren't ready to read in reception. I personally think it's too young to start stressing over it. If you push too hard it wont be enjoyable to him and that could put him way back.

My DS is in year 1 this year. In reception his teacher was really worried about him as he had difficulty concentrating and was often away with the fairies. Ar home we had to fight to get him to read and he would forget words if you turned the page over! This year he is top of the class for reading and in the top groups for everything else. I thought we were going to have to get extra tuition for him but he's been fine. Is DS2 young in the year? My DS is so we think that might have been part of it!

Thanks for the encouraging words. Rationally I know it is stupid to push them too much as it has the opposite effect, but it is a worry that his friends are flying along and I don't want him left behind.

He is also one of the oldest in the class and was 5 in October.

Marthasmama, so is my Ds...August baby, so that could well be part of it for the younger ones.

Ds struggled in Reception. I felt pressured by his teacher, and often had to remind myself that he was 4 and a half.
Most of the children at that age aren't ready to read, or have good fine motor skills who enable them to write.
We are now back to Italy, and his teachers are [shocked] that he was pushed into reading at such a young age.

Aw annaje, don't worry, I'm sure he'll suddenly spring along and have his nose stuck in a book permanently soon enough.

I don't push my reception ds at all. Sometimes he does his homework easily, sometimes he struggles and sometimes he doesn't do it at all. The choice is his. He is 4. At his age I wasn't even at school let alone doing homework. In fact I don't recall getting homework before I started grammar school at 12.

I wouldn't push sight words as you just might end up frustrated. My DS struggled with sight words, but because learnt phonics properly reading clicked when he was in yr 2 and he took over most of the dc's that read well in reception.
He has dyslexic problems but is in top set of his secondary school and doing really well.

I wouldn't push. Not much at any age but certainly not at this age.

And I don't agree that picking things up at this stage in reception is crucial. My dd1 picked up virtually nothing in the first half of Reception, as far as I could tell. She wasn't really reading at all at the end of reception. Now at 8 she's a fluent keen reader with a high reading age and school thinks she's good at literacy. Which is very different from how she was in reception.

My dd3 has just started reception and can read nothing. Perhaps her name. I'm not doing anything about it. I am fairly sure she'll read at some point, and probably quite well eventually. I am just pleased she's loving school, very popular, enjoying every aspect of it.