How you teach letter blending?

[MunchMummy]

My oldest doesn't start school ubtil September, but since Xmas she has been going through all her little sisters baby books 'spelling' out all the words. i.e.,'c', 'a', 't' then saying cat because she's looking at the picture.

She also looks through books looking for 'little words'.

I really didn't want her to learn to read before Sept as shes quite a bright girl and I didn't want her to get bored, but I don't see how I can stop her.

All this is off her own back, not me being a pushy parent.

So back to my original question, how can I help her to blend letters (she knows all the phonics in the alphabet). Not sentences, just words like in, on, etc to ease the frustration she has at not being able to read. Are there any tricks of the trade I don't know about or is it just something that comes when they are ready?

She will find it easier to blend if you teach her to just say the letter sound so c is "ck" not "cuh" and t is not "tuh" it's just "t" - difficult to explain in writing sorry!

My dd picked up loads before starting school just by me running my fingers underneath the words as I read to her.

I'm sure she'll pick it up really quickly, if she wants to.

hear the sounds

This website lets you hear all the sounds - so n is nnnn not nuh and so on. And "sh" is sh not ss-huh.

more stuff on how to teach blending

Last one -
www.familylearning.org.uk/reading_printables.html. This has lists of "sight words" - words that they get them to learn by sight, usually because they aren't phonetic. If she is keen you can teach her to spot those.

She won't be bored at school - they will have children across the whole range of reading ability and they are used to keeping them all busy and learning.