Helping 3.5 yr old with phonics

[nunheadmum]

Don't worry, i'm not trying to hothouse my toddler but my 3.5yr old is showing a real interest in letters and words. She's always been into her letters and numbers and nursery do stuff with her and as she seemed into it we got the Jolly Phonics DVD which she loves - but I try to respond to her interest, not push her.

But over the last two weeks she's started by herself (when stuck in the car for 5 hours) saying words and trying to work out what letter they start with and then, the past few days, which they end with. When she's not sure she's been asking us - but because she's picking random words which are in her head, they aren't always the simple letter sounds she knows and I'm not sure how to respond. For example, at the cafe on the Rye today, she said 'circus, that starts with saucy s' - so should I say 'yes that's right' as the sound is right or yes, it sounds like saucy s but is actually a c or...? My worry is that I say something that confuses her and puts her off or contradicts how she should learn it.

Can anyone give guidance about how to approach this at such a young age? Are there any good books - the stuff I've found on the Jolly Learning website seems to presume it's being taught rather than learning along the way? I really don't care if she learns to read now or at school, I'm sure she'll get there at some point. But if she is interested in it, I don't want to stifle it by ignoring her interest or worse, do something that gives her problems later down the line.

[EDmummy]

My youngest also had a great deal of interest in the letters that words start with about that age (although not what they ended with). Also not a hot houser! I tended to steer him towards words where the start letter was obvious and if he mentioned one that was not eg., circus, I vaguely mentioned the correction but did not make a point of it. Six months on, he is far more interested in learning how to write his letters and numbers so we haven't had to think about phonics. I am going to leave it to the professionals but if your daughter is truly interested then I am sure there are plenty of jolly phonics products that could support you.

[womanofdulwich]

i think at some stage i made up some bits of card with ch , sh th on etc and then other bits at it ot op on and let my son play with them - i htink he was 5 though.

[sillywoman]

DVI uses Ruth Miskin Literacy programme (know as RML). I'm told it has a useful website which could maybe help you with the correct phonic pronunciation/ explanation for each letter or dipthong. English is such a tricky language to learn with so many exceptions to each rule, but this does seem to be quite a good clear programme for them to follow.

With regard to the circus incident - I think I'd have gone with something along the lines of "you're right it does start with the 's' sound" (emphasis on the 'sound'). After all, she was right wasn't she, clever girl?!

[trinity]

I taught my 3 youngest using phonics and they were all reading by the age of 3 and were good readers by the age of 4. My method was to get all alphabet letter sounds firmly known (we used letterland). This was done with lots of games eg hiding the letters around the room and getting her to try to find the right one. The common 2 letter blends can be introduced at the end eg ch, th, ph.

Then put together letters into simple phonic words eg cat. Again only done via games and only a couple of minutes at a time. Then come simple sentences and frequent non-phonic words eg the. I just said these were tricker words which they seemed to accept quite readily. When they came along I would read the words for them until they were familiar with the whole word.

Also lots of encouragement in our daily lives about the sounds of words. I think sillywoman is spot on with her suggestion about circus.

I had to make up cards for words as I couldn't find exactly what I wanted commercially.

I don't feel I was pushing my little ones but it was more of a reaction to my eldest son being let down really badly by the lousy teaching of reading at his school and I wanted to make sure that my younger ones didn't have such a haphazard start to reading.

[nunheadmum]

Thanks for the comments. I have been trying to focus on the sounds and praising for them rather than forcing the issue on the right letter but I wasn't quite sure if that was right or not. And the idea of the games Trinity is a good one - if I can get myself organised to do it.

On the actual reading, is it worth getting the readers that you can buy. My daughter is great at remembering stories and my worry is that with simple readers, she would remember the words rather than read them. I bought a couple of the Janet & John books (for myself - they transported me right back to my first days at school, it was wierd!) and my daughter loves them but I laid off them for a bit as I thought it would be better to keep them for when she can start to read the words. But is there a point where remembering becomes reading?

[Fuschia]

When son no 1 leartn phonics I felt a bit at sea... as I don't know the phonetci sounds.. for eg if you say "t" you're supposed to sort of swallow the sound, saying the t as it is in "i-t" more than as it is in "Te-n"...but it didn't seem to do hom any harm... we just read proper books with him and did jolly phonics at school and learned to read after 6 weeks in reception.

You can buy jolly phonics cds and dvds. Suggest you learn the syastem yourseld, if you want to be able to help.

http://www.jollylearning.co.uk/jp.htm

[Fuschia]

PS, I think with phonetics the "C" in circus and the "S" in snake are actually the same sound, that's the whole point of phonics!!

[Gubodge]

Perhaps you should find out what brand of phonics the school she is likely to go to uses. I think Jolly Phonics is the most common, but there are other versions and it may set her back a bit at school, or at least confuse her if she has started learning using a different approach.

[fionab]

My daughter (now 5) was also into letters and words at that age but was at a preschool that taught them songs and actions for each one. 'a' 'a' 'ants on my arm' for the letter a etc. sure you can get these with some internet searching (youtube??) She loved it - I also let her text her dad and read road signs (STOP, P for Parking etc). cbeebies website is really good too. Also, it's not too early to get the first Orchard reading books which she loved.