Do you know your phonics?
You may say at 34 years-old I really should know my phonics, but you know what? I’m not sure that I do.
I have always supported my son’s schoolwork without really making a big fuss about making sure that we do it.
When his sounds came home, we made them together and learnt their actions. I even bought the Jolly Phonics DVD.
However – now in his third year of school – my son is struggling to reach the reading level of his peers, and I believe it is partly down to him failing to fully grasp his phonics.
His vocabulary is wonderful, as is his clear love for books, but he is getting very frustrated at his lack of reading progress, and after taking a step back from it all, I believe it could be about him not fully understanding the fundamentals of words and their sounds.
I consulted with his teacher, who did say that at this time they do normally revisit phonics, and focus on ensuring children now understand whey they learnt their ‘ch’ ‘th’ and ‘ng’ (I’d be doing their corresponding hand actions too if my fingers weren’t on my keyboard) and how to apply them to words.
So while my son will be revisiting his word sounds, I too am going to be playing with phonics at home, in the hope of going two steps backwards to make three steps forward.
That’s for both my son and I.
It quickly dawned on me playing phonics games that I don’t actually fully grasp the concept either, and it would better help my son if I did.
I completed some of the excellent BBC Bitesize Key Stage 1 games (yes, I know, meant for seven year-olds) ignoring that I knew the words and instead tried to make them from sounds.
Initially I didn’t find it easy.
Why isn’t wear spelt ‘wair’?
Couldn’t fight be spelt ‘fite’?
It did get me thinking, and making sounds and words properly. I think it is termed effective blending.
Anyway the school has advised that these games, and others you can find online are very useful for children. But a child can play – and succeed with – these games without really learning.
So I’m mixing in some practical play at home.
Junior Boggle is coming out again.
And I’ve been setting little challenges for my son like putting this right.
It’s been fun, and different, hopefully something we shall continue to enjoy together and at the same time be both improving our literacy skills.
I’m hoping one day I get it.
Probably not before my six year-old though.
What have you found useful in helping your child with learning to read?
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