Jolly phonics

[Nicola Carlyle]

Is there any harm in singing songs with the pre school children that are related to phonics actions etc? I'm only asking as I have had a few children recently become really interested in letters, writing, etc and I thought this would be a good way to extend their knowledge and learning. Under no circumstances do I think nor want them to be fully fluent in jolly phonics before they go to school. I just want to encourage their interests and go with it to see where it takes us. We sang a few on Friday and they went down well particularly if it happened to be the first letter of their name.

[samb]

Why would there by harm in this? Sounds great- encourage away!

[bunyip]

Personally, I'd say no harm in it.

However, I asked my local (Outstanding) school reception teacher for ideas of how to support my 2.5yo mindee who can say the whole alphabet, write her name, and consistently recognise around 12 phonics/letter sounds. She was quite taken aback and said "for god's sake slow her down. We won't know what to do with her when she comes here and she'll be bored."

But then, school clearly isn't the place to develop as an individual, is it? :(

[sarah707]

Personally, I'd say no harm in it.

However, I asked my local (Outstanding) school reception teacher for ideas of how to support my 2.5yo mindee who can say the whole alphabet, write her name, and consistently recognise around 12 phonics/letter sounds. She was quite taken aback and said "for god's sake slow her down. We won't know what to do with her when she comes here and she'll be bored."

But then, school clearly isn't the place to develop as an individual, is it? :(

Oh that is so sad :(

I follow children's interests and if they want to do phonics then off we go :D

[dawn100]

My dd enjoyed learning letter sounds, I didn't make her but she wanted to join in with her older brothers in letter games. She had lots of fun and has just started reception and knows all her letter sounds and is just beginning to able to sound out basic words when reading and has started to spell out words with the letter magnets on the fridge. Her teachers think its fab and love how much she knows but also how much interest she has in it. I would say go for it whilst they are interested just make sure it stays fun.:)

[Nicola Carlyle]

All great advice. Fun is definitely the order of the day. I always try and take our learning off in other directions and try to offer lots of different ways to enable their learning. My worry was that patents, nursery, pre school, school would think it was to much to soon etc but then I guess it's kind of the same thing when you have a child who wants to write and a 2 year old who wants to copy. You don't say no you just simply go with it don't you. x