Formal teaching phonics - should we??

[acorns]

I have a 3yo mindee who gets her EEE at pre school every day and comes to me for the afternoon. We don't have an awful lot of time as we get back from pre school, lunch,nap, school run then tea & free play till pick up. I try an fit in a planned activity if she is not too tired, activity being based on her current interests or our theme of the week. At pick up parents have asked me to start teaching her, her first phonics & they have documents that they'll give me to do so (that I can put on my wall!!). I said I'll take a look. I'm not sure that A) I would teach her correctly & not cause her more difficulty for when she gets to school b) surely she is with me to focus on learning through play & not formal 'sheets'. We have various phonic resources already such as the Usborne books, electronic toys, games etc which I think is enough for her at this stage. Does anyone else 'teach' phonics formally, would/should the pre school be 'teaching' (I will be speaking with them). Be interested in what others do with their older mindees? Thanks

[moggy]

I would be guided by the local school's wishes- I have heard schools actively telling parents NOT to try teaching phonics as it can cause more confusion than good as there are different schemes/systems.

So in your position I would directly ask the school the child is most likely to attend. If school is definitely following a particular scheme and tells you so then at least you can familiarize yourself with it and introduce elements if you feel the child will enjoy it and is ready for it- some are based on rhymes and hand-actions which can be fun.

As for whether we should be doing it- it depends on the child, if they are ready and asking 'what does that say' and pointing at letters etc it is natural to follow that with simple phonics, but it has to be pronounced correctly (W = long soft wwww, now 'whuh', L = long l sound, not 'luh' etc, I was told).

[FloraDora]

Letters and sounds is gov curriculum. I 'sort of ' follow this: lots of singing, sound making, rhyming poems and songs and books then awareness of letter sounds: in their name, everywhere,magnet, play etc in sand, paint playdoh etc.. then S A T P I N - letters on door, focus on what begins with - have all letters and things that begin with boxes, but I mainly play around with the letters in their name - just making them aware. One LO is reading focussed and at 31 months knows all in her name and Initial so I am blending with play situations. Her maturity needs to catch up so I am ensuring other areas are developing too.... She loves books, sees the finer detail, remembers picture books word for word....but needs to reach more ' characteristics of learning' areas, explore, discover....if we are in the garden she is happiest sitting on the log seats with all the seed packets! .....I really have to think about my planning for this LO!

What I am trying to say is..follow the child.

[Maza]

Totally agree with FloraDora! I also follow 'Letters and Sounds' - love, love, love it. I focus on lots of phase one activities at that age. Soooo many times in my teaching career (and through observing friends children) I have come across children who have not had any phase one activities at all but recognise all of the letters in the alphabet and reading just doesn't come as naturally to them as it does to those who have had the correct foundations laid. We are the 'Foundation Stage' after all. Really do try and get hold of a copy of 'Letters and Sounds' if you don't have one already.

Secondly - you do not work for the parents, you are self employed. They could dictate to a nanny (or try to) but you run your business your way and have other children to think about, so don't feel pressured into this. Obviously we have to work with parents etc etc but it is all about balance. Don't mean to 'dis' the parents by the way, it's good that they are interested in their child's education. x

[acorns]

Thanks for the advice, I'd never heard of Letters and Sounds. Just had a quick look at it and it looks like I'm doing lots of the activities on there already without knowing it!! I think what I'm against is the parents expectation that I'll sit and teach a sheet of sounds to a child. I'm not nor want to be a teacher. I think I'll say I'll use it when planning activities around the skills needed to learn their letters & sounds, and I think that it all that should be expected of me as a carer who has their ds for only part of the day along with other children and babies!!

[hectors house]

Found a letters and sounds recording sheet on the Early Years forum this week - haven't started to use it yet but it looks good.

8520

[Maza]

Oh I love that hectors house. Will be printing that off. Just chuckling to myself about the one that says "I can sing a song at different volumes" (or words to that effect). My three year old mindee has no volume control at all, so I won't be ticking that box just yet! I doubt his parents would ever get that box ticked either!