Discussions

As with everything when you are bringing up small children you are bombarded with different methods, and told what is right and wrong. Every child is different and I would try every method and find what a) works for you and b) is fun for your child. I taught my son to read with post-it notes, every item in our house was labelled 'television', 'fridge', 'oven' etc. the familiarity of seeing the word, and to a child it's a pattern, on an object they know, soon gave him a concept of the written word and from then it's a hop, skip and a jump to books, flash cards, puzzles and more importantly wanting to learn. It worked with my son and he was reading before he went to school.

Phonics are great for most children but those with auditory processing difficulties may struggle. If your child isn't making the progress they should, chat to the class-teacher and express your concerns. They may have an underlying SEN that hasn't yet been picked up. Don't leave things too late - early intervention really can make the world of difference - not just to progress in reading but to self-esteem and confidence too.

My twins love the CBeebies programme 'Alphablocks' - the letters come to life and tell stories. The CBeebies website has Alphablocks games and activities and I think you can also buy an Alphablocks magazine.

For most children phonics work well and are a fun way to learn. Try Jolly Phonics or Letterland.

We have a word tin with all the common words from her favourite books in. My daughter gets to pick them out of the tin and is starting to recognise certain words - she's even pointing them out in the books now. I add new words to the tin as appropriate.

I'm sure there's nothing wrong with combining methods - whatever you find works. I recommend finding out how they approach it at and then continuing in this way at home too. We had the Kipper books from ORT because this was the method they used at my daughter's school.