Letterland

[pummanuel]

Hi Buds and Spring, I'm a SAHM too :celebrate: and read with interest the exchanges on Letterland.


I toyed with the idea of homeschooling my girl once when we were based in China and scoured through tons of homeschooling articles then. In a twist of fate, we relocated back to Singapore but my homeschooling-research has enabled me to arrive on a conclusion - I will let my girl learn phonics. As such, I chose a preschool which teaches phonics using Letterland.

I totally second with Buds that it will be better to teach the names of the alphabets before introducing the sounds of the alphabets. As my girl's first language is Chinese, she was totally impervious to English, even ABC, when I tried to introduce the language to her when she turned 2. Things didn't help that we were in a totally Chinese environment. I just let it go and thought she will pick it up in preschool. To my surprise, as all of her classmates came well-versed in ABC, and my girl could parrot after her classmates, her teachers focused more on the sounds of the alphabets. And in due time, when I tried to teach her to write or read, she would only recognise the sounds but not the names. I tried to teach her the names but she was resistant, telling me 'This is not what the teacher taught.' Thankfully, one day I chanced on her singing the evergreen ABCD song (in the Twinkle Twinkle Little Star tune) that her friend taught her. I made use of it and taught her the names of the alphabets using the Letterland Frieze.

However, after several months, it will still take her a moment to remember some of the names as opposed to the sounds. I found that children who learnt the names first will have less of such a problem, i.e they can remember both names and sounds better.

And to sidetrack a bit, as I was keen to be part of her learning process, I tried to buy Letterland products (to learn phonics by myself) through the UK distributor and was told to refer to Francis. I went to his office and he patiently went through with me a range of Letterland products. According to him, Tumble Tots used to own the distribution rights and the Tumble Tots operations but as another company bought over Tumble Tots, the previous company owns only Letterland distribution rights now but they are still sharing the same office.

I like the Letterland frieze very much and bought a GBC laminating machine just for it. (Having promotion at Popular now @ 1/3 of the price I paid) The frieze now decorates the wall of my foyer and greets every guest when they come into the house. I also bought an easel white cum chalk board when I realised my girl was into writing. She would trace on the frieze and write on papers. To make writing and reading fun for her, I will also let her write on the cement staircase landing outside, a bit like my kampong days, but I will scrub the floor after the exercise. I even came up with the excuse if anybody complained 'I'm practising drawing the rangoli for Deepavali.' :lol:

As Buds mentioned, Letterland is great on introducing individual letter sounds but for blending, I adopted the method that Tamarind recommended. However, for some of the digraphs like sh, wr, ow, aw, I will use the Letterland stories as my girl can co-relate better. Like many experts here mentioned, there is no hard and fast way to teach phonics. For a self taught mother, I learnt through a mix and match way and imparted the knowledge to my girl in the same fashion. As Comrade Deng Xiaoping said, be it black cat or white cat, any cat that can catch a mouse is a good cat.

Pummanuel

[badgal]

Hi mummies


My ger is currently learng letterland phonics in sch. She’ll b 3 yrs old tis yr. Teacher at sch is teachg them the names of the alphabets nw & their sound, like Jumping Jim says jer. Guess next yr when she’s in nursery, the teacher will then teach them blendg of words.

If I were to send my ger to montersori phonics class nw, will the 2 methods confuse the kids?

[buds]

badgal:

Hi mummies


My ger is currently learng letterland phonics in sch. She'll b 3 yrs old tis yr. Teacher at sch is teachg them the names of the alphabets nw & their sound, like Jumping Jim says jer.

Jumping Jim should say j-uh instead of jer.
Click link to hear the sound. > http://www.starfall.com/n/level-k/letter-j/load.htm?f

Yes, LETTERLAND introduces characters to the
letter names (ABCs) and each character says
a special sound in words. It's a fun way
or approach to learning phonetic sounds esp 4
young children.

badgal:

Guess next yr when she's in nursery, the teacher will then teach them blendg of words.

Yes, you should be right about that. Next step is indeed blending of sounds.

badgal:

If I were to send my ger to montersori phonics class nw, will the 2 methods confuse the kids?

Montessori Phonics' blending is more straightforward as compared to the
Letterland way that has stories to complement the sound combinations tt
they introduce. If by then your child is 4+ yrs old and mature enough to
exclude/ignore the Letterland characters when you ask for the sound of
a letter you've shown her, then it should be fine. The association of the
Letterland characters complement their story focus and makes it more
fun & supposedly easier for children to remember. However, that said...
children should be also ideally be able to identify sounds of the alphabets
without the need to include the character names to them.

May i inquire the need to send your girl to a Montessori Phonics class if
the school your girl is attending will be teaching the complete Letterland
Phonics curriculum?

[badgal]

Hello buds

My ger is wif Pat's nw. I dunno if she'll be learning the complete letterland phonics curriculum coz I neber really ask her teacher :oops: . So I tot mayb I can send her to montessori to reinforce watever is taught in Pat's.
I read Tamarind's blog & tot the montessori enrichment class she sent her DD to seems v gd wif blendg words. tot mayb thru montessori, I can expose my ger to further aspects of phonics tat letterland is lacking? On the other hand, was oso thinkg mayb both Letterland & montessori can compliment her learning curve in phonics. Think I kiasu champion liao

[buds]

badgal:

Hello buds. My ger is wif Pat's nw. I dunno if she'll be learning the complete letterland phonics curriculum coz I neber really ask her teacher :oops:.

Mebbe you can ask so at least you know.

badgal:

So I tot mayb I can send her to montessori to reinforce watever is taught in Pat's. I read Tamarind's blog & tot the montessori enrichment class she sent her DD to seems v gd wif blendg words.

As a Montessorian myself, i take the above as a compliment. :love:

Montessori Phonics indeed has good and complete blending techniques
& comes with complete apparatus to match the exercises done. A good
Montessorian directress will ensure that the students get good repetitive
hands-on practices with the materials. Tam has simplified the method by
making her own cards.

badgal:

tot mayb thru montessori, I can expose my ger to further aspects of phonics tat letterland is lacking?

I won't use the term lacking for every phonics method has its merits and
strengths. It is how we use them to the best use possible. A good teacher
however can deliver lessons regardless of the method used.

badgal:

On the other hand, was oso thinkg mayb both Letterland & montessori can compliment her learning curve in phonics. Think I kiasu champion liao

We're all kiasu here, darling. So no worries. :lol: That's why we're here in
this KIASU parents forum. Hehee. :lol: Yes, i suppose you mean well since
you're thinking of complementing the two together. My advice is for you to
find out more abt the Montessori Phonics methodology before you dive in...
you should be able to get your child assessed at a Montessori enrichment
centre that offers the programme upon completing the Letterland single
letter sounds stage to see if it suits her. Hope this helps.

[badgal]

Hi buds!

Thks! I really like it tat u break down all our replies & tat u take the trouble to reply each & evry query we hv. Appreciate it veri much!!! muack! :love: Oso wanna thank u for the sound advice u hv given mi.

Okie... will check wif my ger's eng teacher tmr to see if tey r learng the full letterland syllabus for these 4 yrs. Coz I casually ask her teacher ytd on wat tey r learng for this whole yr. She told mi oni single letter sounds. Oni next yr term 4 wld tey b intro to word blendg. Seem v slow leh. The sch takg 1.75 yrs to teach them single sounds? Coz my ger oredi can recognise all her ABC & abc & even the phonics nw. Scare the sch's pace too slow, then she will be bored. Nw tat she's v interested to learn new things, tot I better strike while iron hot & let her learn more. Tatz y i'm askg abt montessori. Tot montessori can speed things up a wee bit?

Btw... any gd montessori sch to recommend?

[buds]

Childcare set up due to the longer hours can afford to drag lessons.

It also depends on whether for full day children, more is being done
in the afternoons like reinforcement of lessons learnt during the day,
or whether there are other enrichment activities offered by the centre
or just dunk children in front of the tv till their parents arrive..

As with all other subjects, children need to follow the set curriculum. So
usually a with a prepared syllabus, the centre can tell parents what will
be covered till K2. Hence, in this scenario if the child stays on with the
same ctr for the child's entire early childhood education, the child wud
be able to complete the ctr's syllabus as prepared by the centre's staff.
Some centres like Kinderland have their own curriculum facilitators who
will revamp the syllabus and worksheets to meet the growing needs of
children and also the increasing standards of the national primary
education to ensure children are duly prepared for primary education.

It is normal practice though for Nursery children to only cover the single
letter sounds part of phonics. Blending usually starts in K1. Whether or
not she eventually does follow through with your intention to add on
Montessori Phonics to complement or whether or not she might get bored
with what the school will be doing, she would still have to follow through as
well right? Cos, she is technically still a student in the centre so she will be
doing the same activities as the rest of her peers.

Montessori will help to speed up a lot if you ask me.

No particular school to recommend dear. Just make sure whichever school
you choose the teacher can speak fairly well with good pronunciation and
willing to feedback to parents on the lessons carried out so that parents
can reinforce with the children at home.

The blending used in Letterland is kinda cute cos it helps children associate
more characters coming together to make different / special sounds.
Some children like the stories a lot and find it easier to understand the
different sound combinations.

Like i said, every method has its strengths. :celebrate:

[wittlewabbit]

hi badgal,


your ger is in Pats as well? my boy too. and i was actually contemplating if i should let him enrol in montessori's phonics class as well...
We just had a parents teachers meeting today, and they will only start learnin the blending prob later part of N1, which i find a little late.
My boy already knows all the sounds of the alphabets and it is already a bore for us.


i am just afraid being overly anxious, might confuse him more.
Have you tried teaching your girl tamarind's way of blending?

[pummanuel]

badgal:

Hello buds

My ger is wif Pat's nw. I dunno if she'll be learning the complete letterland phonics curriculum coz I neber really ask her teacher :oops: . So I tot mayb I can send her to montessori to reinforce watever is taught in Pat's.

wittlewabbit:

hi badgal,

your ger is in Pats as well? my boy too. and i was actually contemplating if i should let him enrol in montessori's phonics class as well...
We just had a parents teachers meeting today, and they will only start learnin the blending prob later part of N1, which i find a little late.

Hi badgal and wittlewabbit

My daughter is with Pat's too. She's in N2 this year. She spoke not a word of English, absolutely clueless with ABC when she started N1 with Pat's last year. She picked up the sounds of the letters as well as learnt to write the alphabets in both upper and lower case in N1. Hence I think Letterland is still pretty effective and kudos to the teachers too.

But like what both of you mentioned, Pat's only starts to teach basic blending in N2 Term 4, i.e 3 letters like c-a-t. My own guess is because there are new students joining the school in N2, who did not learn phonics previously or taught in a different phonics program, so the teacher has to run through the entire N1 phonics program again. However, instead of doing it in the alphabetical order, i.e after Annie Apple, teach Bouncy Ben, the sounds of the letters are introduced in a non-alphabetical order. Maybe there is a rationale in the order but I'm not aware.

I went to the K1 and K2 classes and realised that there is a big jump in these levels. The bulk of phonics is taught in K1 and in K2, the focus is on creative writing. I've seen the works of the K2 children last year and I was really impressed. (Maybe I'm just being suaku but compared to the our standards in the past, I thought it was good.)

For my case, because my daughter was lagging behind in her English in N1, I decided to start her on blending, so she will be exposed to more English books which hopefully will help (and it did) in her spoken English and grammar. In addition, she was also getting bored with the phonics lessons in class, though she still enjoyed school tremendously. (Sick also wants to go.)

I used Tamarind's method, along with Peter & Jane. However, for digraphs, like ph, ow, ew, wr, etc I used Letterland's method, using the Letterland book on digraphs from Kinokuniya. I would read the stories and simplify them for my daughter. For eg, in ow, it's said that when Oscar Orange and Walter Walrus are standing together, Walter Walrus will splash water on Oscar Orange and it will go oh and ouch (without the 'ch' sound). And for wr, Red Robot is angry with Walter Walrus for splashing water on so many of the characters, so he bundled Walter Walrus in his bag. As Walter Walrus cannot be heard in the bag, so when Walter Walrus and Red Robot are together, ie wr, we only hear the sound Red Robot makes.

For long vowels, like oa, oo, ee, the stories are not so helpful so I just used the method mentioned in the Leapfrog DVD, ie when two vowels walk together, the first says its name. But I try to let my daughter practise often so that it becomes a sight 'sound'.

I started blending and P&J last Dec, and she's at Book 10b now. I believe your children should be able to fare better with the English speaking environment.

End of the year, Pat's will email a link for parent's feedback. I'm going to feedback that blending should start from Term 3 (has to spare a thought for the newcomers), instead of Term 4.

[pummanuel]

buds:

Childcare set up due to the longer hours can afford to drag lessons.

It also depends on whether for full day children, more is being done
in the afternoons like reinforcement of lessons learnt during the day,
or whether there are other enrichment activities offered by the centre
or just dunk children in front of the tv till their parents arrive..

In the case of Pat's, phonics are taught in the am class (for am students). For the extended class in the afternoon, it focuses more on enrichment activities like story telling, craft, etc.

For Pat's, the teachers tend to emphasize on age-appropriate learning. I think it's good to have such teachers for me as they will educate me on how to be better parent. :lol: