Letterland

[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:

[GTGT]

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:

Hi Pummanuel

My boy is in Pat's Schoolhouse too. He is at Halifax - playgroup.

Which branch is your child at ?

[buds]

pummanuel:

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.

Good for you, pummanuel.
That SHOULD be the way! :celebrate:

While many centres promise these enrichment lessons...
it is wise for parents to check up aniwaes that the lessons
promised ARE indeed being delivered.

pummanuel:

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:

I can never over-emphasize on age-appropriate learning.

[concern2]

Hi Buds,


My DS’s childcare uses Letterland and I have to say that it has been effective in developing his reading abilities.

At 6 years old, however, he is still pretty much into picture books, and doesn’t seem to fancy reading books like Geronimos, Beast Quest, Ronald Dahl, Enid Blytons… Do you think there is a need to ‘upgrade’ him to non-picture books?

Seeking expert advice…

[buds]

pummanuel:

Hence I think Letterland is still pretty effective and kudos to the teachers too.

It IS indeed effective and the teachers' creativity, knowledge and passion
will show in their delivery as our children attend the lessons... and in the
end display what they've learnt.

pummanuel:

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.

In many Phonics programmes, the sounds aren't taught in alphabetical order
as most times the children especially the older children can already work on
wordbuilding after a learning a few single letter sounds. Take Jolly Phonics
for example... they teach s, a, t, i, p, n... so that children can be shown/
introduced to listening to sounds in words and not straight into reading
3-letter words as many like to do straight away.. the ability to listen to
sounds in words goes a looong way... Jolly students can build words
over like 40 words if i remember correctly... just when they're
learning the above 6 single letter sounds. ie. sat, sap, tan, pin
(etc)...

pummanuel:

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.)

This is the current systematic way to ensure there isn't last minute learning
or preparations on the child's part. Suffice to say, they should be adequately
P1 ready.

pummanuel:

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.

I agree to a point that the stories can slow the reading progress but it can
still however be shared more for story-fun-sake instead of for actual
learning requirement.

pummanuel:

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.

My girls didn't even go that far into Bk 10 of P&J as they were already
reading ahead with other books, so it is not necessary in my opinion to
literally finish the entire set. More important to inculcate the love for
reading... so once the reading skills take off, parents can diversify
the reading variety tailored to the child's interest and one or two
that they would like the children to try/attempt.

Children can also be exposed to other variations of sight reading books
other than Peter & Jane. Some kindies & childcare centres recommend
Scholastic, Parachute, Rigby.. (etc)

Being in an English speaking environment definitely helps. Usage of the
language daily will steer children to proper grammar and vocabulary use.