Progress with Oxford: abc

A useful resource.

Excellent product

Great books, my son loves these

This offering from Progress with Oxford is aimed at building phonemic awareness in preschoolers and beginning to make the phoneme-grapheme link to assist with beginning to learn synthetic phonics. Laid out in sections of grouped letters and building questions of selecting the matching word to grapheme SOUNDS a good idea but in the wrong hands could lead to confusion. The building phonemic awareness hints and extension activities are fab and worth the book but the focus on sounds of the letters could confuse children when it comes to their phonics instruction- I would have preferred grapheme/letter recognition activities unless this is with a confident adult/class situation.First of all working alphabetically could cause confusion as most synthetic phonics programmes work in a specific order (usually SATPIN is the start then some differences thereafter. Two the command 'say the sound' is confusing if the parent doesn't get that you are asking for the phoneme of the grapheme not the name- c=Kk not 'sea' so it may be confusing for a child to match B- banana if they've been told B sounds like Bee there's no guidance for parents in this book of how the phonemes 'sound' other than a visual clue - c= Cat not cereal for example so parents may fall into the age old catch of pronouncing the phonemes with an UH - Buh not the clipped bouncy Bsound or CUH instead of the sharp KkHowever the matching activities and the hints and tips make up for the difficulties I have with this book and I will still use it with my second when she shows an interest in literacy and words just looking at but reading books .

abc Age 3-4 supports the Early Years curriculum and is meant to help build an understanding of the alphabet in preparation for school.The inside front cover explains how to use the book - there are symbols ( representing say the sound, colour, play together, match, circle, trace, find the sticker) so once your child can associate an action with a symbol they can work more independently. You use stickers as rewards and there are play together ideas to practise the alphabet. There are answers to the activities on the inside back cover if you need them.The book follows the alphabet sequence so you and your little one work your way through the book learning the alphabet as you go, guided by Alfa and her little friend Bett. Although there are only 32 pages there are a lot of activities packed in, and as well as learning the alphabet the book also covers starting to write letters as well.Niggles - there are some stickers but not a huge amount, it would have been nice if there had been a couple more sticker activities as it does feel slightly skewed to too many colouring in activities.Overall though, a good aid for young children starting to learn the alphabet.

Aimed at ages 3-4, this is a lovely workbook for young children. It is one of a series and other titles include, “Phonics,” “Starting to Write,” “Shape and Size,” “Counting up to 10,” “Numbers up to 10,” and “Colours and Patterns.”This workbook includes picture clues to encourage children to work independently, stickers to reward effort and a progress chart. Each book also has a fun character, lots of useful advice for parents to show them how to best use the book and aid your child’s learning and answers at the back of the book (not necessary for this age group, but it is nice to have them, in case your child wants to mark their own work).The contents of the book include : Letters a to f, Letters g to m, Letters c, e, b, f, a, d, Letters N to t, Letters a to m, Letters n to z, Mixed letters 1-6, Capital letters 1-2, Writing letters 1-2 and Progress Chart.As well as the learning activities, there are lots of questions to ask and ideas to extend learning. As such, it is nice to be involved in reading the pages with your child – or perhaps looking at their finished work and using the prompts to question and encourage them. This is colourful, fun and well thought out.

This is a great resource for getting to grips with the alphabet. It covers writing letters, saying the sounds, matching objects to their initial letters and recognising capital and lower case. With my nearly 5 year old I found that I needed to sit with her and explain what the activities were asking her to do then she very happily got on with her "work". She has enjoyed copying the letters and there is a bit of space on the page for extra writing practice. The only thing is, it would be good to have an extra copy of the book so after all the tasks have been completed she could go over it again and see how much she has learnt. There is a progress chart included to record how well they have done but might be difficult for them to complete themselves. And she preferred to put the stickers on herself rather than the book! But she has really enjoyed working through it and selecting activities she enjoys. It has certainly made her "work" fun :)

The abc book from Oxford is a great way to introduce more formal learning at home for both the child and parent. It begins by working through the alphabet identifying easily recognisable objects that begin with that letter (so think apple, banana, cat etc). A lot of the activities in the book then require objects to be coloured in so a fun and creative way of learning. This does relying on the parent using the ‘baby alphabet’ to match the letter to the sound though. I like how the book develops a positive learning/bonding element too with the use of stickers which say Great, Fantastic or Well Done and you can track progress at the back of the book. I like that each activity is short so it’s easy to dip in and out of (although they do want to use all the stickers at once so thankfully these are in the centre and can be removed so not quite as distracting. It’s really well laid out and has friendly characters throughout. Definitely recommended.